"The brick walls are there for a reason, they are there to determine how much we want our dreams... the brick walls are not there to keep us out but to show how badly we want something ...brick walls let us show our dedication... they are there to separate us from those who really don't want to achieve..." Prof. Randy Pausch 1960-2008
On September 18,2007 Carnegie Mellon professor Dr. Randy Pausch gave his "Last Lecture--"(titled such as a tradition at Carnegie Mellon,ironically, if you had one last lecture to give before you die what would it be about)-Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams . A boyishly handsome, self-deprecatingly funny, brilliant and charming presence who stood before an over flowing crowd in a lecture hall at his beloved Carnegie Mellon University to talk about realizing dreams---how you can achieve your dreams and enable the dreams of others. "...the inspiration and permission to dream is huge..."he said. Dreams would seem an interesting subject for a man dying of cancer to talk about, but Randy Pausch was not lecturing on dying, he was about living and that day he "head faked" his audience by giving a lecture about how to live your life. The little boy who had painted his dreams on his bedroom wall had grown up to teach millions who have since viewed or read his lecture how to live their lives and how to dream. "You just have to decide if you're a Tigger or an Eeyore", he said...pretty simple, huh!?
The Last Lecture was meant for his kids but he shared it perhaps unexpectedly with the world through the technology that was his work as millions have viewed it on You Tube. Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science, a self-proclaimed Geek, who loved to play football(not many geeks do that) and win big stuffed animals at carnivals. He was an award winning professor who pioneered the field of virtual reality and steered the wonderful Alice Project and co-founded the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon. He saw the fun in technology,and in life, and was determined to teach that. He believed in always having fun and used his sabbatical time to live out one of his all time dreams of working at Disney's Imagineering. "I'm dying and I'm having fun..." he said.
Prof Pausch's lesson is also about acceptance and taking hold of what you have and the life you are given. "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." He taught about never giving up on what you dream and even when you don't get what you set out for..."experience is what you get when you didn't get what you want..." Yes, life will put many brick walls up in our life but is the decision we make in the face of those walls that determine not only our success but also our ability to reach our dreams and live fully.
Why did this lecture by a dying man resonate with so many,move so many to change...maybe because it is about joy, not only the joy he found everyday, but also the joy he shared. He talked candidly about his personal foibles, his youthful arrogance and we learn pretty quickly this is a real guy who was given the grace of "getting it", perhaps so he could teach us about "getting it"---about the simple fact that it is the life in our life that defines us,not the length of our life--the way we live, the passion we find, follow and share.
In his last public appearance at the Carnegie Mellon commencement this May he said..."...you will not find that passion in things and you will not find that passion in money because the more things and the more money you have the more you will just look around and use that as the metric and there will always be someone with more... so your passion must come from the things that fuel you from the inside...no matter what you do in work...that passion will be grounded in people and the relationships that you have with people and what they think of you when your time comes...It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed it is the things that we do not..."
Randy Pausch's story is also a love story about a "playboy" who found the love of his life,Jai, at 39..." I had to wait that long to find someone where her happiness was more important than mine I hope you can find that kind of passion and that kind of love in your life..."
In his last months he found unexpected celebrity through the lecture that went around the world, he was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people and seemed to be profiled in every major news and popular media source.
Randy Pausch lost his battle with pancreatic cancer last Friday July 25th at the age of 47. His gifts live on through his work and the institution he loved, through his family that were his light and his center, and through the millions of lives he reached. He lived his passion, shared his passion and inspired so many to realize theirs. Dream fulfilled.
"...if you lead your life the right way the karma will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you."
Prof Pausch gave the "charge" to graduates at Carnegie Mellon this May
Read more about Professor Randy Pausch's Life and Work:
An Enduring Legacy
In Memoriam:
Randy Pausch, Innovative Computer Scientist at Carnegie Mellon,
Launched Education Initiatives, Gained Worldwide Acclaim for Last Lecture
The Alice Project-a legacy that will continue to educate and inspire as it teaches computer programming in a 3D environment in what Randy Pausch would term a "head fake" way. Students learn to write computer programs while creating animation, video, stories or games. My favorite part, it is accessible as Carnegie Mellon offers this wonderful tool for free.
Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center
Donations in Randy Pausch's Memory to:
The Pancreatic Action Network
Randy Pausch Honorary Fund at Carnegie Mellon
