How to Navigate Life’s Big Transitions with Oprah and Bestselling Author Jim Collins

The Oprah Podcast

Harpo

Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Oprah talks with the international bestselling author of Good to Great, Jim Collins, to discuss his groundbreaking new book What to Make of a Life. Drawing on ten years of research, Collins offers a data-driven answer to one of life’s most enduring questions: What do we do with this one precious life we’ve been given and how do you know what you’re truly meant to do? Collins explores how to navigate life’s “cliffs”—periods of great transition that leave us disoriented and how to find direction in the midst of mental fog. Oprah shares her own journey through 'the fog' and how she found her way out. Collins also offers practical guidance for anyone confronting a major career transition. This is a conversation for anyone, at any stage of life, seeking greater clarity, direction and meaning. BUY THE BOOK! What to Make of a Life, published by HarperCollins and written by Jim Collins, is available wherever books are sold. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/what-to-make-of-a-life-jim-collins?variant=44343300227106 00:00:00 - Welcome Jim Collins, author of ‘What to Make of a Life’ 00:03:19 - Why Jim started writing the book 00:06:50 - Every life has a cliff 00:10:25 - Cliffs can take many forms 00:14:30 - Self compassion for the cliff 00:19:00 - Oprah’s many revelations while reading 00:22:44 - Oprah on her encoding 00:25:00 - Oprah cold calling Toni Morrison 00:30:20 - How to deal with the fog after the cliff 00:35:22 - What holds people back 00:36:45 - How to embrace the tumult and the calm 00:44:10 - The color of your fire changes 00:47:00 - The relationship between work and money 00:50:40 - The competence-doom loop Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: https://www.instagram.com/oprahpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/ Listen to the full podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So I had you all many revelations reading this book.
0:04.3	The key question is not what you are good at,
0:08.3	but what are you encoded for?
0:11.5	Yep.
0:12.1	Y'all, it's a different way of looking at your life.
0:15.7	Not what are you good at, but what you are encoded for.
0:20.1	Hi, everybody. I'm so glad to be here. good at, but what you are encoded for.
0:28.6	Hi, everybody. I'm so glad to be with you here on the Oprah podcast. And who am I excited today for you to learn from the man who's sitting with me? Jim Collins is a renowned business
0:35.2	writer. He is a researcher whose many books, including his number one
0:39.9	New York Times bestseller. If anybody's in business, you've read his book, Good to Great.
0:44.6	But he says his most recent research project that he spent 10 years working on turned almost
0:51.3	everything that he believed on its head. And that research has now culminated
0:57.8	in this groundbreaking new book, What to Make of a Life. And before we get started, I wanted to say
1:05.0	that when I first read good to great, remember, I think it was around 2004. It was exactly that. Was it? Okay. I was so
1:14.5	charged up by it that I asked you to come to Chicago and speak to my entire staff, hundreds of
1:20.7	people, right? And I can't tell you how many times I've said, let's confront the brutal facts.
1:27.2	Yeah. So, so many times over the years,
1:30.5	I was so inspired by that book. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. And it's wonderful to see you again, Jim.
1:35.3	It is wonderful to see you again. Thank you for coming all the way to my front porch.
1:39.6	It's a very, it's a wonderful part from porch. Jim Collins is a business writer, prolific researcher, and author.
1:48.0	He is best known for his runaway bestseller, Good to Great, which sold five million copies
1:54.0	worldwide and became like a Bible for many business leaders.
	...

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