Oprah Winfrey asked this unorthodox interview question to find an executive for her television network

When Oprah Winfrey searched for a president for her television network, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), she whittled down applicants with a question that made some people very uncomfortable, she says

at a recent presentation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. One woman even burst out crying.

It was: "What is your spiritual practice?"

First of all, the woman who cried was immediately taken out of the running, Winfrey says. But for those who protested that they weren't religious, Winfrey clarified that she wasn't asking about religion, she was asking about their inner relationship with themselves.

She was getting at, "What do you do for yourself? What do you do to keep yourself centered?" she says.

She asks this because she considers her "secret to success" the fact that she is grounded in her own self and looks for others who are, as well. If we know who we are and what we want from life, Winfrey believes, then we can build meaningful relationships with others to make our visions reality.

"Everybody wants to fulfill the highest, truest expression of yourself as a human being," Winfrey says. "And because I understand that, I understand that if you work in a bakery and that's where you want to be, and that may be what you've always wanted to do ... then that's for you. And there's no difference between you and me, except that's your platform, that's your show. So my understanding of that has allowed me to reach everyone."