Week 2

§     Why do you think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams?

I think that Randy Pausch despite being very intelligent  was also very wise in learn from the feedback that adults was gaving him.

The fact that he having fought for his dreams and have surpassed the obstacles that seemed insuperable made him materialize his dreams.

§     Do you feel that dreaming is important? Why or why not?

Dreaming is very important; but dreaming with a purpose in mind because they take to places that we ever imagined before. Dreams must be achievable and realistic.

§     Discuss at least one of your childhood dreams. Explain why you believe you can or cannot achieve this dream.

In my childhood I wanted to be a princess. I managed to realize this dream. As Randy Pausch said: If we are good things come to us. So the knowledge of the gospel came to me in my youth and I met the church of Jesus Christ, so I had the knowledge that I am the daughter of a King, which makes of me a princess.

I found some important insights from the Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture:

"Coach Setliff, taught me a lot about the power of enthusiasm. He did this one thing where only for one play at a time he would put people in at like the most horrifically wrong position for them.

He said, that’s a good thing. He said, when you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up. And that’s a lesson that stuck with me my whole life. Is that when you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care. After Coach Graham, I had another coach, Coach Setliff, and he taught me a lot abou

And then I hit the first brick wall, because they made it very clear that under no circumstances were faculty members allowed to fly with the teams. I know, I was heartbroken. I was like, I worked so hard! And so I read the literature very carefully and it turns out that NASA, it’s part of their outreach and publicity program, and it turns out that the students were allowed to bring a local media journalist from their home town. [laughter] And, [deep voice] Randy Pausch, web journalist. [regular voice] It’s really easy to get a press pass! [laughter]

OK, and so one of the expressions I learned at Electronic Arts, which I love, which pertains to this, is experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.

One of the things he told me was that wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. He said, when you’re pissed off at somebody and you’re angry at them, you just haven’t given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and they’ll almost always impress you. And that really stuck with me.

And I think that that’s one of the best things you can give somebody – the chance to show them what it feels like to make other people get excited and happy.

And the only advice I can give you is, find somebody better than you to hand it to. And that’s what I did.

We’ve talked about helping other people enable their dreams.

these are the kind of things that I think everybody ought to be doing. Helping others.

Denny Proffitt knows more about helping other people. He’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know. He’s taught me by example how to run a group, how to care about people.

And I said, because I can.

So. How do you get people to help you? You can’t get there alone. People have to help you and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being earnest. I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term.

 Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself. And I thought, how do I possibly make a concrete example of that?

Remember brick walls let us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don’t really want to achieve their childhood dreams.

when you do the right thing, good stuff has a way of happening.

When people give you feedback, cherish it and use it.

Show gratitude. When I got tenure I took all of my research team down to Disneyworld for a week. And one of the other professors at Virginia said, how can you do that? I said these people just busted their ass and got me the best job in the world for life. How could I not do that?

Don’t complain.

Just work harder. [shows slide of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player] That’s a picture of Jackie Robinson. It was in his contract not to complain, even when the fans spit on him.

Be good at something, it makes you valuable.

Work hard. I got tenure a year early as Steve mentioned. Junior faculty members used to say to me, wow, you got tenure early. What’s your secret? I said, it’s pretty simple. Call my any Friday night in my office at ten o’clock and I’ll tell you.

Find the best in everybody. One of the things that Jon Snoddy as I said told me, is that you might have to wait a long time, sometimes years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out. And be prepared. 

Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.

It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. 

The dreams will come to you."