pausch.jpgA few months back, fellow un-mute.com writer Jason Reynolds, shared with me a Wall Street Journal article about a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor by the name of Randy Pausch. In the article, it explained that Carnegie Mellon University was putting on a lecture series called the “last lecture”. The premise behind it and the instructions to speakers were “what would you say if indeed this was your last lecture you had to give”?

However, one professor in the series was indeed giving his last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. That professor, Randy Pausch, 46, had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and only had a few months to live.

But his lecture (viewable on the Carnegie Melon website and google) was not filled with melancholy, but a spirit of triumph, a testament that dreams can be accomplished, and an illustration that resilience of the spirit is one of the most blessed gifts.

Since then, the lecture has been viewed over 6 million times and Pausch has been seen on such national television programs as Oprah. According to ABC News, Professor Pausch has just signed a 6.7 million dollar deal to turn his lecture into a book. BookCatcher.com sites that the book will be called The Last Lecture and will be written with Wall Street Journal’s Jeff Zaslow and published by Hyperion with a release date of spring 2008. Now his story of inspiration will be available in print for the world to read.

This should be an inspiration to us that whatever our story is, we should tell it. Who knows the impact it may have on people’s lives and the reward we may receive from sharing it with the world.

Here is the lecture in its entirety. Enjoy and be inspired!