Randy Pausch: A True Inspiration

Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture," is clearly a very unique and unforgettable lecture as well as probably the best that I will ever watch in my lifetime. From the start of the lecture, he established his credibility by asking the audience to "make [him] earn it," in regards to the overwhelming applause he had received upon coming on stage. This demonstrated his credibility because most would just reply "thank you, thank you," but he looked at the clapping as if it were undeserved because he did not even begin to inspire people yet. This moment allowed him to gain some respect from the audience and his introduction with his childhood dreams added to his credibility. During most lectures, the lecturer just talks about his or her accomplishments and what they want to get across, but Pausch began the lecture from the start of his own life and this allowed for his audience to connect with him. Furthermore, his initial credibility made the presentation more effective because the audience was now able to relate to him through his fun personality and childhood dreams, and also felt a sense of respect for a man who oddly turned down an applause.

Randy Pausch's use of non-verbal visuals are clearly what added the fuel to the fire in this presentation. The non-verbal visuals kept the audience at the tip of their toes as to what they would see next. Usually when people talk about their life, it is quite boring, but everything Pausch talked about, he enabled his audience to "picture" right from the start. When Pausch talked about his cancer, he compared his brain to that of an "elephant", though he said he felt great and started doing pushups in the middle of the stage. He showed the humorous zero gravity video to illustrate his childhood dreams. When talking about stuffed animals, he demonstrated his credibility by having people bring them all out as well as show pictures of his family with them. He showed the audience his rejection letters. He constantly went back to a picture of a brick wall, which is "there for a reason; to stop the people that do not want it badly." When talking about his class and the work of his students, he showed the audience a video one of his students had made. Everyone was able to connect to "ctrl-alt-delete," and the video was just so humorous, just like Pausch's personality. One other key visual was when Pausch was talking about always having fun and he said, "I'm dying and I'm still having fun," while showing a picture of two types of people, Tigger and Eeyore. All of these visuals kept the audience interested as well as added light to the content. Pausch is clearly a Tigger and even though this was not implied, I think his student's project illustrated Pausch in a way that just as the program does not want to shut down when one hits "ctrl-alt-delete," Pausch does not want to either. The brick wall was also reinstated several times to illustrate the set backs that one face, and this was to inspire Pausch's children to keep believing in themselves, something he would say to his children as they got older if he had the chance.

A key reason for the success in this lecture was the organization that it had without most even noticing that is was so well put together. From the start, when introducing his own childhood dreams, Pausch showed a list of all of them, and then talked about each one in order. From there he went on to talk about helping others with their dreams. He did this by talking about the dream of a student, class he taught, favorite moment in class, and even working with Don. After these two main subjects, he reinstated what he had already discussed in bullet form and then talked about lessons learned. From there, he introduced the head fakes which are dreams will come to you by the way you live your life and the second was that the lecture was actually for his children . Pausch's strategy of repetition of main points as well as visuals such as "the brick wall," made his lecture organized and aided in portraying the message he wanted to get across.

Besides the use of non-verbal messages, organization, and repetition which all made Pausch's lecture one of a kind, the way he was able to connect with the audience, his humor, as well as the morals he continued to preach also played a huge factor. An audience would never want to sit for over an hour and hear a monotone voice talk about a war or another frankly dull subject. Randy introduced his silly childhood dreams, his rejection letters, Andy Van Dam (the professor who believe in him), his supportive parents, his letterman's jacket, cartoon characters, and even his wife's birthday. Everyone can connect to most of these topics. Now connecting was the fun part, but Pausch also drenched the audience with important morals that established the audience's respect for him. Some include "Cherish feedback," "When you do the right thing, good things seem to happen," "Anything is possible,"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted," "Bricks walls are there for a reason; to stop the people that do not want it badly," and "Wait long enough and people will always surprise you." These morals were all very effective and played an important role in Randy's effort to inspire his children and allow them to gain some confidence and self-esteem.

This extraordinary lecture taught me several aspects to improve on when giving presentations. The first is to try to be humorous. This will get the audience more involved and actually be interested in the content being presenting to them. Also, it is important to use as many non-verbal messages as possible. This will also keep the audience excited and enthused, as well as make the presentation something they will remember. A presentation should be able to connect with the audience, and the presenter should also seem like a normal person with a great personality, as Pausch got the audience to perceive about him. One last aspect to improve my future presentations that I have learned from this lecture is to be as organized as possible and to continue repeating the message that I want my audience to get from my presentation. There was nothing really negative I learned from the presentation. Randy drank water a few times, had his hands in his pockets a little bit, itched his head a couple times, had very minimal "uh" spells, and could have worn a button down shirt instead of a polo. Though I think these would be huge negatives in a short presentation, with the duration of time that Pausch was speaking, I believe these actions were normal and are what added to the audience perceiving Pausch as such an average man with a great disposition.

Randy Pausch's expertise in lecturing made him a man that I feel like I have known for years, when in reality, all I did was watch him talk about his life for an hour. His lecture was inspiring, unforgettable, and I am delighted that this assignment was given because this was probably the most important thing I have ever viewed and learned so much about life from.