Small Hiker's Book Series - The Last Lecture

I always put in reading as one of my hobbies when asked to do so.  However, I don't do that much of it these days with the exception of reading through the online pages of TIME, The Star and Google News.  That's why it was an event for me after I finished reading this book.

Randy Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and he had only months to live.   The book was based on the last lecture that he gave at the University he was teaching,  Last Lecture was  a series of talk where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk", with a topic such as "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?"  His lecture was very popular on Youtube and he gave the abridged version in Oprah.

When I was reading the book, I updated the lessons learned.  Here they are:

Lesson #1 - 'when you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you'

February 3 at 10:08am

Lesson #2 on Time Management

a. Time must be explicitly managed, like money

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

c. Are you spending your time on the right thing?

February 3 at 2:43pm

 

Lesson #3 - too many people complaining about their problems. If you took one-tenth energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work out.

February 3 at 6:02pm

Lesson #4 - experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. Failure is not just acceptable , it's often essential.

February 3 at 6:27pm

Lesson #5 - when you can't pay someone back, pay it forward. Go out and do good for others what somebody did good to you

February 3 at 6:45pm

 

Lesson #6 - when giving an apology, any performance lower than an A really doesn't cut it. A good apology is like an antibiotic; a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound

February 3 at 7:23pm

And I finished reading it the next day with this update: 

Watammat! Now, I have the urge to read another book! Perhaps one of those that I stopped half way!

February 4 at 8:54am