at Carnegie-Mellon University.

There is an academic tradition called “The Last Lecture”.

Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die

and you had one last lecture

what would you say to your students?

Well for me there is an elephant in the room,

and the elephant in the room is that for me it wasn’t hypothetical.

I’ve been fighting pancreatic cancer

It is now come back after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation,

and the doctors tell me there is nothing more to do

and I have got months to live.

These are my most recent CT scans

The pancreatic cancer has spread to my liver,

there are approximately a dozen tumors.

I don’t like this.

I have three little kids.

Lets be clear

this stinks.

But I can’t do anything about the fact

that I’m going to die.

I am pursuing medical treatments,

but I pretty much know how this movie is going to end

and I can’t control the cards I’m delt just how I play the hands.

Now, if I’m not morose enough for you

I am sorry to disappoint,

but I don’t choose to be an object of pity.

And in fact, although I’m going to die soon,

I’m actually physically very strong.

In fact, I’m probably physically stronger

than most of the people in this audience.

So,

Today’s talk is not about death

It is about life and how to live

Specifically about childhood dreams

And about how you can try to achieve them.

My childhood dreams, your childhood dreams.

As a child I had an incredibly happy childhood.

I went back and raided the photo album

And I couldn’t find any places where I wasn’t smiling

Right, I just had a great childhood.

And I was dreaming, always dreaming.

It was an easy time to dream.

When you turn on your television set

and men are landing on the moon,

anything is possible.

And we should never lose that spirit.

So, what were my childhood dreams?

Being in a National Football League

This is one of the childhood dreams I didn’t achieve.

Right…

And it is very important to know that

If you don’t achieve your dreams

you can still get a lot by trying for it.

There is an expression I love –

“Experience is what you get

when you don’t get what you wanted.”

I have played Little League Football for a long time

And I had a phenomenal coach

Coach Jim Gram

And he was Old School.

When I was in a practice, He rode me all practice.

You know – “You’re doing it wrong”

“Go back”. “Do it again”. “You are slufin off”.

“You owe me pushups”

Just for two hours. It was relentless.

And after practice one of the assistant coaches

Came up to me and he said –

“Yeah, coach Gram rode you pretty hard”

And I said – “Yeah”

He said – “That’s a good thing,

because it means he cares.

When you are doing a bad job

And nobody points it out to you

That’s when they’ve given up on you.”

And that is something that really stuck with me.

It is when somebody is going to ride you for two hours

They are doing that because they care to make you better.

So,

Next dream – Walt Disney Imaginary

When I was eight my family took

the pilgrimage to Disney Land in California.

And it was this incredible experience -

The rides, the shows, and the attractions and everything.

And I said – “Gosh, I’d like to make stuff

Like that when I get older.”

So I graduated from college and I tried to become an imagineer

These are the people who make the magic

And I got a lovely rejection letter

And then I tried again after graduate school

And I’ve kept all of these rejection letters over the years.

They are very inspirational.

But then the darnest thing happened

You know, I worked hard and worked hard

And I became a Junior Faculty member

And I specialized in doing certain kinds of research

That’s me

And I developed a skill that was valuable to Disney

and I got a chance to go there.

And I was part of an imaginaring team

And we worked on something called

“Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride”

And It was incredibly cool.

However it took me over fifteen years

to do it, and lots and lots of tries.

And what I learned from that is that

The brick walls that are in our way are there for a reason.

They are there not to keep us out.

There are there to give us a way to show how much we want it.

If you are going to have Childhood dreams

I recommend you have good parents.

I lucked out, I had great parents.

This is my mother on her 70-th Birthday.

I’m the blur in the back. I’ve just been lapped.

This is my father on his 80-th Birthday.

There is this notion of "Have fun all the time".

Have a sense of fun and wonder.

That should never go away.

Alright…

My dad – what an incredible guy.

He fought in World War Two,

He clearly a part of the greatest generation.

Sadly my dad passed away a little over a year ago.

And when my mother was going through his things

That was when she discovered that in World War Two

He was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor.

In fifty years of marriage it had just never come up.

There is a real lesson in humility

That I can learn from my father though.

Now my mother. Mothers are people who love you

even when you pull their hair.

And this was the kind of relationship I had with my mother.

And my mother, speaking of humility,

was always there to keep me in check.

When I was going through graduate school

and I was taking really hard examinations.

I was home, pretty much complaining and whining

about how hard these PHD tests were,

and she just patted my arm and she said –

“We know how you feel.

Just remember that when your father was your age,

he was fighting the Germans in World War Two.”

And then the day came when I got my PHD

and I was so proud,

and my mother introduced me To everyone as –

“This is my son. He is a doctor

But not the kind that helps people.”

Probably the most wonderful thing my parents did was

They let me paint my bedroom.

I said one day – “I want to paint stuff on the walls.”

And they said – “Ok.”

So I had a rocket ship,

And we lived in a ranch, so I wanted an elevator.

I wasn’t sure where it would go, and,

Yeah, you can tell the nerds early, so

That’s the quadratic equation,

But the great thing is that they let me do it.

And they felt that letting me

express my creativity was more important

than the pristine nature of the walls.

I was really blessed to have parents who saw it that way.

My parents taught me the importance of people versus things.

So when I got older I bought my first car

and I was so excited I had this shiny and convertible…

There’s my niece and nephew Chris and Lora

and every month I take them for a weekend

so my sister and her husband would get a little brake

and we go off on adventures,

and I just showed up with my new car

and my sister is explaining to Chris and Lora –

“That’s uncle Randy’s new car, you can’t get it dirty and ect.”

And they are just cracking up laughing

because over her shoulder I’m casually opening a can of soda

And just emptying it on the back seat.

And they come running over me, just – “What are you doing!?”

I said – “It’s a thing. It is just a thing.”

And I’m really glad I did that

because at the end of the weekendas I was driving them home

little Chris, who was about eight at the time,

he had the flu, and he threw up all over the back seat of my car.

And I don’t care how much value you get

out of owning a nice shiny pristine thing,

it is not as good as I felt knowing that I made

an eight-year old boy not feel guilty

just because he had the flu.

Next thing.

You better decide early on if you are a Tigger or an Eeyore.

Tiggers are energetic, they are optimistic,

they are curious, they are enthusiastic.

And they have fun,

and never, ever,

underestimate the importance of having fun.

I am dying soon

and I am choosing to have fun

today, tomorrow, and every other day I have left.

If you want to achieve your dreams

you better work and play well with others

and that means you have to live with integrity.

Simple advice that you’ll find hard to follow –

Just tell the truth.

Second thing –

when you screw up – apologize.

There are a lot of bad apologies in America.

A good apology has tree parts –

I am sorry. It was my fault. How do I make it right?

Most people skip that third part.

That’s how you can tell sincerity.

The last thing is that we all have people that

we don’t like,

that have done thing we don’t like,

and what I have found is no one is pure evil.

If you wait long enough

they will show you their good side.

You can’t make them do it in a hurry,

but you can be patient.

Show gratitude.

When I got tenure as a young faculty member

there were about fifteen young kids

who have been working in my research lab.

I took them all down to Disney World for a week on my nickel.

One of my colleagues said –“This must have cost you

an arm and a leg. How could you do it?”

I said – “These kids just worked day and night for years

so that I could get the best job in the world for life.

How could I NOT do it?”

I mean gratitude is a very simple thing,

and it’s a very powerful thing.

And lastly…

I don’ think complaining and whining

really solves the problem…

This is Jackie Robinson,

first black Major Leaguer, had it in his contract

not to complain if people spit on him.

Alright…

I don’t care if you are Jackie Robinson,

or you are a guy like me,

who has only got a couple of months to live,

you can choose to take your fine night time,

and energy and effort,

and you can spend it complaining,

or you can spend it playing the game hard

which is probably going to be more helpful to you in a long run.

Now, I told you this is a part of

a lecture series at Carnegie-Mellon University

and it’s important for you to know why I gave the talk…

K…

The talk isn’t just about how to achieve

your childhood dreams…

It is much broader than that.

It is about how to live your life.

Because if you lead your life the right way