Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

One of the pleasures I get from work is when colleagues ask me for career advice. There is something personally very satisfying when people pick you out as being worthy of asking your opinion, especially when it is in confidence. Far better to be honest and open, critical and straight if needed, than bland or commenting only on positives.

I still remember- I think I will always remember- the best piece of feedback that I have been given (by my retired partner, Philip Johnson- for whom my thirty year acquaintance has morphed from him recruiting me, to working for him in my first few years, to starting to appreciate simply how good a professional he was, to being his partner, to being his friend); I won't share that feedback (but might in another blog), but remember it extremely frequently. Whereas all the bland positive feedback is as lost as a grain of sand on a beach.

Recently, I was asked by a colleague who had reached a stumbling block in her career, not getting the promotion she felt she deserved. I recommended to her, as I have done over the years to several colleagues, that she spends some time when she is free from distraction watching carefully Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. <link>

I told her to watch our for, and concentrate on bricks. We all face bricks in our life and careers: I can think now of one of my partners who for me will always be a brick (spell checked, though a typo wouldn't change the accuracy of this comment). And in my twenties, I faced the brick of overwhelming shyness, but through a lot of effort, and (I would single out the help of Dale Carnegie's books and the course his organisation run) I managed to climb that wall, and make myself somewhat less diffident.

I have no hesitation in recommending Randy Pausch's last lecture to everyone. I remember when I asked my son to watch it with me when he was in his mid teens: Tom said he would agree to dad's request and watch it for a few minutes until he was bored; and then sat through it with me silently for the whole hour; I recall he watched it again subsequently by himself.

Powerful stuff, and whole heaterdly recommended.

Posted with Blogsy