The Last Lecture

In September of 2006, Randy Pausch, a professor of computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In August of that same year, he was given a terminal diagnosis of three to six months of good health left. He died on July 25, 2008. Carnegie Mellon University had a lecture series at that time titled the last lecture and Pausch gave his last lecture Sept. 18, 2007. He entitled it, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” This lecture was such a hit on YouTube that he went on to do other media appearances and finally wrote a New York Times Bestseller entitled, “The Last Lecture.”

In his lecture and in his book, he focused on experiences in his life that allowed him to fulfill his childhood dreams. For this article, I wanted to point out three main points from his book that we can learn from. First, it’s important to have dreams. Second, sometimes we need to be driven to achieve our dreams and third, time management is important to a happy life.

Dreams are important as we grow. Whether your dream is to be a pilot or an air traffic controller, everyone needs dreams to strive to attain it. Childhood dreams are our initial goals in life. Pausch had several dreams and he was able to complete most of them. As a young child, I had a dream to be a pilot in the Air Force. When I was in high school, I damaged my knee and watched as I was eliminated from the U.S. Air Force Academy due to medical concerns about my left knee. I went on to the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps and was told I could join the Air Force, but I could not be a pilot. I took the scholarship determined that someday I would prove to the Air Force that there was no problem with my knee and I would be allowed to fly. It took nearly three years of asking, but finally, I had a boss that believed my knee was OK and allowed me to get another physical. I was now pilot qualified. I didn’t take no for an answer much like Randy Pausch always found a way to accomplish his childhood dreams.   

One of Pausch’s childhood dreams was to be in the NFL. Unfortunately, he wasn’t very good at football. He tried out for a league as a child and was the smallest guy on the squad. As he did the basic drills required of the coach, he would routinely be chastised for doing them incorrectly and have to repeat them. Eventually, the coach would get frustrated with him and tell him he owed push-ups after practice. It was a frustrating time for a young boy as he tried to live his childhood dream of being in the NFL. An assistant coach put it all into perspective for him. He told Randy, “When you are screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.” That lesson stuck with Randy throughout his life. “When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a bad place to be. You may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you and want to make you better.”

Pausch was an expert in time management.  He even gave lectures on time management that are still available on YouTube.  Here are some of his key points in managing time:

• Time must be explicitly managed, like money. He focused his time management on what was important and let the rest slide.
• You can always change your plan, but only if you have one. Plan ahead with a good to-do list and avoid wasting precious time.
• Ask yourself: Are you spending your time on the right things? Invest your precious time on what’s really important to you.
• Develop a good filing system. Keeping good records eliminates wasted time as you search for what you need in the future.
• Rethink the telephone (or email). Avoid wasting time on the phone or on email. Sometimes it’s better to get up and go talk to an individual rather than call or email them. People like face-to-face interaction and respond better.
• Delegate. If you can delegate things to a trusted individual, do it. It will free up your time for what’s really important to you.
• Take a time out. It’s OK to disconnect from the work at hand occasionally. In fact, you and your family may need the break. After a good break, you will return in a better condition to work and carry on.

I encourage everyone to watch Pausch’s lecture. He does a great job expressing how he feels about living out your childhood dreams. The most important piece of his “last lecture”, is that he uses the lecture as a way to give back to his kids who were too young to understand that he was dying. His important message was that we all have a legacy to pass to our future generations, make sure it is the right legacy and encourage them to follow their dreams. Pausch lived for more than a year after his diagnosis of three to six months. During that time, he completed his list of childhood dreams and passed the lessons he learned on to his children by way of his book and lecture. May we all learn what’s important in life and follow our dreams.