In celebration of Women’s Month we are sharing some of the best quotations from women who our team find inspiring! There are so many inspiring women out there that we could share this kind of content forever… and we just might!
Oprah Winfrey | TV Show Host | Producer | Actor | Actress | CEO | Media Proprietor
Five facts about Oprah Winfrey:
- She was a beauty pageant winner at age 17 for the Miss Black Tennessee competition.
- She started her first role in media when she was still in high school, despite a large lack of diversity in media for women!
- She is a two time Oscar nominee!
- Oprah was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by Present Barack Obama, which is the highest honour that can be given to any civilian: “In more than 4,500 episodes of her show, her message was always, ‘You can,’” Obama said of Winfrey. “And she was living proof, rising from a childhood of poverty and abuse to the pinnacle of the entertainment universe.”
- Oprah Winfrey has interviewed thousands of celebrities, including Michael Jackson, whose interview became the 4th most watched event in American television history, as well as the most watched interview of all-time, with 36 million viewers!
Our favourite quotations from Oprah:
“You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.”
“Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe.”
“The reason I’ve been able to be so financially successful is my focus has never, ever for one minute been money.”
“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”
“One of the hardest things in life to learn are which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn.”
“Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.”
“The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.”
“Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher.”
“True forgiveness is when you can say, ‘Thank you for that experience.’”
“The great courageous act that we must all do, is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams.”
“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.”
Nene Leakes | TV Show Personality | Actress | Presenter | Businesswomen | Designer | Author
Five facts about Nene Leakes:
- She is the original Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member!
- She used to dance for money in the past to provide her for family.
- Her real name is not Nene! In fact, her real name is Linnethia Monique Johnson. She chose to stick with the NeNe, because that was the name her friends called her.
- She has been with her husband Gregg Leakes for 20 years.
- She can sing has been on Broadway for the show Chicago in 2015.
Our favourite quotes from Nene Leakes:
“Why Be So Nasty And So Rude, When I Can Be So Fierce And So Successful?”
“Let me get you to understand I don’t bully anybody. I stand up for what I believe in and I’m very honest and I always tell the truth. I’m not a liar, I’m not manipulative and I don’t stab you in your back because I will stab you in your chest.”
Judge Judith Sheindle (Judge Judy) | Judge | TV Show Host | Author
Five facts about Judge Judy:
- Judge Judy’s cases are really real! However, her audience is staged and Australian actress Amy Schumer was once an extra on the show.
- Judge Judy graduated from college at the age of 16 and earned her law degree from New York University at 21.
- In 2015 Judge Judy earned the Guinness World Records title for the longest career as a TV judge.
- Judge Judy initially wanted to call the show Hot Bench or Judy Justice but producers eventually settled on Judge Judy.
- Despite all the New York scenery and marketing for the show, it is actually filmed in California.
Our favourite quotes from Judge Judy:
“Never let anyone or anything define your value or limit your dream.”
“If you’re going to spend your time, spend your time getting smarter.”
“If you tell the truth, then you don’t have to have a good memory.”
“You lock your windows before you leave. You put on an alarm if you live in the country because you know that there are bad people out there. Well, in this Internet age, you know that there are bad people out there. And no matter what you do, those bad people are going to get into your house.”
“So we want to free the women of America? You know what would free the women of America? Make men accept responsibility for birth control.”
“I think that there is a difference between men and women as a warrior and a nurturer… It’s innate.”
Brené Brown. | Professor | Author | Lecturer | Podcast Host
Five facts about Brené Brown:
- Brené Brown became a doctor in 2002 by completing her Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work from the University of Houston.
- She collaborated with Tarana Burke from the MeToo Movement.
- Brené Brown has overcome addiction to smoking, alcohol and unhealthy eating. She quit cold turkey a day after her Masters graduation ceremony and often discusses how this positively impacted her life.
- She is a prolific public speaker who has spoken for global institutions – gone viral online and more!
- Her Ted Talk is one of the most viewed called “The Power of Vulnerability” (from 2010).
Our favourite quotes from Brene Brown:
“The near enemy of love is attachment…true love allowed, honours and appreciates; attachment grasps, demands, needs and aims to possess.”
“Vulnerability is not winning or losing. It’s having the courage to show up when you can’t control the outcome.”
“Is there anyone that does not need to navigate uncertainty and risk on a regular basis? To be alive is to be vulnerable; to be a leader is to be vulnerable every minute of the day. You don’t get to opt out.”
“If you don’t understand vulnerability, you cannot manage and lead people. If you’re not showing up vulnerably as a leader, you can’t expect anyone to follow you—period.”
“The more uncertain times come, the more we look for models and methods and ways to engineer vulnerability out of recruiting, out of hiring, out of training. We try to dehumanize it and make it engineerable and put it in an Excel spreadsheet. I get it, but you will never be able to engineer the humanity out of what you do, ever.”
“The biggest shame trigger at work is the fear of your irrelevance. What drives the fear of irrelevance at work? Change.”
“When people are in difficult situations—fear, anxiety, shame, stress—they’re making up stories about what’s happening. As leaders, the only thing we can do is give space and time to those stories and reality-check them to the best of our ability.”
“Are you willing to excavate problems that people aren’t talking about that they’re stuck in? Do you choose courage over comfort?”
“We need people to be braver, and we need to create a culture that allows for bravery.”
“Do you know what it takes to make an ethical decision in the face of a group of people who are willing to go the other direction? It’s one of the most single vulnerable acts of our lives.”
“Giving feedback is incredibly vulnerable for this reason: If you’re giving good feedback, you should not be able to script what’s going to happen when you sit down with someone. You should be willing to be able to hear.”
“When I looked at organizations that are doing amazing work, a couple of them have put ‘daring greatly’ on their performance evaluations.”
There are so many women who inspire us, including the women we interact with in our everyday lives. We hope that our Honouring Her campaign in March has allowed you to connect further with the women in your circle by celebrating them daily.
Celebrating the incredible women above, and taking inspiration from their journeys, can help empower us all to achieve our own greatness. We are all capable of extraordinary things – and embracing our gifts and passions is part of this process!
We hope that you take inspiration from yourself and all the incredible women who are here uplifting themselves and others.
Love Nalia
Author: Tia Metaxas
