“Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. ”
Those are not my words but are from Professor Randy Pausch in his last lecture titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. Professor Randy Pausch was an American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a best-selling author who achieved worldwide fame for his “The Last Lecture” speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon.
He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Aug 2006 and passed away peacefully on 25th July 2008. His last lecture was put on youtube on Dec 2007 and had since inspired a lot of people around the world ( including me) and was viewed by over 4 millions people since then.
I finished the youtube video yesterday and realised the reason behind the great achievement achieved by some great people.
It’s really depends on how badly you want it.
Looking back, there are things that I gave up too easily. If I were to continuously pursue it, I will have achieve what I have wanted. The desire of really want to grab it wasn’t there. Now, it made a lot of difference between me and some who have achieved it.
In his interview with Oprah before his death, Randy said that he can’t change the cards he’s been dealt, but he can control how he plays them.
“If you are hopeful, if you are optimistic, other people want to help you. And if you are down in the dumps, other people may still help you, but I’ve noticed that they’re walking, not running, over to you,”
Absolutely right! One needs to remain hopeful and optimistic in order for others to rush to help you instead of just walking towards to you.
Randy’s last lecture has indeed wake me up from my sleep once more. What he said is right, sometimes experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
More info about Randy in here, here and over here for Randy’s last lecture transcript.
The video worth watching for N times. really…