The Last Lecture: Chapter 39 Summary & Analysis

“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” Randy learns this expression during his sabbatical working at Electronic Arts, and he thinks it’s a phrase worth considering at every brick wall we encounter, and at every disappointment. When Randy teaches the “Building Virtual Worlds” course, he has an award at the end of each semester called “The First Penguin Award” that goes to the team that takes the biggest gamble in trying new ideas or technology. Essentially, this is an award for an ambitious failure that celebrates out-of-the-box thinking.

The title comes from the idea that when penguins are about to jump in water that might have predators, someone has to jump first. Randy notes that the entertainment industry is very different than building a house—sometimes a game will never come out, or it will come out and no one will want to play it. However, start-up companies “often prefer to hire a chief executive with a failed start-up in his or her background” because people “who know only success can be more oblivious to all the pitfalls.” Experience, to Randy, is the most valuable thing you have to offer.