"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
—Randy Pausch
It's not unusual for professors to summarize their final words of wisdom, or what they want to be known for as their legacy for the next generation. However, the difference for Dr. Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was he knew it was his last lecture. Having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, he only had a few months to live. On September 18, 2007, Randy Pausch gave such a lecture-- Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. He wanted to leave a legacy for his three young children. However, it wasn't about dying but living, "overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment."
http://www.thelastlecture.com/aboutbk.htm January 20, 2011
The Disney-owned publisher, Hyperion, paid $6.7 million for the rights to publish The Last Lecture. On April 28, 2008, it became a New York Times best-seller and has been on the lsit for more than 85 weeks. The first printing had 400,000 copies and has been translated into 46 languages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch (January 21, 2011)
