You Can Move Beyond The Brick Wall

I am sure many of you remember Randy Pausch’s compelling “Last Lecture” speech on September 18,2007 at Carnegie Mellon University. It is perhaps the greatest lesson on moving beyond the brick wall and in Randy’s case, he had more than one brick wall to move beyond. He pushed the brick wall and in his inspiring story you’ll discover that you can move beyond the brick wall, too.

Having recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Randy understood about brick walls.  His aggressive treatments were in hopes of giving him a long life.  But those treatments didn’t work and Randy passed away on July 25, 2008. ”We can’t change the cards we are dealt just how we play the hand.”

“The brick walls are there for a reason.  The brick walls are not there to keep us out.  The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.  Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.  They’re there to stop the other people.” – Randy Pausch

I’ve faced brick walls many times in my life. But, none as tough as Randy’s.  His attitude when facing his mortality was inspiring and thankfully he left us with his now famous lecture.

When I hit what I think is a brick wall, I don’t let it stop me anymore.  I remind myself that the brick wall is put there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough and that I need to do whatever it takes to succeed and move forward.

In my business I see people who hit brick walls often and one of the things that I like to share with my team is that we have every tool available to us to move through that barrier.  We have to employ those tools and take action.  And of course there’s the support you have from your team members, supervisor, mentors, that can help you get to the next level you are striving for.

I find that too often people are afraid to ask for help for fear they appear incapable of doing their job.  Just remember everybody hits that wall in their business or in their life at some point.  How you move through it, over it or around it is really up to you. Don’t let yourself be one of those other people that lets the brickwall stop them.  Show how badly you want success by pushing through. It feels really great when you can look back and see what you achieved even through adversity!

If you’d like to know true inspiration watch this video of  Randy reprising his “Last Lecture” on Oprah Winfrey’s show.