Inspirational Last Lecture Before His Death

Something to aspire to. He holds it together until the very end.

Sometimes when we near certain death, it will drive us to realize most things we take for granted in life. This is just word of thoughts to inspire us.

Below is a shortened version of his full lecture (about 1 hour) found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch (October 23, 1960 -- July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch learned that he had a terminal case of pancreatic cancer in September 2006. He gave an upbeat lecture entitled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon.

There's no such thing as failure, only feedback

What's in a name? Well, after a recent personal coaching course attended as another attempt to find my way out the maze, I decided to take on one of the tenets of the coaching world and rename BFA slightly.

So BFA is no longer Business Failures Anonymous but Business Feedback Anonymous.

The techniques and theory of coaching, NLP, Time Lines etc say much to my logical brain and it is the challenge of matching this to the failure, oops, feedback of emotions and finances. I have my reservations about some of the over-positive "attitude is altitude" (see The Secret Secrets of the Secret) but sticks and stones may break bones but names will never hurt... so Business Feedback Anonymous it is.

And in line with the new name, please leave your thoughts and feedback below!

The Power of Crisis... but you still need a buddy

Over the last few weeks, I've become a great fan of Tony Robbins' material. It makes a lot of sense along with many other NLP-based personal development strategies etc. I've just listened to his Power of Crisis audio with great interest - it all makes sense and have felt motivated to try to take some action. But, even Tony admits that when you're down in a crisis, a friend, colleague, buddy can help - someone who has been through something similar to whatever you're going through.

"Crisis is the crucible of our lives - the blast furnace that often melts down life as we know it. It can take us, or can offer us the opportunity to recast our lives into something greater, deeper and more rewarding

Today, we're facing extremely challenging times: from the multi-trillion dollar loss in retirmement wealth that's left the stock market decimating people's life savings and the collapse of the real estate market with foreclosures at an all time high to the massive loss of jobs across the country. This distressing news offers us nothing more than fear. So where do we turn? How can we access the power of the human spirit to meet any obstacle and triumph over our greatest challenges, injustices and pain."

Tony Robbins - The Power of Crisis

Business Failures Anonymous started by professed 'failure'

This is an article from a US newspaper. It could be from any business coaching related blog or business advice forum. You may be surprised when you see the origin at the bottom of the article.

ARCADIA, Calif (AP) - Can a man talk himself out of failure? A 40-year old engineer who has failed himself, been jailed for drunkenness and spent the last 18 months in Alcoholics Anonymous thinks so.

In fact he started his own organization a few months ago, patterned after AA. It is called Business Failures Anonymous.

The founder, like all BFA members, insists on remaining anonymous.

He is soft spoken, the father of three, and a proprietor of a going engineering business. But he describes himself as a failure.

"I'm a self-made man and proud of it. But I can look back on a self-made career and find that I did a terrible job"

He and the members don't seek professional advice on how to achieve success. They probe for solutions within themselves. The meetings are devoted to frank conversation in which "the people try to find out where they went wrong."

The only requirement for membership: "The individual must show a desire to avoid failure in the future."

Ellensburg Daily Record - Jan 13, 1959

So, 1959! Early rumblings of self-help business coaching... plus ca change...