[VIDEO] Oprah Winfrey delivers Harvard commencement speech

"Oh my goodness, I'M AT HAARRVAARD!" Oprah Winfrey said when she took the stage at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Thursday. "Not too many little girls from rural Mississippi have made it all the way here to Cambridge."

"Failure is just life trying to move us in a different direction," the 59-year-old media mogul said in her address. "This last year I had to spoon feed those words to myself," she added, using her poorly received OWN television network as an example.

Winfrey also said that everyone needs approval -- even Beyonce.

I have to say the single most important lesson I learned in 25 years is there's a common denominator in our experience. ... We want to be validated. We want to be understood. I've done over 35,000 interviews in my career and as soon as that camera shuts off, everyone always turns to me and says, 'Was that OK?" I heard it from President Bush. I heard it from President Obama... I even heard it from Beyonce in all her Beyonceness!"

Gayle King, Winfrey's longtime best friend, was also on hand to document the occasion.

"She looks great and sounds even better ! You go Oprah," King said on Instagram.