Like millions of Americans, I have been touched and inspired by the story of Randy Pausch and his national bestseller, The Last Lecture. Randy recently lost his battle with pancreatic cancer, but not before leaving behind a powerful legacy to his children and poignant insights for the rest of us. His Last Lecture, as described on the jacket cover, is about “the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others and seizing every moment.”

Randy has strong advice for our kids…

On a recent return trip from Boston to Austin, I picked Randy’s book up in the airport bookstore. I’d nearly finished it by the time we landed. I immediately passed it on to The Husband and The Tall One is next in line.

In addition to asking adults to rethink their lives, Randy has strong advice for our kids who haven’t yet entirely started living theirs. The following is one of my favorites:

No job is beneath you.

The Tall One is sixteen and will be returning to school in the fall as a junior. He’ll also be joining the work force for the first time. He’s not thrilled with this news. Like most kids, he’d rather we shove an envelope of money under his door and let him be. But understanding this will never happen, he’s resolved to get a job. There’s just one problem: He doesn’t want to start at the bottom.

To date, we’ve been unsuccessful convincing him that sixteen-year-olds have limited options.

So naturally, I cheered out loud in my coach seat when Randy addressed the “growing sense of entitlement among young people today.” The Husband and I have often wondered about this; where does this attitude come from? In our case, The Tall One is surrounded by educated and career-minded adults, yet our strong work ethic seems to have skipped over his generation. I don’t get it.

Our strong work ethic has skipped over his generation.

The Husband and I go back and forth on how much we should ride the kid. Trying to instill motivation and humility is exhausting work and to be honest, there are many days when our fatigue wins out and we say– Forget it! Let him fail or succeed on his terms.

Randy calls this giving up.

“When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you,” he writes. I would never want The Tall One to come to the realization that his parents had thrown in the towel– that we no longer believed in his potential.

So, enjoy the final three weeks of summer, Tall One. After that, I suggest you brush up on your hospitality and coffee-making skills. You’re going to have to work hard for that corner office.

And you can thank Randy for that.

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