A Personal Note

wrote this week’s article to you from a hotel room in San Diego as the sun slowly set over the golf course outside my window. Everything looked nice and calm. It wasn’t so calm six hours before that.

Many of you know by now that Southern California had a trembler that registered 5.4 on the Richter Scale. Thankfully there were no significant injuries and very little damage. Nothing like the traumas faced by the Chinese families in cities that collapsed just a few months ago, but a ‘shake up’ just the same.

This quake was actually only the 3rd wake up call in 3 days in my world. This week a member of my family passed away, leaving our extended family shaken and thoughtful. His passing was expected, but not as quickly as it occurred.

And that third wake up call I mentioned? Randy Pausch passed away this week, very publicly and anticipated for a long time.

I worked with Randy at Walt Disney Imagineering – that’s him wearing his WDI T-shirt and name tag. I love the gift of his soul that he made to all of us by sharing his thoughts and insights as he walked the path to the end of his life with his beloved family and his work for the past year.

As I wrote my note and my article, the two kept blending. I realized I could spend hours trying to disentangle the two and decided not to. Life is short, even when we have decades ahead of us, as I sure hope I do.

I can’t arrange the earth shaking for you, and I know you’ll have your own losses of friends and family. Yet I can offer you the gift of Randy’s words. Even if you’ve seen Randy’s Last Lecture, go watch it again on YouTube or right here on his site. And, after you’ve watched it, watch it again with your loved ones. And watch it again with your team at work.

The earth moving wakes us up to one form of power. Words can wake us up to a power of our own. I look forward to hearing how you use your power in your life and business.

August 1, 2008 | Filed Under Ideas 

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