Saturday, November 1, 2008

Food for soul



Recently one of my friend handed over the transcript of Professor Randy Pausch’s last lecture in CMU(Carnegie Mellon University). This has been doing lot of rounds lately and I thought of reading it. I read the last lecture titled, Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. Randy Pausch was American professor of human computer interaction and design in CMU. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he gave the lecture after coming to know that his case was terminal. This lecture was given on September 18 2007. Randy speaks takes everyone through various phases in his life, describing passionately the difficulties he faced and the moments where he triumphed.

Some of the gems from the book:
  • The brick walls are there for a reason. They are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. They are there to stop the other people.
  • Never lose the child like wonder.
  • Loyalty is a two way street.
  • Never give up.
  • You get people to help you by telling the truth.
  • Get a feedback loop and listen to it. When people give feedback cherish it and use it.
  • Show gratitude.
  • Don’t complain. Just work harder.
  • Be good at some thing. It makes you valuable.
I found the one below, most valuable…
The life is not about achieving dreams but leading it the right way. If you lead the life the right way, your karmas will take care of itself and your dreams will come true. How true… This reminds me of Bhagavatgeetha where Lord Krishna says, “Just do your karma. Don’t worry about the results. Let the rewarding of the results rest with me.

Randy died on July 25 2008. There is also a book by the title The Last Lecture. If you come across the book, do read it. I recommend this as a must read for everyone who are passionate about life and want to fulfill their dreams. That’s all for now. Please leave a comment before navigating away from the entry.

Some related links: The transcript, Randy Pausch, CMU

Ps: By the way, this is the first entry I am writing from my new laptop. Hope to write much more in future. God Bless!!

(Source of the image: Internet)



5 comments:

Praveen VS said...

I really liked the quote
"loyalty is a two way street"
Will try and read this book sometime for sure...

Poornima Prabhu said...

You download the transcript, the link is given in the blog. The book is more descriptive I guess..

Suresh S Murthy said...

Hi Poornima,

I'm tagging you. Please the details of the tag on my blog.

Sadhana said...

Great post indeed.. Sorry reading the blogs after a long time now! :)

Really motivating quotes! :)

Pradeep Krishnaswamy said...

I would recommend you to watch "last lecture" video, you can get it for free at youtube. It is amazingly inspiring.