MNGT 5560-001

6a Last Lecture

The Last Lecture by Dr. Randy Pausch was extremely insightful. Throughout the

entire lecture, he gave phenomenal advice for not only achieving goals, but also how to

live life. There are so many important words of wisdom to take away from his life

experiences and pieces of advice. Some of the ideas that stood out the most to me

include if people stop telling you what you can do better that means they’ve stopped

caring about you, don’t put the bar anywhere because that will only limit you or others,

never lose the child-like wonder, and have fun every day.

Dr. Pausch is obviously very well spoken and engaging. He knows how to

capture an audience. One of the very first things he said that really caught my attention

was when he was talking about his football coach. He said something along the lines of

if people stop being hard on you, that means they’ve stopped caring. This stood out to

me because it really puts into perspective why it’s important to pay attention to who

gives you feedback and criticism. If someone is being hard on you, it means that they

care about you and want you to do well. This is a great perspective to take with me in

my future career. For instance, if my boss or mentor is tough to please and gives me

real, constructive criticism, I will keep the perspective that this means they care about

me.

Additionally, I loved his story about the class he taught when the students did so

well on the first project he didn’t know what to do. His mentor gave him great advice to

tell them that he knows they can do better. The idea that if you refuse to set the bar

anywhere, you are not limiting yourself or others is such a great lesson. By setting a
bar, no matter how high, you are setting a ceiling for your expectations. If the

expectations are unclear, they could easily be exceeded. Setting the bar only limits your

potential to achieve even greater things. This will definitely be something I carry with me

in my life and career. When I work to achieve things, I will do my best to not set the bar

for my performance anywhere so I don’t limit my potential for greatness.

Another great piece of advice Dr. Pausch shared was to not lose your child-like

wonder. I love this advice. Life can feel so serious at times, especially as we get older

and have more responsibilities. Not losing that child-like wonder is so important

because as he says, it’s what drives us. We need the ability to dream and fantasize. I

would like to work to implement this lesson in my life by not forgetting the things I loved

to do as a child. I will also remember that it’s a good thing to dream. Hopefully I can

achieve some of my childhood dreams like he did and continue to create new goals

based on that child-like wonder.

Lastly, I love his advice to have fun every day. It ties back to not losing your

child-like wonder. Life gets serious and I will face many obstacles throughout my life,

but I don’t want to forget to still have fun every day. This advice was so profound

coming from him because while he’s battling cancer, he said he will have fun every

single day for the rest of his life. Life really is about making the best of things and being

grateful for what you have. Having fun is such an important part of life. I will try to do

something that brings me joy every day.

Overall, I loved this lecture. He is such an amazing speaker and knows how to

capture an audience. Every piece of advice he had is something I’ll take with me. I loved
his outlook on life and how his experiences have truly shaped him into the person he is

today. I will take a lot of ideas from this video with me throughout life.