Randy Pausch Taught Us All a Lesson About Life, Love, and the Real Meaning of Success
As we plod through our lives, wondering about and debating its meaning, just how we fit into the grand scheme of things, there remains forever embedded in the minds of millions the image of Randy Pausch giving the world a gift…The Last Lecture.
This is not a post about the meaning of Professor Pausch’s selflessly magnificent gift, it is simply a nod from one professor to another, one teacher who loved touching the lives of a few with his self and his message.
It has been a little more than a year and a half since the passing of this great man and there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of the message he left behind. Randy Pausch exited doing what he loved, sharing his knowledge with the world, his magnificent gift…The Last Lecture.
Ultimately, I believe a large measure of our immortality is based upon the impact we have had on those left behind, on how those we’ve touched remember us as they continue through life. If our immortality is measured by how people remember us, and for how long, Professor Pausch’s immortality is assured.
In marketing terms, we are remembered in terms of positioning and our differentiation.
In other words, positioning, how people talk about us when we are no longer around; and, differentiation, how we have separated ourselves from “the herd,” from the rest of the people, businesses, whomever or whatever we are being compared to on a daily basis.
One thing is an absolute certainty, Randy Pausch’s positioning and differentiation certain reflect the profound impact he had on the world he lived in, and the World as a whole; thus, making Professor Pausch one of the greatest men of our time. Randy Pausch’s loss is felt to this day by those who knew him…and by others who wish they had.
4) A video compilation that has since been pulled of highlights of Professor Pausch’s Last Lecture and a song by Eric Hutchinson. I have squirreled it away because it is has been pulled back by “the powers that be” and I have refused to take a chance of losing it…until now. It inspires me often, I hope in sharing it that it will inspire you!
The videos speak for themselves, enjoy a celebration of life and a demonstration of the true meaning of life, love, and success…Professor Randy Pausch.
Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr. 216-712-6526 (home) 440-821-7018 (cell) excellencepaidforward@gmail.com (personal email)
Life is funny…as in peculiar, perplexing, uncertain, difficult, a conundrum. And yes, sometimes life is also funny, as in ha-ha, amusing, and downright hysterical! Very often, it is somewhere in between.
Success in life, on the other hand, is elusive, perplexing, rewarding, frustrating, and amazing. In other words, success is the ultimate paradox, disconcerting and awesome, often all in the same moment, at times in the same breath.
Success is elusive because most people don’t understand what success is, perplexing because they are chasing something they think will define success, without actually understanding that success is nothing close to what they envisioned or imagined.
Success is rewarding because, when it comes, and regardless of how fleeting it may be, it validates our efforts and is one of the most amazing experiences we can have as human beings…providing we recognize it along the way!
Success is a paradox because it is often accompanied by incredible heartbreak, even failure; and, it tests our mettle in ways we never imagined, in the fires of life.
While exploring the rain forests of Central America we used to say Heaven and Hell were one in the same, around every bend, in every experience, in each and every moment.
The reason for this?
We had to endure incredible hardship on our way to amazing experiences. We had to endure incredible physical trials in order to get to pristine locations, places where few people had been for hundreds of years, untouched and unspoiled by humans. We had to endure bugs that would literally turn any exposed skin into sores, sores that, if scratched, increased in discomfort exponentially, all the while taking in some of the most incredible experiences of our lives. We had to endure intense heat and humidity, enough to stagger many in our party, only to jump into a river, clothes and all, a river so clean you can drink from it without fear of any of one hundred possible diseases or infestations. Imagine snakes and tarantulas along side of the most amazing lightening bugs imaginable, as big as silver dollars lighting up the sky. Imagine one hundred different tests each and every day while experiencing the time of your life, in each and every moment!
Life is like that!
Success is like that!
We often hear people say that life is a process, a progression, but deep down inside many still assign success to things instead of to experiences. Success, like life, is experiential!
Why is success experiential? Because it is a process!
That’s why people say it is a progression. Success is very much like life, in that as we progress through it we can either live one year 30 times or we can live 30 years.
Life, like success, is a process, a learning opportunity we are not meant to survive…but it can be amazing along the way. The end result is the same! It is up to each of us how we progress, how we experience the tests along the way.
I often mention Tony Robbins when I talk about success because I have been listening to Tony and people like him for decades. Napoleon Hill, then Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziglar, J Douglas Edwards, Wayne Dyer, and others all have the same message, enunciated in different ways…but there is a common theme.
The theme?
Build one day upon the one before!
*Whether as a template for a lifetime, as Napoleon Hill suggests.
*As a 30 day all out quest, repeated again and again, as Earl Nightingale challenges us to do.
*Or as CANI! Constant and never ending improvement! as Tony Robbins suggests.
The result is the same, an incremental approach to life. The method is similar, using forward motion, baby steps to build something amazing!
Baby steps?
What About Bob? is one of my all-time favorite movies and does the whole baby steps thing in such a great way! Take the time, Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus at their best!
While we are on the subject of movies, and Bill Murray, watch Groundhog Day! Talk about a message cloaked in comedy! Do it over until you get it right, can you imagine? Can you imagine being given the chance to live every day until you get it just right?
You do!
You are!
Each and every day is a major do-over!
We have two choices, we can go on into the next day, week, month, year, decade in the same way as the one before…or we can have a do-over. Because every day we live is in essence a chance to reshoot the day before, to get it right…Groundhog Day!
If you haven’t watched those two movies, do so! They will not only make you laugh until you cry, therapy in and of itself, but you will learn something about life and do-overs! We all get them each and every day…it is all about perspective and about living each moment and building upon the one before, learning from our successes and our failures on the way to CANI!
Constant and Never Ending Improvement!
Well, enough for now! The video below will help you get a sense for the mindset I have been developing over a lifetime. I thought I might share a little of it.
Remember! Build, remember, and make it better each and every day. Your life will be amazing and success will be a done deal!
John
Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com
johnz@ultimateinternetmarketing.info
Video Title:
Life, Success. and a Sculpture on Halloween!
I recently received a CD from Tony Robbins, it is from his Power Talk series and is a bonus for The New Money Masters members. In many ways, this is the most important and certainly, at least in my opinion, the wisest and most useful recording I have received from Tony Robbins since Personal Power II!
The recording defines success in terms of consistency, noting that “it is consistency that creates the fabric of success for a lifetime” and offers a new word to remember and apply this definition, this concept of and for success.
I have been thinking about this almost nonstop since receiving the CD a couple of weeks ago, and it has taken me back to the recording of The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale and to Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.
But Google does this one better. Because of the time constraints on YouTube videos, yes even for the masters like Nightingale, Hill, and now Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy…the videos and recordings must be segmented. The power isn’t lost when you can go right from part one to part two, and so on, in video format. However, I feel something is lost when attempting to follow an audio recording in such a manner. There is something magical about listening to Earl Nightingale uninterrupted.
Fortunately, Google offers the entire audio version of The Strangest Secret free!
The Strangest Secret, listened to from beginning to end in one sitting, is one of the most important recordings in terms of self-improvement, understanding the power of setting and achieving goals, and the true definition of success ever made…period! If you have not listened to the entire thing, you must do so at once…it will change your life!
But wait until you finish this article and have a look around…OK?!
I listened to Earl Nightingale for the first time in the mid-1970s and I have listened to it hundreds of times since, literally! I pull it out every few weeks and particularly when I feel my life getting a bit off course. The power of this single life-lesson is awesome and the lessons immediately applicable…in any of life’s arenas!
“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal!”
The definition above has become ingrained in ever person who has ever had the pleasure of listening to, and applying, The Strangest Secret!
Interestingly, Tony Robbins has re-introduced many of the same concepts and philosophies in a new concept he calls CANI!
CANI! Means consistent and never ending improvement!
The Tony Robbins synthesis takes into account the teachings of the early masters and expands upon them by integrating the notion of kaizen, the Japanese word for constant, consistent, and incremental improvement over time, generally used in the context of business and thought to have emerged in Post World War II Japan.
In the aforementioned episode of Power Talk, Tony Robbins introduces the concept of kaizen to his listeners. Robbins expands on the concept of kaizen, and subsequently introduces CANI!. Both terms are introduced in relation to the work of William Edwards Deming, known by many as simply W. Edwards Deming or Edwards Deming, the father of the industrial turnaround in Post WWII Japan. Kaizen, a concept integrated into a way of doing business, but also applied generally to how one lives their life, catapulted Japan from being known for “cheap” products, meaning the manufacture of substandard products in my youth, to being know for the finest quality in the world within a period of a few short years.
Interestingly, and as noted above, the concept of kaizen, the “Japanese way of doing business,” has its origins in an American, W. Edwards Deming, who is still revered throughout Japan, even today. By extension, Tony Robbins thought it appropriate to apply an American term, one he originated, to the American concept and came up with an American term…CANI!
CANI! means constant and never ending improvement.
If you think about it, CANI!, or whatever you decide to call it, is the basis for success…in business and in life. Combined with notions as old as “seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you” and, “ask and ye shall receive,” all the way up to the present day CANI!…the message is the same:
Success is a progression towards a worthy goal and/or ideal…or whatever! As long as the “whatever” is quite specific and the the progression is consistent and never ending!
In other words: CANI!
Why do people fail?
People fail for a myriad of reasons but it all comes down to four things:
1) A ship without a rudder! No goals, no idea where they have been; and, worse yet, no clear idea where they are going!
2) No passion! No idea what they want. People who fail lack a burning desire, something…anything…that captures the imagination and inspires massive action!
3) No consistency! Many think they know what they want, and may even have an idea how to get there! But they lack consistent effort, they work in spurts and quit before half way there!
4) They quit! This ties into number 3 and is the biggest reason for failure! “Winners never quit and quitters never win!” I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed failure on the brink of success. I have witnessed people quitting just before a promotion was about to be offered, before a deal was about to close, before a goal was about to be achieved!
Quitting is the deadliest of all success killers and it is a habit. Avoid quitting at all costs!
Well, it is on this topic and will get you pointed in the right direction, it relates well to the whole notion of a rudderless ship, goals, and consistency of action…quitting on the verge of success. I hope you enjoy it!
Ultimately, success means something different to and for everyone…but how you succeed is one of life’s hard and fast rules:
Success is a progression, a progressive journey toward a worthy ideal!
Whether kaizen or CANI! or some other phrase or term…the end result is the same if you apply it…success!
The end result is also the same if you do not…failure!
It is more difficult, and more painful, to fail! And yet, many seem to choose it. Incredible as it seems, with a road map in front of us, we still get off course and get lost!
The decision is yours:
Consistent and never ending improvement?
Or
Failure, pain, and remorse!
Success, like quitting, is a habit. That’s why I love The Strangest Secret, Think and Grow Rich, and Personal Power II…they are all about setting and achieving goals, building one day on the day before, one 30 day challenge upon the last…until you have created a habit and a lifetime of success!
Progressively achieving worthwhile goals in a lifetime of progress!
A lifetime filled with success!
John
John Zajaros
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com
One of the Biggest Challenges Most Entrepreneurs Face is in the Area of Time Management The fact is, while most entrepreneurs, most business people online or offline, feel they simply don’t have enough time in the day to get everything they need to get done, done, they generally have more than enough time to get everything [...] […]
It is hard to believe it has already been more than a year online…time flies when you’re having fun! In fact, I took my first, very tentative steps online in August of 2008! In August of 2008, almost a year and a half ago now…(wow, time flies!)…I knew 2 things: 1) The Internet was the place [...] […]
Internet Marketing is NOT for the Faint of Heart or Thin Skinned Individuals! Internet marketing has been an education by fire! Learning the nuances of an online business takes time and effort….and more than a little bit of money! Anyone who is not willing to put in their own blood, sweat, and tears will find that [...] […]
I would like to wish all of my readers a happy and healthy holiday season! Mery Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and Happy Kwanzaa! Additionally, I would like to thank you for taking the time to stop here, to thank you for subscribing to our blog and to the newsletter. Thank you too for commenting when the urge or [...] […]
How to Build a Social Media Presence: The Use of Autofollowers and Other Mistakes As more and more Internet marketers hop on the social media band wagon, chasing social media riches, many focus on building huge followings using the various autofollowers. With all the hub-ub about Twitter, and social media in general, that people would attempt to [...] […]
...with a finer spirit of hope & achievement. You're here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand. W. Wilson http://twitter.com/JohnZajaros10 hours ago
You're not here merely to make a living. You're here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision... (cont) Woodrow Wilson http://twitter.com/JohnZajaros10 hours ago
I received back-to-back emails from mothers of kids I work with, gone from Ds & Fs to As & Bs in 2 months! Want to talk about a rush?! Wow! http://twitter.com/JohnZajaros10 hours ago
