It brings tears to my eyes as I write this and I’m not alone.  Millions of us were so inspired by Randy Pausch’s “last lecture” that we bought his book.

In that lecture Pausch said, “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….You just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore.” (Eeyore is pessimistic and Tigger  is joyful)  “ I think I’m clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate. Never lose the childlike wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us.” That resonates with the young men of Buried Life. (Are you achieving your childhood dreams?)

Pausch died this morning of pancreatic cancer.   The wave of reaction to this news has overwhelmed his blog. Ironically I’d just finished read Brad Feld’s positive review of his book when I heard the news on my local public radio station.

Here are some Me2We kind of life-affirming insights from Randy:

• Be good at something; it makes you valuable…. Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.

• No one is pure evil. Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you.

• Show gratitude. Gratitude is a simple but powerful thing. Find the best in everybody…. Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you. It might even take years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting.

• I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being earnest. I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person any day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term.

• When there’s an elephant in the room introduce him

• Be willing to apologize. Proper apologies have three parts:
1. What I did was wrong.
2. I’m sorry that I hurt you.
3.  How do I make it better? …. Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself.

• Get a feedback loop and listen to it. Your feedback loop can be this dorky spreadsheet thing I did, or it can just be one great man who tells you what you need to hear. The hard part is the listening to it.

• We don’t beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well.

• Someone’s going to push my family off a cliff pretty soon and I won’t be there to catch them and that breaks my heart. But I have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall so that seems like the best and highest use of my time and I better get to work.