What really matters...

Not just... what we believe in.

Also... how we pursue and implement those beliefs.

Along those themes, here are some more thoughts... this time from Warren Buffett, one of the world's most successful investor (I paraphrase comments he made few weeks ago in a small group.)

I enjoy what I do, I tap dance to work every day. I work with people I love, doing what I love. I spend my time thinking about the future, not the past. The future is exciting. As Bertrand Russell said: "Sucess is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get."

Work for a company you admire and love. If it isn't a company, work with someone or on something you admire and love. Once you are there, don't keep score. Keeping score is terrible in marriage and terrible in business. I put myself in the seller's shoes. With most humans there is a great desire to reciprocate. If you do something for someone when you aren't expecting to get credit for it, most often you will find that they will do 2X for you.

I know a woman in her 80s, a Polish Jew woman forced into a concentration camp with her family but not all of them came out. She says: "I am slow to make friends because when I look at people, I have one question in mind, would they hide me?" If you get to my age, and have a lot of people who would hide you, you can feel pretty good about how you've lived your life. The most powerful force is the world is unconditional love. At an individual level, it is important to make sure that the people that really count to you, you also count to them.

I won the ovarian lottery the day I was born and so did all of you. We're all successful, intelligent, educated people. To focus on what you don't have is a terrible mistake. Focus and enjoy the gifts you already have. And focus on the future, and what you can make of it.
colorado, Apr 10, 2008 @ 21:30

Thank you for sharing with us the story of Randy Paush, I don't have a cancer but I had a bomb in my life a year ago... I reacted like Randy..... I started to live my life more intensively, I could not waste a minute. I think "bombs" make ourselves better humang beings.
ruisenor, Apr 10, 2008 @ 23:23

I felt quite uneasy with his speech. Yes, he speaks words of wisdom, but nothing really new. At least nothing I have not yet read in those send-the-message-to-20-friends-and-be-happy-ever-after mails that clog Internet! I understand that he is a master in virtual reality, but does that make him a master in life, even if he is dying? Don't mistake me, I have a lot of compassion for the guy and a great deal of respect for his drive, his positive attitude, his fight against cancer, but... His last lecture sounded more like a monument to his own glory (which is understandable under those circumstances) than a lecture on lessons learned from life.



In his speech, Randy Pausch often refers to walls on the way to our childhood dreams adding that they are here to to filter out those who not want to pursue them badly enough. I don't like his purely Darwinist approach (not to forget that most totalitarian regimes justify their very existence by the pursuit of a better world dreams). He simply forgets the fact that reframing or transcending those dreams are steps on the way to adulthood, neither does he mention the fact that these walls he sees as obstacles may well be a rampart or support the roof of your inner house. Transforming a dream is not giving up as he seems to put it! And just as as walls can be rampart, obstacle or shelter, dreams can drive you forward, keep you in the past or be a way to escape a reality one cannot face.
Free, Apr 13, 2008 @ 04:56

Free comments:[start]> I felt quite uneasy with his speech. [] I understand that he is a master in virtual reality, but does that make him a master in life, even if he is dying? [] He simply forgets the fact that reframing or transcending those dreams are steps on the way to adulthood, neither does he mention the fact that these walls he sees as obstacles may well be a rampart or support the roof of your inner house. Transforming a dream is not giving up as he seems to put it! And just as as walls can be rampart, obstacle or shelter, dreams can drive you forward, keep you in the past or be a way to escape a reality one cannot face.[\end]

Interesting comments.

On the subject of reframing dreams, I am unclear how your views are different than Pausch. After all, Pausch admits failing in his dream of being a football league player. He then accepted the reality and transcended that dream. He asserts that his failed dream taught him a lot. He reframes it somewhat like this: Experience is what you get, when you do not realise what you want.

As you put it, Free, just because someone is dying does not make him or her a master in life. Over 50 million people die every year worldwide... just part of human cycle of life. Yet, this cycle of life is a worthy reminder to us... what really matters in life.

I feel the answer to that question... what really matters in life... does not have one universal correct answer. Pausch has one answer. You may have a different one. Other readers of this forum their own... as another poster in this thread wrote, dreams have energy and force. For some, childhood dreams can propel them forward. For some, new career dreams can provide them energy. Others can be motivated by dreams that once seemed impossible... for example, flying machine dream of the Wright Brothers; or, an United States of America without the evils of slavery or with voting rights for women; or a human being in Tibet enjoying the Charter of Rights enjoyed by US or Swiss Citizens. Etc etc. Not accepting status quo, imagining and passionately challenging some realities is as important as accepting and learning from some realities.

The value of Pausch's Lecture is less in his answers. The value is in his questions. I agree with you that Pausch is not the first person to discuss those questions. He won't be the last.

I agree with Pausch that it helps to know what we want from our lives (regardless of how different individual answers might be). I like passionate folks such as him. I also like his ability to laugh and jest and love the small and not so small things in our lives.
colorado, Apr 15, 2008 @ 08:02

Hi,

Thanks for sharing Pausch's last lecture on glocals.  I found it very inspiring and life-affirming, though probably not as much as Pausch's former students would.  Still, having taken courses with a number of charismatic profs who have since then passed away, I can imagine how powerful Pausch's lecture could seem to those who knew him from the classroom...  

Anyway, the reason I'm writing is that I stumbled across a similar talk online earlier today.  I thought you might want to watch it: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

Ciao, J.
Julianna, May 6, 2008 @ 22:49

Today, Pausch passed away. His commencement address at Carnegie Mellon University's 2008 graduation ceremony was short... nothing new, bit emotional, still interesting.
colorado, Jul 25, 2008 @ 18:49