Inspiring Lessons from 'The Last Lecture'
By Jeffrey Zaslow
At Randy Pausch’s last lecture, I sat in the second row, watching him fill the stage with a visceral love of life and an unbounded enthusiasm. Like the 400 others in the audience, I knew I was seeing something remarkable. This dying man was the most alive person in the room. I had come to Carnegie Mellon that day because I write a column about life transitions for The Wall Street Journal--and I thought Randy’s story might be worth telling. I never expected--nor did Randy--that his lecture would spread on the internet, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. On tens of thousands of websites, people were soon writing about how he inspired them. Many compared his talk to Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man Alive” speech.
Randy was asked to expand his lecture into a book. Given that his time was precious, and he wanted to spend most of it with his three children, he asked me to be his coauthor. Each day, he rode his bike, getting exercise crucial to his health. Those were times he couldn’t be with his kids anyway. During 53 long bike rides, he talked to me on his cell-phone headset, while I sat at my office desk, tapping away. Those 53 "lectures" became the book "The Last Lecture," which now has 4 million copies in print in the U.S., and has been translated into 38 languages. I am grateful that I got to see Randy's love of life up close. It's an honor to share some of his favorite life lessons in the gallery that follows.
Click on Randy Pausch's First Lesson...
Jeffrey Zaslow is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and co-author with Randy Pausch of 'The Last Lecture.' Reach him at thelastlecture.com .
Photo courtesy of the Pausch family collection
Brick Walls Are There for a Reason
Brick Walls Are There for a Reason
Whether in our careers or romantic lives, we all come upon roadblocks and seemingly insurmountable walls. “But the brick walls aren’t there to keep us out,” Randy said. “The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”
Photo courtesy of the Pausch family collection
Encourage Your Kids' Creativity
Encourage Your Kids' Creativity
As a teen, Randy painted a submarine, an elevator door and the quadratic equation on the walls of his bedroom. "If your kids want to paint their walls, as a favor to me, let 'em do it," he said in his lecture. "Don't worry about the home's resale value." Randy was amused when parents worldwide started giving their kids paint brushes. "They're taking me so literally!" he said. His intended message had been: Let your kids be creative. "If they want to trim the shrubs into animal shapes--or whatever--just encourage them," he said.
Photo courtesy of the Pausch family collection
Dream Big
Dream Big
In 1969, when Randy was eight years old, he was at summer camp and missed watching the first moonwalk. Why? Because it was late and counselors sent everyone to bed. Randy was angry. He found himself thinking: "My species has landed in a new world for the first time, and you people think bedtime matters?" This was one of mankind's biggest dreams fulfilled, and had such power to inspire. "Fuel your kids' dreams," Randy said. "Sometimes, that means letting them stay up past their bedtimes."
Photo courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University
Make a Decision: Tigger or Eeyore
Make a Decision: Tigger or Eeyore
"I'm dying and I’m having fun," Randy said at the lecture. "And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left, because there's no other way to play it." He felt we all have a decision to make, and it's perfectly captured in two Winnie-the-Pooh characters. "Are you a fun-loving Tigger or a sad-sack Eeyore?" Randy asked. "Pick a camp. I think it's clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate!"
Photo courtesy of the Pausch family collection
Be the First Penguin
Be the First Penguin
Randy told students that experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. In his computer science classes, he created the "First Penguin Award," which celebrated students whose projects turned out to be "ambitious but glorious failures." The title of the award came from the notion that when penguins are about to jump into water that might contain predators, well, somebody's got to be the first penguin.
Photo courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University
If at First You Don't Succeed…
If at First You Don't Succeed…
…try, try a cliché. Randy loved clichés. As he saw it, the reason they're repeated so often is because they're so often right. "Educators shouldn't be afraid of clichés," he said. "You know why? Because kids don't know most of them! They're a new audience. And they're inspired by clichés."
Photo courtesy of the Pausch family collection
Get in Touch with Your Crayon Box
Get in Touch with Your Crayon Box
Randy encouraged people to remember their childhood dreams. He liked to keep a crayon in his shirt pocket. He'd take it out and rub it in his fingers, feeling the texture, the paper, the wax. He'd bring it up to his nose and take a good long whiff. "Smelling a crayon takes you right back to childhood," he said. "When I need to go back in time, I put it under my nose and take another hit."
Photo of Randy Pausch and Jeff Zaslow by Geoff Martz
Earnest Is Better Than Hip
Earnest Is Better Than Hip
"I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day," Randy said, "because hip is short-term. Earnest is long-term. Earnestness comes from the core, while hip is trying to impress you with the surface." Randy's definition of an earnest person is a Boy Scout who works hard and becomes an Eagle Scout. "Becoming an Eagle Scout is just about the only thing you can put your resume at age 50 that you did at age 14--and it still impresses."
Photo courtesy of the Pausch family collection
Look for the Best in Everybody
Look for the Best in Everybody
If you wait long enough, people will surprise and impress you. As Randy saw it: "When you're frustrated with people, when they've made you angry, it just may be because you haven't given them enough time. Sometimes it takes years. But in the end, people will show you their good side."
Photo courtesy of the Pausch family collection
Time Is All You Have
Time Is All You Have
Randy always knew time was a gift. He told students that time was their most precious commodity, and had to be explicitly managed. "We all know we have finite money," Randy liked to say, "but a lot of us live as if we have infinite time. You can make more money. You can’t make more time." As Randy's illness made clear to him: "Time is all we have. And we may find one day we have less than we think." That is why he wanted to inspire people to make every day--actually, every minute--count.
Photo courtesy of the Pausch family collection
