Making Childhood Dreams Come True – Dr. Randy Pausch


I watched the entire "last lecture" by Randy Pausch today. The full version is over an hour, but this clip of the end of it captures its essence. The Carnigie Mellon University professor was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and told by doctors that there was nothing that could be done. In his last publicly given lecture, he shares advice on how to achieve your childhood dreams, which is secretly about how to live your life.

In the clip I have here, it ends with Pausch getting a giant birthday cake rolled out for his wife, because he felt bad that he was so busy preparing for the lecture that he did not have time for her (her birthday was the day before). He had the entire audience sing "happy birthday" to her and she tearfully blows out the candles. I imagine she will be replaying that memory long after Pausch is gone. It seemed so incredibly selfless for a person to care about his wife’s birthday when he only had a short time left to live.

Some of the other highlights are:
- "brick walls let us show our dedication"
- "remember to be playful and always have fun" – even though he is dying soon he is still having fun


- "it’s not only about living your own childhood dreams, it’s about empowering others to live their dreams as well."

What a person! For other links, you can see:
- the full version (over an hour)
- the Oprah version (10 minutes)

Enjoy…

2008
02/24
POSTED BY
Stefanie
CATEGORY
Inspirational
Write comment

  1. No comments yet.

  1. No trackbacks yet.

I’m On the Run from the Killer B’s

B for Belief. B for Belonging. The B's that lead to most of the killing in the world. If you don't Belong among us, then you're our inferior, our enemy, or both. And you can't Belong among us if you don't Believe what we Believe. Maybe not even then, but it certainly helps. Our religion, our party, our tribe, our town, our school, our race. Believe. Belong. Behave. Or Be Damned.

Tom Robbins

43 Things