I just finished reading an unbelievable book titled “The Last Lecture” by Randy

Pausch.  The video is on youtube here and I highly recommend both the

book and the video.

To quickly summarize Randy was a tenured professor at Carnegie Mellon

University and was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.  He fought

valiantly but eventually succumbed to the disease in 2008.  The above photo

was Randy at his “Last Lecture” in September of 2007 when he, according to

doctors, had three months to live.  He lived three times that until July of ‘08.

Randy delivered his “Last Lecture” and rather than sit here and review the book

and summarize the countless great takeaways, uplifting yet heart wrenching

stories taken from it I want to focus on something else…

What if you were to give a “Last Lecture” next week and you had three months

to live after that?

This was the situation presented to Randy, though he did have cancer for a few

years before this so it was not a total shock that it came down to a terminal

diagnosis.

But the point is…

Randy had a packed house and people watching from other rooms all across

the university.

Randy’s book is a best seller…

Randy left a legacy to his now widow Jai and his lovely three kids.

Randy’s speech is still viewed on youtube thousands of times a day.

Randy’s Last Lecture was such a success and is still a success beyond the

fact that Randy knew he was going to die.

Randy had done so much good in so many years before that and he had so many

stories to tell, people that he had inspired, mentors who had inspired him,

and brick walls that he had broken down to get where he was that day.

Would you be able to get up there and tell such stories?

About how you went out and tried to achieve all of your childhood dreams…

And if you didn’t about how you learned from your failures and applied them to

other aspects of your life.

Would you be able to happily get up there and be thankful for having such a

tremendous life, even though it would be ending…in Randy’s case…at the young

age of 47…?

Think about it…

Work hard, love heavily, inspire many, and go achieve your dreams.

Because some day we will all have a “Last Lecture”, it may just be with your wife

and kids, or a total stranger in a hospital…

But…

It will happen.

So spend this day forward working on being ready for your Last Lecture because

as you give that speech you will be able to tell inside of your heart and in the

eyes of those listening if you had lived the life that you wanted to and those

closest to you and all those in the world needed you to live for them.

Randy did…I hope to do the same…I have confidence everyone else in this world

can too.

Thanks for reading!  Post your comments on here or thoughts on the video and

you can always email me at mike@marketingfunwithmike.com and all blog updates

can be found at http://twitter.com/marketingmiker or facebook fan page

“Marketingfunwithmike.”