The Inspirational Motivational Speech & Story of Randy Pausch And How He Turned Difficulties into Opportunities page #1
Randy Pausch
Identify a Difficulty
Randy Pausch and his wife, Jai, were waiting together in the examination room at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston when Pausch’s instinctive curiosity overcame him. He noticed his medical records in plain sight on a computer not far from where he was sitting. With the detached objectivity of a seasoned scientist, he counted eight tumors. This news was not completely unexpected, but it was terribly disappointing.
Pausch had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer over a year earlier, but was hopeful that, with treatment, he would be among the small percentage of individuals to survive the deadly disease. The treatment hadn’t worked and he knew immediately the report was bad news. When the doctor came in, he verified what Pausch had recognized from the images. After forty-seven years of living the life of his childhood dreams, Pausch had three to six short months of good health remaining.
Pausch had three young children: five-year-old Dylan, two-year-old Logan, and one-year-old Chloe. He was faced with an overwhelming problem beyond the most obvious one of providing for his family after his death; what concerned him most was how to teach his young children all the things he wanted to share with them over the course of the roughly twenty or so years he would have spent raising them when now that he had only six months of life remaining.
Imagine a Solution
Randy and Jai’s children were young, and while it was a top priority for him to spend every possible remaining moment simply being with them showing his love, he knew that at best their oldest son, Dylan, would have vague memories. Logan and Chloe, the two younger children, would most likely remember nothing of their personal interactions with their father.
What his wife Jai suggested was the creation of a video biography, a personal message to his children, recorded in their own home, sharing his love, hopes and dreams for their futures. While this was certainly something to consider, Randy was driven and inspired in another direction.
At the time of his diagnosis, Randy Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. It had become common practice at the university to invite lecturers from all departments to give what was commonly known as a “last lecture.” These presentations were designed to offer faculty an opportunity to distill their extensive knowledge down to what they felt would be the most important information they could convey in just one lecture.
Pausch was asked to participate in the lecture series after his original diagnosis, but before the realization that the treatments had not been effective. Once he was aware of the limited time remaining, he decided participation in the last lecture series offered him a unique opportunity. Pausch and his wife were both reluctant to get involved with the lecture series because they knew he would throw his heart and soul into the project.
They worried that this would take precious time away from Jai and the children. After struggling with the idea, they decided to go through with it. They felt they could use the presentation as an opportunity to share what was unique about Randy, leave a legacy for his children and, in the process, possibly do something special.
Make a Plan
I have watched and listened to professor Pausch’s presentation at Carnegie Mellon over and over, and read his book. I’ve been continuously touched and inspired by his conscious effort to use the circumstances of his impending
