Pancreatic Cancer – Disney Brand Loyalty Keynote Speaker

Super Freak She’s Super Freaky

Okay, the human mind is remarkably strange. This Rick James song from long ago is in my head. Why? Because I’ve just reflected on the past two jungle jeff blog posts.

Wake up calls. Corporate down-sizing. Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack. It’s all kinda freaky, super freaky.

The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. Pancreatic cancer. Wife. Three young kids. Best-selling author. Hero. Role model. Computer Science Professor. Oprah Winfrey Guest. Deceased.

These are unprecedented times. Turbulent times. Stressful times. Uncertain times.

But time marches on. Question is, “Will we?”

Leadership Books

I get it. There is only so much a person can read. We can’t do it all. Right there with you. And, many of us received new books as gifts recently.

What books changed your life last year?

There were a few for me. Two had significant impact.

Up first, The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. Randy was a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor, in his mid-40’s. He had a wife and three children under the age of six.

Then he got pancreatic cancer.

To paraphrase what I heard Randy say:

This isn’t a book about dying. It’s a book about living.

It isn’t a book for you and me. It is a book for Randy Pausch’s children.

How did this book change my life?

It is in living in the moment that makes us great leaders. Doing things – things that matter – with a heightened sense of urgency has changed my life. I’ll tell you why tomorrow.