Entrepreneurial Journal - Week 2: Randy Pausch

Entrepreneurial Journal – Week 2

§  Why do you think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams?

Randy never gave up or lost sight of any of his dreams. He was clever as he worked on achieving them. In a way, he made the event of his dreams fit into his childhood size dreams. Like his football NFL dream – realizing that he had learned what he needed to from the football experiences that he did have. He had great ethical guardrails to keep him in the bounds of giving and serving humanity on his path to achieving his dreams.

§  Do you feel that dreaming is important? Why or why not?

Dreaming is what makes life have depth and color. As long as we remember that it is the people along the journey that matter most, then dreaming is an amazing skill and gift. It is important to help us to be hopeful and have inspiration to move along the way.

§  Discuss at least one of your childhood dreams. Explain why you believe you can or cannot achieve this dream.

I am getting so old that it is hard to remember my childhood dreams. I was not as good as keeping in touch with them as Randy was. But I love the exercise of thinking about it. One dream that I remember was that I wanted to do was to be in a television show or commercial. As I have gotten older, it has gotten less important to me. Even to the point that I don’t really care if I do. However, I did put it on my bucket list and I think it would be worth exploring. I love to learn new things and about new things. I could also get to know other photographers along the way, which would help me with my entrepreneurial goal to be a professional photographer.

Journal Thoughts:

I loved all of the reading this week. It is a lot of reading, but all of it was so uplifting and inspiring. One of the articles was Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture. It reminded me of when I read his book. I felt so inspired then to be more and do more to affect and change the world. I think that generally I have been working toward that goal, but I have slowed down. I love his enthusiasm.

I felt so inspired by the talk, “What is Your Calling In Life?” that I wanted to share it with my family and friends. I sent it to many who I have noticed really work to use their talents and gifts in life to serve and lift others. There are so many people in my life who inspire and lift me with the way that they love and serve.

One of my favorite quotes that I have been using all week long belongs to Randy Pausch. “The brick walls are not meant to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”

My favorite time that I used it this week was with Elise. She did not want to train and run the Turkey Trot with our family on Thanksgiving morning. It was a brick wall for her. As we talked about how this was an opportunity to find a way to work around the ‘brick wall’. We ended up coming up with a solution to train to walk the five miles rather than to run it… but that will still be a great experience together.