Friday, July 25, 2008

Rest in Peace, Randy Pausch

The Carnegie Mellon professor whose vitality and approach to life -in spite of suffering from pancreatic cancer- has inspired many (I count myself among those) passed away today.

His ideas about achieving your childhood dreams have been a wake up call. They´ll remain with us, along with his memory.
Thank you Randy.
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Here´s the link to Professor Pausch´s Last Lecture on Carnegie Mellon, on December 2007, watched over 3 million times on YouTube.
Here´s the link to an interview on ABC news.
Here´s the link to his book, which he dictated to a friend while riding his bike.
Even Business Week featured an article with the business lessons from Randy Pausch´s last lecture.

Some of his quotes:
¨Never lose the childlike wonder. It´s just too important. It´s what drives us.¨
¨The brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. They are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

Rest in Peace, Randy Pausch.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Thought of the Day - Paradox

Thought of the Day from another Thought of the Day post, by metacool´s Diego Rodríguez.
The quote is originally from John Mackey. The key part, to me is this:

¨Yet, happiness is a by-product of pursuing those other goals and I think that analogy applies to business as well. The paradox of profits is that, like happiness, they are best achieved by not aiming directly for them.¨
In other words, not confusing goals (great products, customer satisfaction...) with outcome (profits). If profits are your goal, everything else becomes your means to an end. What´s the problem with that? You stop doing things because you´re passionate about them, but because they´ll ¨bring you money¨. Way to go...