The Last Lecture- By Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow

Publisher: Hyperion (224 pages) | ISBN: 978-1401309658

One man’s way of living whilst dying…

What do you do, when you’re faced with the finals months of your life and you’ve yet to reach the half century mark? Why - you’d do what Randy Pausch did of course, by sharing the lessons you have learnt through your life’s journey at a lecture session organised by Carnegie Mellon University, aptly branded as The Last Lecture!

His book, co-authored with Jeffrey Zaslow, of the same title, is an extension of his thoughts shared during the lecture, which he gave the title “Realising Your Childhood Dreams.” After all, if you’ve been living your entire life as if each day was your last, 60 minutes would not be sufficient for you to share the knowledge vault.

Written in an easy to follow, almost conversational-like prose, The Last Lecture, is a little gem worth keeping in the bag, in the car’s glove compartment or on the bedside table. Simply because there’s a page on almost everything that we, the average person, would be faced with as we go through life.

With main themes such as treating your dreams as adventures, viewing each obstacle as a wall to climb over, sharing what you have learnt and experienced to enable the dreams of others - reading the book is akin to having a conversation with your closest friend or mentor in your hour(s) of need or even joy.

I would have to say, the point that I liked best in the entire book is how time is a finite thing. We would have all heard the clichés - don’t put off today what you can do tomorrow, the early bird catches the worm, etc, etc, etc Yet, if you’re like me - putting them into practise is a whole different story.

Through his life, as a child, a student, a computer science professor, Randy Pausch never did take time for granted. When he first met his wife at the university she worked at, he decided that pursuing her was worth delaying his return to Virginia for another day. He didn’t think that he could go home, get in touch with her via email and telephone, and plan for another visit back to win her heart. He did it right there and then.

Yet for him, to be looking at his 3 kids - then aged 6, 3 and 1 ½, knowing that no matter how he lived out this one principle of his, time would never be enough.

Categorised as an inspirational / motivational book, this book would normally be by-passed by me. But I have to say, Randy Pausch is one man I would read and take the written words as advice from simply because he has always lived his life as he did towards the end. And that to me is credibility.

So for everyone who is in college - read this book.

Some of the truths Randy Pausch shares might hurt and hit closer to home. But consider him your “Dutch Uncle” and in time to come, if you take his experiences in your stride and life, you might find that you’ve gone that bit further than everyone else, just because.

So for everyone who is working in a company - big or small, at the bottom of the corporate foodchain, or at the very lonely top - read this book.

Your job might be just as exciting as his was, or it might not. But the point is not the task at home but how he went about approaching it. Plus Randy is the boss that everybody wants and the colleague that you’d want on your side of the department.

So for everyone who is in a relationship, in courtship, in commitment - read this book.

We have all imagined at some point how our lives would be, without our better halves. But here is a man, and his partner, who are approaching the point where our imagination comes to life. Don’t re-invent the wheel - learn from those who have had it all.

So for everyone who is a child to a parent, or a parent to a child - read this book.

We might not all be as blessed as Randy Pausch was in winning the parent jackpot in our childhood, but what we have is time - time left, to turn things around. AND to eventually have our own child equate having us as their parent as winning the parent jackpot.

The fact that his video of that lecture at Carnegie Mellon has been view thousands of times over, and this ensuing book still on the best sellers list is testament to the honesty of his thoughts.

When most people speak of legacies these days, they almost always refer to the stocks, bonds, fixed deposits and other assets to the ones they love. Randy Pausch went a whole nine yards further - he left his life story to his children as his legacy (though I have no doubt there are a fair bit of assets as well).

I count myself blessed to have the opportunity to share with his children - Dylan, Logan and Chloe - the legacy of Randy Pausch as well through his book The Last Lecture ~ one that would stick for a lifetime!

Picture courtesy: www.lastlecture.com

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