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MS: Yup, modeling and scholarships. I applied to some nice colleges [including] Stanford, and then I realized, I can't go to Stanford; it's across the country! I didn't have enough money to go away, though I'd love to know what my life would be like if I'd gone to Stanford. It would have been a very different life. I wanted to stay in New York—that's why I went to Barnard College, which was, to me, the best college I could go to. And I enjoyed my experience there. I married during my sophomore year, so that was exciting. I never expected that. I finished at Barnard and went straight to work in the stock market, where I was very challenged. There were few women on Wall Street, and yet, I had the best time. I was extremely successful. My boss at that time, Andy Monness, is now a close friend, and he is selling my stock like crazy! He still believes in me.

O: This month in O, we're focusing on the power of our thoughts to change our lives. How has the way you think about yourself brought you to this point in your life?

MS: I can almost bend steel with my mind. I can bend anything if I try hard enough. I can make myself do almost anything. But you can get too strong like that, so you have to be careful. You have to temper your strength. You're like that, Oprah, I know you are. And as an actress, you can really do that.

O: Yes, it's the ability to focus that gives you the power.

MS: It's putting your brain behind anything and making it happen.

O: Do you believe that as a woman thinketh, so she is?

MS: Yes. And it's great. But you have to temper it.

O: Is that because you know how strong you are?

MS: Oh, yeah.

O: Do you think you are stronger than you need to be?

MS: I'm even physically stronger than I have to be.

O: Everybody acknowledges you as the queen of exterior things. Do you have an inner life? Do you meditate?

MS: No, I don't meditate. I can't. I'm too hyperactive. But I do like to take treks [on Mount Everest, in the Amazon and in Acadia National Park, which is close to my home in Maine]. And those long treks are a kind of meditation.

O: So you use activity to give back to yourself?

MS: I probably think more about nature than I think about myself.

O: Really?

MS: I think about other things and people more than I think of myself. I don't like to think about myself a lot. If I think about myself, I'll get selfish. And I don't want to be selfish.

O: So you nurture your spirit by being outdoors?

MS: Through nature. And through other creatures—animals. That gives me a lot of pleasure.

O: You've said that building your company is one of your greatest accomplishments. But when you think about your attributes and what you have to offer, what are you most proud of?

MS: Giving information that will help everybody live better. That's a teacher's dream—to accumulate information and disperse it in a form that allows people to choose the way they're going to use it. That's what I think I do best.

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