If you haven’t already, check out this short, motivating talk by Randy Pausch:
This was literally Randy’s last lecture, as he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. The topic of his lecture was “How To Achieve Your Childhood Dreams.” He is qualified to give advice on this topic as he himself achieved his dreams of walking in zero gravity and designing a theme-park ride for Disney.
I believe Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams for several reasons. One of them is because he had supportive parents who nurtured his interests. For example, they didn’t discourage him from writing mathematical equations on his bedroom walls!
Another reason is because he had a belief in himself that he could achieve what he saw others were doing.
Persistence is also key. As a university graduate, when Randy applied for a job with Disney and he was rejected he didn’t take it as a final ‘no’ but rather as a ‘not right now’, or ‘you’re not ready yet’. I’m always inspired by those, who like Randy, don’t give up no matter how many times they are rejected.
One such person is Sylvester Stallone. As a small-time actor, he was turned down many times to play the lead role in his own movie script, Rocky, but because he persisted they eventually allowed him to star in the movie. He persisted even though he was dead broke and they had offered him a considerable amount of money for the rights to his movie script.
I’m not your typical entrepreneur. I’ve never had a burning desire to be filthy rich, or to establish an impressive business, nor to change the world. What I am passionate about is having the freedom to do as I please, and that motivates me to build my own business that can give me the time and financial freedom that I want.
I’ve been very fortunate to be able to reach many goals, and will eventually achieve all the goals I have. The main reason is that I learn from those who have already achieved what I want to achieve.
People like Randy Pausch.