The Last Lecture

On September 18th, 2007 Randy Pausch delivered a unique lecture. For years Carnegie Mellon had a series of lectures titled "The Last Lecture" where professors spoke as if it were their last lecture about their personal and professional journeys. In the case of Randy it was indeed his last lecture. Diagnosed the previous summer with pancreatic cancer he had just a few months ahead to live. Instead of lamenting and feeling defeated he dedicated his last months to enjoy life and his family. The father of three small children (Dylan 6, Logan 3, and Chloe 18 months) and married to Jai for eight years, his lecture and book are statement for them and we, as audience, have the privilege to learn from it.

Professionally, Randy Pausch was a computer scientist from Brown University, PhD and Professor from Carnegie Mellon, pioneer in virtual reality and Walt Disney Imagineer, above all an educator.

His lecture "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" became an instant hit (as of today more than 18 million views in YouTube). After this lecture Pausch wrote the book with more details about his story. The Last Lecture is an autobiography full of inspiring lessons. 

Preparing the lecture Randy struggle with what made him unique. After playing with ideas and memories he conclude that he achieved all his childhood dreams, therefore the title.

The book is broadly divided in three sections. First he shares his childhood dreams and how they were achieved. The lessons are of passion, perseverance, faith and hard work. The second part is a series of anecdotes that give the reader an idea of who Randy Pausch was; an optimist, hard working nerd, passionate about whatever he was involved in (learning, teaching, working, in his marriage, parenting, etc). The last part relates to his values and beliefs. Randy appreciated the community and helping others to achieve their own dreams, family, generosity in general, hard work, frugality, team work, truthfulness, industriousness, and more. 

Randy passed away just 10 months after his "Last Lecture" but his inspiration will remain for many years later.

From USA Today Obituary

Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008)

My rating 4 stars.

A Brief History of Entrepreneurship

Joe Carlen book is History the way I wish I had in school. Instead of the disconnected list of events "A brief history of entrepreneurship" is a dynamic summary of human history since the first civilizations in Mesopotamia until the next frontier out of our planet, from the eyes of entrepreneurs and those pushing out the boundaries of the then current world.

"The transformation from rural agrarian to urban commerce took place during the Uruk period of Sumerian history, an era that began about 3,500 years ago."

The narrative of the book allows the reader to identify the birth of institutions we take for granted today. From the division of labor, the non-zero sum trade, financial instruments to fund explorations, the early corporation and merchant societies, accounting control, fiat money, etc. 

The book is mainly descriptive and not normative about entrepreneurship but it is easy to identify historic patterns. Carlen's sources make the book credible and a good reference to understand the systemic differences of motives and results. In periods like the early Sumerians and Phoenicians dominated more by City-States that had high commercial interaction progress excelled. In contrast periods with strong centralized governments like Romans and Medieval times the entrepreneurial spirit was limited to cronyism and corruption. No wonder why in the first kind entrepreneurs and merchants were in high esteem, while in the later were the lowest of the classes.

Chapter 4, An Enterprising Faith, is quite interesting under the light of the current geopolitical events. It describes the emergence and advancement of the Arab world in the VII century. Unified under Muhammad the Arabs expansion covered the Middle East, North Africa/Spain and parts of Central Asia. Despite it was a military conquest it was driven by mercantile concerns. The Muslim world was a remarkable pollinator. It expanded and advanced Greek scientific knowledge, made mathematical contributions like algebra, expansion of use of writing paper from China, silk, cotton, wool textiles from different regions, or African Coffee.

The Brief history has a space for Sumerians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Chinese, Mongols, Western Europeans and their Imperial expansion to America, Africa, India and Asia, and the Colonist. Before the Industrial Revolution most of the benefits of the entrepreneurial spirit were limited to the regions that were thriving and not globally. The last part starts with the Industrial Revolution. Carlen misses the role of ideas in the change of pace of progress, something that Deirdre McCloskey brilliantly explains. Nonetheless he points out:

"However, prior to the Industrial Revolution, innovation in the form of disciplined scientific inquiry rarely intersected directly with the world of entrepreneurship. The original Industrial Revolution, that is, the one that occurred in Britain and peaked during the seventy-year period of 1760-1830, is when those worlds coalesced in unprecedented ways."

Carlen covers the modern era with short biographies of business tycoons from Abraham Darby (1678-1717) to today pioneers of the last frontier like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. Including people like James Watt, Thomas Edison, the wrongly called Robber Barrons (check Andrew Bernstein's "The Capitalist Manifesto"), entrepreneurs in different parts of the world (China, Latin America, Africa, or Russia), the information revolution with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and more.

Overall the "A Brief History of Entrepreneurship" is a good reference of how entrepreneurship and human progress go hand in hand. A window of the conditions that allow these ever present minds shine and make all our lives better.

My rating 4 stars.