Prepare yourself for when you see Oprah’s salary—it’s mind-boggling.

Searching the internet, I came across this interesting tool called Salaries in Real-Time. The idea is to type in your salary and then compare it with other occupations, while also understanding how long it takes you to make enough to pay for a burger, gym shoes, television, new car, and house.

A simple game of comparison and getting a better perspective of your purchasing power is insightful on its own.

But finding out how much Oprah makes was shocking. Because Oprah’s salary practically pops off the screen. And it’s conveniently, or inconveniently, located right next to where you type in your salary.

Take a look at how much Oprah makes in time intervals.

Oprah’s salary in:

1 second= $8

1 minute= $2,400

1 hour= $144,000

1 day= $1.1 million

1 week= $5.7 million

1 month= $23 million

1 year= $300 million

(Technically I don’t think the right word is Oprah’s salary. The better word is probably her income. But all the other examples on the calculator like nurse and teacher are paid in salary, so I see why it’s worded this way. So I’m following suit to stay consistent.)

Assuming accurate data, these numbers above are absolutely ridiculous and surely depressing if you type in your salary to compare it with Oprah’s salary. I mean Oprah brings in $8 a second and $144,000 an hour!

Next time you discuss pay with an employer, tell them you need $8 per second or you walk, and see how that goes.

But in seriousness, Oprah’s making a fortune every day. So why does she continue to dig into her work?

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Moral Behind Oprah’s Salary

Beyond the intriguing Salaries in Real-Time tool, it’s key to realize Oprah’s journey to success and actions after success.

First, let’s look at Oprah’s rise. As I say all the time on this site, too many people only focus on the end achievements, and forget all the work and failures that led to success.

Oprah Winfrey put in the hours every morning and night for years before being world-famous. For a quick example, Oprah once said that earlier in her career she would get in her office so early and leave so late that she wouldn’t see the sun the entire day. This woman focused on her work to the point she didn’t see daylight!

And when she reached great success with The Oprah Winfrey Show, she could have retired to a private island with how much money she made. But she kept going. She continued acting, bought her own studio, produced film and television, published magazines and online media.

Now, you see Oprah’s Forbes page that lists her current net worth at $3 billion, Self-Made Score of 10 out of 10, and her #12 Power Woman rating.

And after all this success, guess what? She’s still working. Why is it?

Oprah continues working because of her intense passion, engagement, and love with what she does. And this is what I want to highlight as the main point: Your potential success and satisfaction is unlimited when you love your work.

Because when you love what you do, you can put in more energy, overcome more obstacles, and have a “make it happen” mentality to find success. And usually the money comes as a byproduct of your hard work.

Action Steps Going Forward

The action step is clearly to find work that you love. Since you’ll probably spend the majority of your adult life working, there’s nothing as crucial as finding satisfying work that makes you excited each day.

Here are the steps I recommend to discover this work:

• Read every day to pick up clues of what you might enjoy
• Communicate with people in different industries you find interesting
• Intern or work for free in different positions to evaluate your enjoyment in that work
• Begin a major project and see what you learn—or start a business in college
• Spend time reflecting to know yourself and what you want

I realize many of you are doing work that you don’t love. If this is you, you don’t need to make a radical change to figure it out this instant. Keep doing what you’re doing now, whether that’s being a college student or working full-time.

But, each day make it a habit to do one of the action steps above. Because you never know where your interest and dedication will take you once you discover the work you love. Maybe you’ll reach Oprah’s salary of $300 million a year, or maybe that’s not appealing to you.

But either way, once you latch onto work you love, you will find satisfaction and freedom that’s unavailable anywhere else.

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