“The Last Lecture”-by Randy Pausch

January 12, 2018

“The Last Lecture”-by Randy Pausch

“The Last Lecture”-by Randy Pausch

Well actually, the lecture was officially called “Really achieving your childhood dreams”, but it’s more famously known simply as the last lecture.

But what makes it truly special?

This talk was delievered at CMU.His talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk", i.e., "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?"

A month before giving the lecture, Pausch had received a prognosis that the pancreatic cancer, with which he had been diagnosed a year earlier, was terminal

So it basically means that what was supposed to be the hypothetical just came true for him, it LITERALLY was his final lecture.

The beauty of this lecture was how satisfied he was with everything he had achieved in his “lifetime”, a life which was cut short by half due to cancer. All the things we may term as “childhood fancies”, for eg-Floating in Zero gravity, playing Baseball etc, he had them too. But while we tend to forget it, he strived to achieve them(yup, even floating in Zero Gravity, cool, right? )

If you feel it’s tough- “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

When you blame your circumstances-“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

Bad luck eh? - “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. ”

Wasting time? Think Again-“Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.”

Failures? -“It's not how hard you hit. It's how hard you get hit...and keep moving forward.”

Dream.Defend-“Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids' dreams too. Once in a while, that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes.”