No-Regrets Lessons From Randy Pausch At Death's Door

Randy Pausch life lessons he shares with the world

Randy Pausch was a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University who learns that he has pancreatic cancer in September 2006 and ultimately given a terminal diagnosis in August 2007 with 3 to 6 months of good health left to live.

Here are some highlights from what he had to say:

Give yourself permission to dream

One of Pausch’s childhood fantasies was to be the cool guy who wins the giant stuffed animal at the carnival. When he grew up, Pausch went on to live this boy’s dream of manhood by winning over a dozen of the big, fuzzy, adorable critters. He would have the prizes brought out and given to audience members during his presentation, using them to illustrate the power of manifesting childhood dreams. Though he was a mature professor at an elite institution, his boyhood fantasy was still a part of him, and he was proud to have achieved it. The dreams we have as kids never really go away, Pausch contended, they just get buried under all of the adult stuff. Remember Citizen Kane? In the end, the brightest symbol of life for Orson Welles’s newspaper magnate was his childhood sled. When your time comes, what will be your “Rosebud”? Remember how vivid your childhood imagination was Visualization is a powerful, proven tool of success.

Brick walls serve a purpose

Another dream Pausch had was to be one of Disney’s “Imagineers,” those who design rides for the world-famous amusement parks. He applied but was rejected by the mouse house. Several years later, though, his work in videogaming and virtual reality caught Disney’s eye, and he was recruited to be a consultant for theme park rides. As personal as every obstacle feels in the moment, hitting roadblocks is a universal experience. “The brick walls are there for a reason, not to keep us out but to give us a chance to show how bad we want something,” Pausch said. “They are there to stop people who don’t want it badly enough.” In preparing your business plan, you need to decide what you want, and how bad you want it. Can you learn from your mistakes? Can you persevere even after the other guys and gals call it quits? Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. And hard-won experience is the most valuable commodity in any market.

Decide what you really want to “sell”

While Pausch was a computer science professor and not a small business owner, he still understood the concept of selling. His career involved an ongoing process of selling others on ideas to get funding for virtual reality projects. “If you are going to sell, and are good at it, you might as well sell something worthwhile, like education,” Pausch said. Do you believe in what you’re selling? Pausch, singling out educators, also said the best gift a teacher can give is to reach out to students and encourage them to self-reflect. Perhaps your professional positioning, or even an event in your personal life, offers opportunities to be an educator or mentor. Are you getting people in your life to think more broadly about their lives and possibilities?

Build some fun into your plan

After his diagnosis, Pausch went with his son to swim with dolphins, trick-or-treated with his family while dressed as Mr. Incredible, and otherwise packed all the quality time in that he could. He even found the time to update his web page with his adventures. “I’m dying and I’m having fun and I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left because there’s no other way to play it,” Pausch said. It’s important to put fun into your plan. You can’t put off being happy. So try to combine business with as much pleasure as you can.

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