I think there are many more take-aways from this great lecture delivered by late Dr. Randy Pausch than just learning how a person's life can be this exciting!

As I watched this a second time, I was observing the way he delivered the lecture and came to some conclusions about engaging people in your speech:

a. Know your stuff..
It is only when you truly know your stuff that sentences would make sense and interest people. Dr. Randy Pausch was talking about things he had lived through everyday of his life (e.g. building virtual reality worlds) and hence could tell interesting details so fluently. Besides, knowing the stuff do help in building confidence!

b. Bring on the FIRE
Just knowing the stuff well would probably not make a speech (or pitch) outstanding. It is the passion and the emotions that are interwined with the hard facts that differentiate one speaker from another. Hard facts are every where.. the trick is how to deliver it using great emotions such that they connect with the audience and become outstanding...Perhaps it was also the way Dr. Randy Pausch made eye-contact with the audience that got people listening!

c. Use humor.
Ok, this is hard. How to crack a joke without leaving an awkward silence? But I think all these have to come rather naturally and the less rehearsed it is, the better! Would watching more comedies help in building humor?

To me, these are certainly applicable to a 2-min sellevator pitch as well! The fundamentals are probably the same, just much shorter time duration..

Yup, so here are my 2 cents... if you have other realizations or reflections after watching the cool video, i would be interested to know!!

*O, btw, he also mentioned something about luck which we discussed on our first lesson! (Luck = opportunity + preparation!). Fast forward to some where towards the end of the lecture if you've missed it!*