When I first watched Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture in November 2008, I was blown away. For those who haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor, skip that lame reality show tonight and spend an hour learning about reality by watching the video.
Click here to read my thoughts on my original viewing.
For those of you who have never heard of Randy Pausch and are not among the 8 million individuals who have watched his video on YouTube, Dr. Pausch was a Carnegie Mellon Professor diagnosed with terminal cancer when he was asked to participate in their Last Lecture series. His topic for his “Last Lecture” was about realizing and enabling childhood dreams.
His dreams ranged from being in zero gravity to becoming an NFL football player and an Imagineer with Disney. Even his dreams that he didn’t achieve yielded lessons we all need to hear, especially entrepreneurs.
When he passed away in July, 2008, I learned there was a book about The Last Lecture. I figured that it would be the same content, so didn’t pick it up. Then last month in my library they had the book on cd and I figured with all that was wrong with the world, I needed to put everything back in perspective. I’m so glad I did. I was delighted to find that it covered some of the same items, but there was so much more.
Memorable parts for me (from the book, some are in the lecture, some aren’t):
- The chapter on what he learned trying to become a pro football player. I played this part for my 9 year old son while on a car ride. He asked to stay in the car to listen to the whole chapter even after we had arrived at our destination. I may purchase the book to take on our trip this summer to read other parts to him. Or I may hold onto it and give it to him when he’s able to read it himself.
- His description of his parents and childhood. This had particular significance to me as he grew up in my town in Columbia, MD and went to my rival high school. Columbia was a very unique place back in the 70’s and 80’s, and when I found out at the end of the video that he went to Oakland Mills high school, it didn’t surprise me.
- “Experience is what you get, when you don’t get what you wanted.” I loved this quote and it has even more meaning in this economy where many of us have to make different choices than expected.
- The value of feedback. He has sections on this and you realize that too much of corporate America and academia function without feedback. Many of his other ideas on teaching are useful for entrepreneurs and managers who want to enable employees to succeed.
- I enjoyed the parts about his family life. This best part of the book for me, was the stories of how he and his wife met, got married, had kids, faced a terminal illness, and even dealt with the fact that he wanted to spend the last months of his life writing a book. It’s a bit “Marley & Me” in these parts (except the elephant in the room is a terminal illness and not a psychotic lab), but it makes one think, how the heck would I handle a curveball like that in my life? I don’t think I could be as upbeat as he was, but at least I would have a good role model.
- The career advice at the end of the book. There were great stories of persistence and how going the extra step could make a difference for someone in a job hunt or otherwise pursuing their dreams.
Topshelf Bottom line. This is a must read for everyone who needs to put things back into perspective so that they can go out and chase down their own childhood dreams. Share it with your kids.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 6:34 pm and is filed under Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.5 Responses to “Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture – The Real Secret”
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February 7th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
When I first saw Randy Paush, i was astonished.
Randy was an incredible individual, very strong mentally and physically.
I just learned on this website that he has passed away on July 2008.
Im extremely sorry, and I hope his family is as strong as Randy.
His book is a real life lesson, and people should really read it, because it shows how a lot of us take many things for granted.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:53 am
I’m reading this right now for my book club (not quite done), and it is quite inspiring. I’ll have to watch the YouTube video next. It’s a very easy read with short chapters on different goals/accomplishments – It made me think that we have all have some of these experiences, but may not realize how they have shaped us without the lens of life ending so soon. Like Diane, I enjoyed the personal bits too – I give his wife tons of credit for letting “The Last Lecture” take up so much of the last months of their life together.
March 4th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Thanks for the comments!
@Daiana – I agree on the helping us realize how many things we take for granted. (i.e. like our health!)
@Maria – As for the wife letting him devote time to The Last Lecture — I do give her credit (but maybe it gave them something else to focus on), but also it’s a legacy for their sons and will help her/them later on in life. He’s also inspired many others and not just in his “living your dreams” speech, but also in how one handles a terminal illness. On top of all that, I hope it brings her some financial security too. She’s now a single mom with young kids and if she can benefit by his doing something good, I’m all for it!
June 16th, 2009 at 1:36 am
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June 20th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Stumbled on your site quite by accident, I’m glad I did. I’m always on the lookout for a new football resource and your site really fit the bill
thanks,
Denise