We can’t change it, and we just have to decide how we’re going to respond to that. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
–Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
I thought of Randy when I was hitting a couple of dead ends trying to get my site back up Wednesday. He said we’re bound to encounter brick walls, but we shouldn’t give up, we just have to find a way around them.
The transcript of his talk is here, and the video is below. It’s long, and if you don’t want to know how he was motivated by his childhood dreams, and achieved most of them, I strongly suggest you watch at least the first few minutes. He had been told a month before that his cancer was terminal and at that time he had about three to six months of good health left. He was a brilliant and inspiring speaker.
He gave the lecture on September 18, 2007 and passed away July 25, 2008.
January 18, 2025
That is so powerful! He is very inspirational.
Thank you for this post, CM.
God bless.
What a wonderful speaker he was. I enjoyed watching this.
…and life is never a straight line.
I watched Randy years ago, so I am familiar with this.
It was a sad story. He got up and did pushups and yet he was dying.
I LOVE HIS QUOTE:
We can’t change it, and we just have to decide how we’re going to respond to that. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
After watching some of this, I just had to research Randy. His solutions are so clever, I would not be able to think of such things. But then, he is so brilliant. He looks so healthy and alert here!! Hard to believe how soon he passed. Pancreatic cancer used to be rather rare, but now more and more people are getting it, including some of our friends. But in his short time, he was a bright star!