How do you run a successful TV show for a couple of decades despite stiff competition? And in the fiercely competitive (shark infested is a better word here) US market at that?

And how do you keep on going even when a show that appeals to the animal instincts in humans starts to compete head to head with you?

How do you keep going over the years even as TV shows come and go, some of them sensational hits?

I am of course talking about the queen of day TV Oprah Winfrey.

My wife and teenage daughter never miss her show and so the other day I sat down with them to try and analyze, figure out and find the "secret" or the "key" behind her success.

Let me tell you something about myself here so that you understand this obsession of mine with finding out the "secrets" behind success stories.

You see I write business articles and booklets for a living. These days I tend to specialize on the rather popular subject of using articles to advertise web sites online. I naturally graduated into this from years of earning a living writing second rate how-to booklets that despite sluggish sales kept the bread flowing towards the family dining table and the sharks at bay (at least most of the time.)

So I am naturally looking for a new secret to help me construct my next big "how to" booklet or article.

I figured that I would learn something from Oprah and that I would be able to apply it to my life and business even if it was not able to yield a valuable how-to booklet idea.

So there I was seated watching my first Oprah show in I don't know how many years. My wife and daughter were excited at the prospect of seated there with them when I was supposed to be locked away in my study working.

It was about this family in Africa where a single mother with Aids could not access medical attention and Oprah had reached out to them. Doesn't sound like the most unique topic, does it? But in the lady's hands it gripped me and glued me to the show. It all ended too soon and there were tears in my eyes at the end of it all. Yes Oprah magic had worked on me, just like it still works on millions of other TV viewers all over the world.

Yep. Despite the man I was there I was with tears trickling down my cheeks. Can you imagine that? That's Oprah.

Later I tried to analyze it all.

What was it?

Was it the unique human interest angle she applied to all topics and subjects that she handled? Or was it just the woman's amazing personality that seemed to reach out to everybody individually?

By the way, I did not find a single tip to use for my business or even to help spark a single idea for yet another of those second rate how-to booklets of mine.

Still I enjoyed the show. Actually I enjoyed it very much.

I guess the lesson is that Oprah is herself and her unpretentious self reaches out to you. I guess it is simply the fact that Oprah Winfrey was born to do the Oprah Winfrey show. It is her destiny, her reason for being here, and that is why she is such a success.

So it is as simple and as complicated as that, we just have to find out the reason why we are here in this life... at this moment in history.