Blog Assignment #7

These are my responses to Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: REALLY ACHIEVING YOUR CHILDHOOD DREAMS:

I believe my professor, Dr. Strange, really felt like the hour and 15 minutes of time it takes to watch this lecture was time well spent. In fact, I heard him say just that in class a couple of weeks ago. While watching the lecture on youTube, there was much that I didn't relate to. The family of academia gathered in that room to hear this famous lecture was not a group I belonged in. Pausch made many references that I would never understand, and if you asked me to define VR, I couldn't do it. So I had to think a little deeper, sit and concentrate on the message that was really pouring forth.

After listening to the lecture, I watched an interview conducted for ABC by Dianne Sawyer. I really appreciated having to put a personal side to Randy Pausch, his beautiful wife and his children, to truly be impacted by his words. I do believe that the picture they painted of their lives was genuinely "real."

The angle I took in processing Pausch's words was how they related to leadership. It was so obvious that He had allowed life to teach him more than a few things. (I might add at this point that he was only eight years older than me.)

I want to put in list form some of the nuggets of gold that I heard during his presentation. After all gold does exist at the the bottom of the crap pile!! I feel certain that I might read over this advice again.
-emulate those who you aspire to be like
-Don't be afraid to ask, but bring something worthwhile to the table
-Allow others to blow past you, and be glad about it
-Help people become self-reflective about their progress
-Give people freedom, and watch them really surprise you
-Help people have fun while learning something really challenging
-Find someone better than you to take over
-Share success with others, and don't miss saying "Forgive me"