The Last Lecture

I just finished The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and it was one of the best and most uplifting inspirational books I've ever read. What an amazing man. Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon. From time to time professors will give "last lectures" where they consider " If I should die tomorrow, what would I leave behind". They would then give a lecture on what they would want the world to know, parting words if you like. Randy decided he wanted to do his last lecture, only he really was dying of pancreatic cancer. The book is basically the lecture, a legacy for his children and anyone lucky enough to pick it up.





The last lecture was entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" and it was a compilation of Randy's childhood dreams, lessons he had learned and his discoveries about life. This was not a man who was talking just to hear himself talk, he was down to earth, humble and incredibly intuitive.

What did I learn from this book?
---That self esteem can't be give. When we coddle our children we are not giving them self esteem. It has to be built and you do that by giving them something they can't do and have them work hard at it until they get it.
---That when you are doing something and you are screwing it up, if no one says anything to you it means they have given up on you. I want to remember this when my youngest is on a sports team. When you feel the coach is hard on you, that is good because it means he believes in you.
---That brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it bad enough.
---That I tend to be a detail person and have a hard time remembering to step back from time to time to look at the big picture.

I got this book from the library, but I plan on going out to buy it. This is a book I would want to have, to remind myself of what is important in life. I cannot recommend this book enough.

I give this a 5 out of 5.