FIRST PENGUIN

         "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."                     Randy Pausch ~ THE LAST LECTURE

A number of years ago, I heard about this professor from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh who wrote a book called THE LAST LECTURE.

In academia circles, many professors give talks titled "THE LAST LECTURE," and they are asked to talk about what matters most to them.  What wisdom would they impart to the world if they knew it was their last chance?

So when Professor Randy Pausch was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine the "what if" approach on it being his last.....it probably was going to be his last. Prior to being asked, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

What he talked about wasn't about dying...but about LIVING!

I picked up this book recently.

I love books like this that inspire.  They don't candy coat the negative, but they show the good that, if we are disciplined and diligent, we can find.

I want my life to be like that.

When I read in the book the quote, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted", my mind went SO many directions.

I thought, "man, I am experienced then!"

He went on to say, "It's a phrase worth considering at every brick wall we encounter, and at every disappointment.  It's also a reminder that failure is not just acceptable, it's often essential."

Failure?

Essential?

We don't usually look at FAILURE that way.

I guess, it depends on how we choose to define FAILURE.

Do we look at something that didn't succeed as FAILURE?

I really like Thomas Edison's description when he said, "I have not failed.  I just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Do you approach LIFE that way?

I would like it to work every time...but it doesn't.

In any given situation that we face, someone had to be the FIRST PENGUIN.

It's the idea of PENGUINS going into the water.  The notion that when they are about to jump, there could be predators in that water.  Well, one of them has to go first.

Same with us.

We might not see what is "out there" that we'll encounter in our BEST YEAR YET....but someone (you/me/we) has to be the FIRST PENGUIN and jump!

If you jump and it doesn't work out, you haven't failed.  You just found a way that won't work.

My encouragement to you today, be a FIRST PENGUIN!