The Book Report
by Rolf Crocker

Well, summer's almost over.  My 6 year old started first grade today, while my 21 year old is finalizing her prerequisites for San Francisco State.  And now, we're knee-deep into budgets.  The fun never stops!

Last month, I wrote about my take-aways from the transcript on what is now called "The Last Lecture" given by Dr. Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon University in September of 2007.  Dr. Pausch passed away on July 25, 2008.  As a result of writing that article, I learned that a book form of the lecture was published in April of 2008.  I mentioned in the article that I had the book on order.  Received it, read it and here is the review.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeff Zaslow (©2008 Randy Pausch, published by Hyperion).  

Since I covered several key take-aways in the previous article, I won't re-hash them here.  Essentially, the book is a 'fleshed-out' version of the lecture.  The foundation of several chapters is taken directly from the transcript.  That having been said, the book adds a lot of detail that time wouldn't permit to be covered in a lecture format.  It also adds a lot of good post-script information that folks will find relevant and helpful.

One section that stood out to me is called "It's About How To Live Your Life".  Randy, in a pullout quote just before the section, says "I guess it's my way of saying: Here's what worked for me."  Some highlights:

- Dream Big
- Don't Complain, Just Work Harder
- Treat the Disease, Not the Symptom
- Don't Obsess Over What People Think
- Start By Sitting Together
- Watch What They Do, Not What They Say
- Show Gratitude
- Tell The Truth
- Look For The Best In Everybody

There's also a great section called "The $100,000 Salt and Pepper Shaker".  Here, Randy relates a story of how, when he and his sister were kids, used their own money to buy their Mom and Dad a 'thank you' gift for taking them to Disney World.  They pooled their money, and saw a ceramic salt and pepper shaker set that they could afford.  They made the purchase, stepped outside, and the gift slipped out of Randy's hands and broke.  To shorten the story, they went back in to the gift shop at Disney World and told their story.  Disney staff not only replaced the gift, but took responsibility for the accident, saying "it was our fault - we didn't wrap it right."  In the ensuing 20 years, Randy's parents did volunteer work with English-as-a-second-language students.  An integral part was taking a 22 passenger bus full of these kids to Disney World.  Between the tickets, food and souvenirs, Randy figures that value clocks in at $100k.  How much is doing the right thing worth?  His bottom line?  More than profit and loss, institutions need to have a heart.

If you haven't seen the video or read the transcript, this is the complete package.  If you have, it will add other useful information, insight and anecdotes, but overall, it will cover much of the same ground.  Regardless, it is an amazing story of hope and a life well-lived.  4 Stars

Rolf Crocker

Rolf Crocker is a Vice President of Associa and he can be reached at .