The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

• We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.

• Look, I’m going to find a way to be happy, and I’d really love to be happy with you, but if I can’t be happy with you, then I’ll find a way to be happy without you.

• 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.

• No job is beneath you. You ought to be thrilled you got a job in the mailroom And when you get there, here’s what you do: Be really great at sorting mail.

• The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.

• Time must be explicitly managed like money

• The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.

• Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

• Whether you think you can or can’t, your right. 

• Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.

• Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.

• I’ve always believed that if you took one tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you’d be surprised by how well things can work out.

• A lot of people want a shortcut. I find the best shortcut is the long way, which is basically two words: work hard.

• You can always change you plan, but only if you have one. 

• Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I’m a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it ‘the eaten by wolves factor.’ If I do something, what’s the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don’t worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do.

• A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.

• Proper apologies have three parts:
  1) What I did was wrong.
  2) I feel badly that I hurt you.
  3) How do I make this better?

• What is the most appropriate thing to say to a friend who was about to die. He answered: “Tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Whenever he goes, you also go. He will not be alone.”

• Just because you’re in the driver’s seat, doesn’t mean you have to run people over.

• Meet people properly. It all starts with the introduction. Exchange contact information. Make sure you can pronounce everyone’s name. 

• Let everyone talk: don’t finish someone’s sentences. And talking louder and faster doesn’t make your idea any better. 

• Praise each other: find something nice to say, even if it’s a stretch. The worst ideas can have a silver lining if you look hard enough. 

• Phrase alternatives as questions: instead of “I think we should do A, not B,” try “What if we did A, instead of B?” That allows people to offer comments rather than defend one choice. 

• Ask those questions. Just ask them. More often than you’d suspect, the answer you’ll get is, “Sure.”

• The questions are always more important than the answers

• Hard work is like compound interest at the bank. The rewards build faster. 

• Tenacity is a virtue, but it’s not always crucial for everyone to observe how hard you work at something. 

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