A big applause and the speaker remarked " Make me earn it! " and gestured everyone to have a seat. Unusual as this may seem, yet with the glint of hope and humor in every eye that carefully watched the speaker, one thing remained certain that every minute of this 'last lecture'; as many liked to call it, was going to be worthwhile.
The speaker of the evening was Professor Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University, computer science department.
Professor Pausch has three young kids, a loving wife, other family and so many students working with him, learning from him.Professor Pausch, 46, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and expects to live just about 3 months.However what makes him a suvivor is his undying spirit. His courage to be realistic. His enthusiasm and his brilliance.
This lecture indeed the last of his life that he officially delivered at Carnegie Mellon. It was more than just an academic sermon. Titled as ' How to achieve your childhood dreams,' this lecture revisited Professor Pauschs' childhood dreams and things he did to make his dreams come true.Although it's impossible to write in this blog every single sentence that he uttered, I'd like to point out a few things that I could garner from his talk.
- Be realistic about your dreams and not just that but be specific. For instance if you dream of floating in zero gravitiy then don't dream of becoming an astronaut...Rather dream of floating in zero gravity. There are umpteen ways to achieve your dream when you are sure of what you really dream of.
- Be clear about your fundamentals.
- When you are screwing up and no one is saying anything, that means they gave up !!!!!
- Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And treasure it. Experience helps.
- When you are going after your dream and come across brick walls that stop you in your way and make life difficult, refrain from thinking that the walls are made for you. In fact the walls are to help keep out people who don't want the things (your dream) as badly as you want it.So go on, work harder and accomplish.
- At a time you are doing something pioneering in nature, you will get the arrows in the back and be prepared for them.
- Be prepared....'Luck' is where preparation meets opportunity.
- Learn to discover the 'head fake'. Something like reading between the lines. You won't learn anything unless you make the most of what you experience, whether it is through books, lectures or just life in general
- Decide if you want to be a Tigger or an Eeyore??? Tiggers are happy, enthusiastic, hardworking, innovative. Most importantly they bounce back even when they fall down or are pushed. Eeyores on the other hand are often scared of going that extra mile, trying new things, believe and trust only luck and crib, complain and are parched for pity / sympathy as and when they can get it.......
I most definitely can see a lot of similarities in his speech at Carnegie Mellon and Steve Jobs' speech at a Harvard Commencement (another amazingly inspiring speech).Here's a list of most important pieces of advice that was kind of common to both the speeches that you could possibly use to make your dreams come true!
Hardwork
persistance
creative vision
apologize when you are wrong
be earnest
never give up
have faith in oneself/ destiny/karma/ intuition
learn to discover the 'head fake'.
I think the things that stood out are the real markers of becoming a genius, becoming a pioneer or just simply being a good human that you were meant to be and living up to your potential.
