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  • So I’m reprising a talk that I gave in September

  • at Carnegie-Mellon University.

  • There is an academic tradition calledThe Last Lecture”.

  • Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die

  • and you had one last lecture

  • what would you say to your students?

  • Well for me there is an elephant in the room,

  • and the elephant in the room is that for me it wasn’t hypothetical.

  • I’ve been fighting pancreatic cancer

  • It is now come back after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation,

  • and the doctors tell me there is nothing more to do

  • and I have got months to live.

  • These are my most recent CT scans

  • The pancreatic cancer has spread to my liver,

  • there are approximately a dozen tumors.

  • I don’t like this.

  • I have three little kids.

  • Lets be clear

  • this stinks.

  • But I can’t do anything about the fact

  • that I’m going to die.

  • I am pursuing medical treatments,

  • but I pretty much know how this movie is going to end

  • and I can’t control the cards I’m delt just how I play the hands.

  • Now, if I’m not morose enough for you

  • I am sorry to disappoint,

  • but I don’t choose to be an object of pity.

  • And in fact, although I’m going to die soon,

  • I’m actually physically very strong.

  • In fact, I’m probably physically stronger

  • than most of the people in this audience.

  • So,

  • Today’s talk is not about death

  • It is about life and how to live

  • Specifically about childhood dreams

  • And about how you can try to achieve them.

  • My childhood dreams, your childhood dreams.

  • As a child I had an incredibly happy childhood.

  • I went back and raided the photo album

  • And I couldn’t find any places where I wasn’t smiling

  • Right, I just had a great childhood.

  • And I was dreaming, always dreaming.

  • It was an easy time to dream.

  • When you turn on your television set

  • and men are landing on the moon,

  • anything is possible.

  • And we should never lose that spirit.

  • So, what were my childhood dreams?

  • Being in a National Football League

  • This is one of the childhood dreams I didn’t achieve.

  • Right

  • And it is very important to know that

  • If you don’t achieve your dreams

  • you can still get a lot by trying for it.

  • There is an expression I love

  • Experience is what you get

  • when you don’t get what you wanted.”

  • I have played Little League Football for a long time

  • And I had a phenomenal coach

  • Coach Jim Gram

  • And he was Old School.

  • When I was in a practice, He rode me all practice.

  • You know – “Youre doing it wrong

  • Go back”. “Do it again”. “You are slufin off”.

  • You owe me pushups

  • Just for two hours. It was relentless.

  • And after practice one of the assistant coaches

  • Came up to me and he said

  • Yeah, coach Gram rode you pretty hard

  • And I said – “Yeah

  • He said – “That’s a good thing,

  • because it means he cares.

  • When you are doing a bad job

  • And nobody points it out to you

  • That’s when theyve given up on you.”

  • And that is something that really stuck with me.

  • It is when somebody is going to ride you for two hours

  • They are doing that because they care to make you better.

  • So,

  • Next dreamWalt Disney Imaginary

  • When I was eight my family took

  • the pilgrimage to Disney Land in California.

  • And it was this incredible experience -

  • The rides, the shows, and the attractions and everything.

  • And I said – “Gosh, I’d like to make stuff

  • Like that when I get older.”

  • So I graduated from college and I tried to become an imagineer

  • These are the people who make the magic

  • And I got a lovely rejection letter

  • And then I tried again after graduate school

  • And I’ve kept all of these rejection letters over the years.

  • They are very inspirational.

  • But then the darnest thing happened

  • You know, I worked hard and worked hard

  • And I became a Junior Faculty member

  • And I specialized in doing certain kinds of research

  • That’s me

  • And I developed a skill that was valuable to Disney

  • and I got a chance to go there.

  • And I was part of an imaginaring team

  • And we worked on something called

  • Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride

  • And It was incredibly cool.

  • However it took me over fifteen years

  • to do it, and lots and lots of tries.

  • And what I learned from that is that

  • The brick walls that are in our way are there for a reason.

  • They are there not to keep us out.

  • There are there to give us a way to show how much we want it.

  • If you are going to have Childhood dreams

  • I recommend you have good parents.

  • I lucked out, I had great parents.

  • This is my mother on her 70-th Birthday.

  • I’m the blur in the back. I’ve just been lapped.

  • This is my father on his 80-th Birthday.

  • There is this notion of "Have fun all the time".

  • Have a sense of fun and wonder.

  • That should never go away.

  • Alright

  • My dadwhat an incredible guy.

  • He fought in World War Two,

  • He clearly a part of the greatest generation.

  • Sadly my dad passed away a little over a year ago.

  • And when my mother was going through his things

  • That was when she discovered that in World War Two

  • He was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor.

  • In fifty years of marriage it had just never come up.

  • There is a real lesson in humility

  • That I can learn from my father though.

  • Now my mother. Mothers are people who love you

  • even when you pull their hair.

  • And this was the kind of relationship I had with my mother.

  • And my mother, speaking of humility,

  • was always there to keep me in check.

  • When I was going through graduate school

  • and I was taking really hard examinations.

  • I was home, pretty much complaining and whining

  • about how hard these PHD tests were,

  • and she just patted my arm and she said

  • We know how you feel.

  • Just remember that when your father was your age,

  • he was fighting the Germans in World War Two.”

  • And then the day came when I got my PHD

  • and I was so proud,

  • and my mother introduced me To everyone as

  • This is my son. He is a doctor

  • But not the kind that helps people.”

  • Probably the most wonderful thing my parents did was

  • They let me paint my bedroom.

  • I said one day – “I want to paint stuff on the walls.”

  • And they said – “Ok.”

  • So I had a rocket ship,

  • And we lived in a ranch, so I wanted an elevator.

  • I wasn’t sure where it would go, and,

  • Yeah, you can tell the nerds early, so

  • That’s the quadratic equation,

  • But the great thing is that they let me do it.

  • And they felt that letting me

  • express my creativity was more important

  • than the pristine nature of the walls.

  • I was really blessed to have parents who saw it that way.

  • My parents taught me the importance of people versus things.

  • So when I got older I bought my first car

  • and I was so excited I had this shiny and convertible

  • There’s my niece and nephew Chris and Lora

  • and every month I take them for a weekend

  • so my sister and her husband would get a little brake

  • and we go off on adventures,

  • and I just showed up with my new car

  • and my sister is explaining to Chris and Lora

  • That’s uncle Randy’s new car, you can’t get it dirty and ect.”

  • And they are just cracking up laughing

  • because over her shoulder I’m casually opening a can of soda

  • And just emptying it on the back seat.

  • And they come running over me, just – “What are you doing!?”

  • I said – “It’s a thing. It is just a thing.”

  • And I’m really glad I did that

  • because at the end of the weekendas I was driving them home

  • little Chris, who was about eight at the time,

  • he had the flu, and he threw up all over the back seat of my car.

  • And I don’t care how much value you get

  • out of owning a nice shiny pristine thing,

  • it is not as good as I felt knowing that I made

  • an eight-year old boy not feel guilty

  • just because he had the flu.

  • Next thing.

  • You better decide early on if you are a Tigger or an Eeyore.

  • Tiggers are energetic, they are optimistic,

  • they are curious, they are enthusiastic.

  • And they have fun,

  • and never, ever,

  • underestimate the importance of having fun.

  • I am dying soon

  • and I am choosing to have fun

  • today, tomorrow, and every other day I have left.

  • If you want to achieve your dreams

  • you better work and play well with others

  • and that means you have to live with integrity.

  • Simple advice that youll find hard to follow

  • Just tell the truth.

  • Second thing

  • when you screw upapologize.

  • There are a lot of bad apologies in America.

  • A good apology has tree parts

  • I am sorry. It was my fault. How do I make it right?

  • Most people skip that third part.

  • That’s how you can tell sincerity.

  • The last thing is that we all have people that

  • we don’t like,

  • that have done thing we don’t like,

  • and what I have found is no one is pure evil.

  • If you wait long enough

  • they will show you their good side.

  • You can’t make them do it in a hurry,

  • but you can be patient.

  • Show gratitude.

  • When I got tenure as a young faculty member

  • there were about fifteen young kids

  • who have been working in my research lab.

  • I took them all down to Disney World for a week on my nickel.

  • One of my colleagues said –“This must have cost you

  • an arm and a leg. How could you do it?”

  • I said – “These kids just worked day and night for years

  • so that I could get the best job in the world for life.

  • How could I NOT do it?”

  • I mean gratitude is a very simple thing,

  • and it’s a very powerful thing.

  • And lastly

  • I donthink complaining and whining

  • really solves the problem

  • This is Jackie Robinson,

  • first black Major Leaguer, had it in his contract

  • not to complain if people spit on him.

  • Alright

  • I don’t care if you are Jackie Robinson,

  • or you are a guy like me,

  • who has only got a couple of months to live,

  • you can choose to take your fine night time,

  • and energy and effort,

  • and you can spend it complaining,

  • or you can spend it playing the game hard

  • which is probably going to be more helpful to you in a long run.

  • Now, I told you this is a part of

  • a lecture series at Carnegie-Mellon University

  • and it’s important for you to know why I gave the talk

  • K…

  • The talk isn’t just about how to achieve

  • your childhood dreams

  • It is much broader than that.

  • It is about how to live your life.

  • Because if you lead your life the right way

  • the karma will take care of itself.

  • The dreams will come to you.

  • If you live properly

  • the dreams will come to you.

  • I think it is great that so many people

  • have benefited from this lecture

  • but the truth of the matter is

  • that I didn’t really give it

  • to the four hundred people at Carnegie-Mellon who came...

  • I only wrote this lecture

  • for three people

  • And when they are older

  • they will watch it.

  • Thank you.

  • [applause]

So I’m reprising a talk that I gave in September

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