What we can learn from The Last Lecture

I am currently reading an excellent book titled The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch - www.thelastlecture.com

I have said many times before, when I read books, it is not necessarily about the specific content or context, but what lessons can be learned that can apply directly to life – and when I say life, this could be your personal, business or perhaps both.

While the book tells a very powerful and emotional story, the underpinning theme is about ‘Really Achieving your Childhood dreams’. From this, I see many lessons that small businesses can learn from and apply directly to the way they approach their entrepreneurial endeavours.

Follow your heart - There are many things to do in this life but we must follow those good pursuits that we are most drawn to. Often we don’t follow our heart out of fear, laziness, lack of confidence, apathy, or other reasons but we must learn to overcome these negative feelings and follow our hearts desires. A lot of start ups fail to get off the ground because the owner is just not committed and always looking for excuses for not starting. Get over it.

Focus on what you want to become - too often in life we focus on ourselves, often worrying selfishly about what we are getting. In life, rather than focusing on what we get, we should focus on what we become. In many consultations, would be entrepreneurs (and even established businesses) want us to tell them where they are going and decide what they should become. Decide that for yourself – we can help facilitate and enable your dream but we can’t achieve it for you.

Never underestimate the importance of having FUN – being your own boss should be fun – yeah, of course there is hard work involved but we chose this path for a reason. We chose it for fun, laughter, challenge, risk, ownership, accountability – In business we often get caught up in our daily projects and hurdles. Give yourself and your employees’ permission to dream and, above all, have fun while you're at it. I encourage you to always have fun as there is just no other way to play it.

Brick walls are there for a reason – too often people complain about the brick walls that are put in front of them. They are there for a reason. As Randy Pausch says "They are there to test how bad we actually really want something". Entrepreneurs and small business owners are faced with hurdles every day, some seemingly insurmountable. But if you're passionate about what you do, those brick walls are easier to scale and you will have more fun on the climb. If we want it bad enough you will get over the brick wall. Otherwise the walls just become an excuse.

The last point I leave you with is this - Do not give up striving for your childhood dreams: Even if you do not achieve them, there is still a lot of FUN to be had from trying.