Oprah gives a great Harvard commencement speech about failure and finding purpose.  Success goes through failure, so learning how to view and respond to failure is critical.

There is no such thing as failure — failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.

“The key to life is to develop an internal moral, emotional GPS that can tell you which way to go.”

 

Typical to Oprah, her down to earth personality provides great one liners and funny moments. Rising from a small Mississippi town, Oprah has a powerful backstory that uniquely qualifies her to pontificate on failure.

It doesn’t matter how far you might rise — at some point, you are bound to stumble. Because if you’re constantly doing what we do — raising the bar — if you’re constantly pushing yourself higher, higher, the law of averages predicts that you will, at some point, fall. And when you do, I want you to know this, remember this: There is no such thing as failure — failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.

Now, when you’re down there in the hole, it looks like failure. . . . And when you’re down in the hole, when that moment comes, it’s really okay to feel bad for a little while — give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost — but, then, here’s the key: Learn from every mistake. Because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakesare there to teach you and force you into being more of who you are.

And then, figure out what is the next right move. The key to life is to develop an internal moral, emotional GPS that can tell you which way to go.