The Last Lecture

won’t let go of the Tigger inside me. I just can’t see the upside in becoming Eeyore. Someone asked me what I want on my tombstone. I replied: “Randy Pausch: He Lived Thirty Years After a Terminal Diagnosis.”

I’ve also reminded her that she’s going to make mistakes, and to just accept that. If I were able to live, we’d be making those mistakes together. Mistakes are part of the process of parenting, and she shouldn’t attribute them all to the fact that she’ll be raising the kids herself.

Delegate.

The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

Know Where You Are

The apprentice (Natalie Portman) tells the toymaker (Dustin Hoffman) that he can’t die; he has to live. And he responds: “I already did that.”

Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.

Ask those questions. Just ask them. More often than you’d suspect, the answer you’ll get is, “Sure.”

It’s interesting, the secrets you decide to reveal at the end of your life. I should have been telling that story for years, because the moral is: If you want something bad enough, never give up (and take a boost when offered).