Oprah Winfrey Talks OWN Difficulties; Vows To Not Quit

Oprah Winfrey spoke candidly about the struggles of The Oprah Winfrey Network getting off the ground, but the media mogul vows to not quit and says she’s optimistic about its future.

Oprah appeared on “CBS This Morning” on Monday with best friend and co-host Gayle King and Charlie Rose, where she spoke the hurdles surrounding the launch of OWN.

“The idea of creating a network was something that I wanted to do. Had I known that it was this difficult, I might have done something else,” she explained. “I didn’t think it was going to be easy, but… if I knew then what I know now, I might have made different choices. If I were writing a book about it, I could call the book ‘101 Mistakes.’”

She said one mistake was launching before they were ready.

“It’s like, having the wedding when you know you’re not ready. And you’re walking down the aisle and you’re saying, ‘Oh, I don’t know if we should be walking down the aisle. Maybe we should have postponed this’. … I would have probably waited until I actually finished ‘The Oprah Show,’” she continued.

Despite the early struggles of the network, the media mogul said that quitting is not an option.

“The reason why I wouldn’t [quit], first of all, I would be happy in my garden under the tree with my dogs, reading a book. I’d be happy with doing that… [But,] I’m a very driven person. Also, I believe that I am here to fulfill a calling. That because I am a female who is African-American, who has been so blessed in the world, there’s never going to be a time to quit. I will die in the midst of doing what I love to do. And that is, using my voice and using my life to try to inspire other people to live the best of theirs,” she told Gayle and Charlie. “Because you failed at something, which we haven’t failed, but just because you fail doesn’t make you a failure. When you know that in the core of yourself, you can keep trying or you can use whatever is happening in that moment to say, ‘Maybe I need to move in a new direction.”

Adding, “Actually, I feel better about our network now today than I ever have.”

Oprah says she has a plan to build OWN into a successful TV destination one night of programming at a time.

“Our strategy is to do what we should have done at the beginning, and that is to build one show, one hour at a time, and then move on to the next night,” she explained. “What I wanted to create and will create is a channel and an environment where we don’t waste your time, it’s all meaningful.”