Randy Pausch Last Lecture

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What impressed me most about Randy Pausch is his sincerity, telling the packed audience about his pancreatic cancer. His doctors give him only a few months to live. Here is a professor at the top of his field, designer of the Alice software that has been downloaded a million times to aid 3-D animation. He is co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon, enabling students in science and art to work together on projects in education and industry. He is a visionary imagineer with experience at Disney and Electronic Arts. He is also a loving husband and father to three young children, ages 5, 2, and 1. He's leading an extremely happy and productive life when cancer struck him. Instead being like Job, questioning why is this happening to me, Randy's talk did not veer off to religious or philosophical ponderings. He talked about his childhood dreams of winning stuffed animals at carnivals, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, being in zero gravity, working as Disney Imagineer. With hard work, determination, and persistence, he achieved them all. "Brick walls are there for a reason," he said. "They let us know how badly we want something." He was able to climb over the walls, not with talent alone, but with the help of mentors and friends. He kept his childlike wonder, worked hard, showed gratitude, and being earnest. He tells the students "I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term." Find the best in everybody and be fulfilled when you help others achieve their dreams. At the end, Randy tells the audience that the talk is "not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you." And the talk is not for the students in the audience, but for his kids. Someday

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