Professor’s The Last Lecture tells a story about how to live

It’s not unusual for retiring professors to give a last lecture. When Carnegie Mellon University’s Randy Pausch gave his, he wasn’t retiring. He was dying of pancreatic cancer.

His now famous lecture was viewed by millions on YouTube. It inspired many to follow Pausch’s advice about what is important in life. Now he has a book, The Last Lecture (Hyperion), with co-author Jeffrey Zaslow.

The father of three small children, Pausch said in a USA Today interview, “I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children.” From his lecture, Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, here are a few of his points about life:

* Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I’m dying and I’m having fun every day because there’s no other way to play it.

* Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.

* No one is pure evil. Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough and people will surprise you.

* It’s not about achieving your dreams but about living your life. If you live the right way, the dreams will come.

* We can’t change the cards we’re dealt, just how we play the hand.

* In an interview with amazon.com, Pausch says the thing he learned as he grew older was that you can’t get anywhere without help. Ask yourself: What kind of person do people want to help? Then you’ll know the answer to: What kind of person should I try to be?

* Hearing what other people say about you is important to your success and happiness.

His book is humorous while allowing him to tell of his life experiences and the lessons he learned. For one: The secret of winning the stuffed animal on the midway, like most anything else, is sheer persistence. But it helps to have long arms and discretionary income.