The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
Randy Pausch was a professor of a Computer science, Human Computer interaction and Design at Carnegie Mellon University.
Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and in August 2007, he was given a terminal diagnosis.
He delivered “The Last Lecture” as a way of passing his knowledge and experience to his children which became a popular video on YouTube and a New York Best Seller.
The text is both inspiring and powerful. Randy talks about achieving his childhood dreams and how he goes about it from a very young age- attributing to him winning the parent lottery(letting him use his imagination and draw and paint on walls of his room) and coach Graham for pushing him hard.
Randy admits to being arrogant and self possessed and how people around him
Who really cared about him helped him realise this so that it doesn’t limit his achievements.
Randy goes on to talk about his adventure and lessons learned and enabling the dreams of others.
He tells life stories that illustrate such themes as dreaming big, hard work, perseverance, sacrifice, self-confidence, modesty, courage, a positive outlook, and dealing with adversity. Randy talks about the importance of Brick Walls in our life
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. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!
The book is filled with humour, bite sizes great pieces of advice which resonated a lot with what I have heard from the leaders during the Next Generation programme.
The video of his speech is available on https://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/
Give it a watch- there’s a clip of him doing push ups in front of the audience to prove how healthy he feels in himself!!
This is the second time I’m reading this book and for the life of me I couldn’t remember who recommended this book.
So I’m making a pact with myself today on the 2 year anniversary of NextGeneration GP
I’m going to write the name of the person who recommended it on the inside cover( I still love the feel of hard copies) so that when I open the book it doesn’t just remind me how great the book is but instantly connects me to the person who recommended it and makes me reach out to
Them with gratitude…
Why don’t you try it as well!!
Sonali Kinra, Next Gen GP Nottingam
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