One of my favorite pastime is re-reading the books that I love. And The Last Lecture is one of the top five favorite books in my book-list, it takes the pride of the place in my library.
The Last Lecture was written by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow. Its a non-fiction book published in 2008. This New York Times bestseller has been translated into 48 languages.
The Last Lecture is about Randy Pausch, also the author of this book and who was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He wrote the book when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had six months to live.
He was at the top of his career and happily married to the love of his life and had three young children. Though he desperately wanted to live, but he couldn’t. Randy Pausch left a legacy for his young children in the form of a book-The Last Lecture.
Here’s a small excerpt from the book:
A lot of professors give talks titled ‘The Last Lecture’. Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can’t help but mull the same questions: What wisdom should we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?
Using the format of his university’s ‘Last Lecture’ series, Randy Pausch shares his life lessons from achieving childhood dreams to living.
I loved the way he has combined humour, intelligence, positivity and how he inspires us to live each day with purpose and joy.
The Last Lecture is easy to read, not preachy and very inspirational. It is a kind of book that will be shared for generations to come. If you haven’t read it, do it now and you can thank me later.
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”
“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”
“People are most important than things.”
“Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.”
“It’s not how hard you hit. It’s how hard you get hit….and keep moving forward.”
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”
“Look for the best in everybody.”
“The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures. The person who knows only success can be more oblivious to all the pitfalls.”
“All my adult life I’ve felt drawn to ask long-married couples how they were able to stay together. All of them said the same thing: “We worked hard at it.”
“A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.”
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