Oprah Winfrey served as the headline speaker at Forbes' Self-Made 250 Celebration this week in Philadelphia, marking her place atop the magazine's first-ever ranking of America's greatest self-made success stories.
The event, held at the Museum of the American Revolution in the city's Old City district, honored 250 entrepreneurs and business leaders as part of Forbes' tribute to America's 250th anniversary.
Winfrey shared her story with the crowd, encouraging the next generation of business leaders gathered for the celebration.
Forbes first revealed the list in April, naming Winfrey the top name among 250 honorees and estimating her net worth at well over $3 billion.
The media mogul, now 72, built her fortune over five decades, from her legendary daytime talk show to producing major film projects, after growing up in rural poverty in Mississippi.
When the ranking was first announced, Winfrey grew emotional describing what it meant to her. She recalled watching her grandmother do laundry by hand on their farm, with no washing machine, and being told she'd one day have to do the same. Even then, she said, something told her a different life was coming.
"I believed that I was God's child," Winfrey said, explaining the conviction that carried her through those early years.
Decades later, that same belief was on full display in Philadelphia, as the woman once told to expect a life of hard labor stood instead as the most self-made name in America.
For Winfrey, the story has never simply been about wealth or fame, but about a quiet certainty, formed on a Mississippi back porch, that her life belonged to something bigger than her circumstances.
