The Last Lecture – Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

It’s interesting how you find exactly what you need and search for. I was browsing the internet the other day with no motivation to continue my work. And I found a web talk on TED.com that amazed me, that made me stay for a full hour in front of the computer.

It’s Randy Pausch‘s last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. He had only 3 to 6 month left to live because of a pancreatic cancer and he wanted to let something behind him. It’s not a lecture on informatics, but on life!

A few quotes in case you don’t have a full hour to view the entire recording (even if it’s fully worth it).

• We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. 
• Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcomed.
• 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!
• Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
• When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care.
• Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. Just give them a little more time — and they’ll almost always impress you.
• The best gift an educator can give is to get someone to become self reflective.
• The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they’re learning something else.
• Respect authority while questioning it.
• I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left.
• Never lose the child-like wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us.
• Help others.
• Tell the truth.
• Be earnest.
• Apologize when you screw up.
• Focus on other people, not on yourself.
• Get a feedback loop and listen to it. … When people give you feedback, cherish it and use it.
• Show gratitude.
• Don’t complain; just work harder.
• Be good at something. It makes you valuable.
• Find the best in everybody.
• Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.
• If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, “tell the truth.” If I got three more words, I’d add: “All the time.”
• Never give up: There are certain times that you think, “OK, you have beaten me down to my knees. And now the challenge is, I am on my knees and you keep on beating me down. And the question is, are you going to keep beating me all the way to the ground or will I find a way to struggle my way back on to my feet.
• Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories. And they will figure out how those stories apply to them.
• Treat the Disease, Not the Symptom.
• It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not. Find your passion and follow it.