146 - Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun. -See one, do one, teach one
Episode description
Randy Pauch wrote and delivered ‘The Last Lecture’, when he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I highly encourage you to read it and watch it. It’s moving and has a lot of good lessons throughout it.
One of the lessons he emphasizes is it have fun. The whole lecture is phenomenal, one of the stories I remember from it is that Randy and his team of college students who were studying virtual reality design, got to experience a simulated space trip. That was one of Randy's childhood dreams, was to go into space. To make a long story short, at first NASA was not going to let him ride with the students, but he found a loophole because they would allow a journalist to go with the students. So he got his journalism credentials quickly, and joined them. He tells the story of going in that centrifuge and experiencing weightlessness for the first time, and how much fun he had bouncing around in a tiny capsule with people he cared about.
This is coming from a brilliant man who was dying of pancreatic cancer a the time he told this story. I think the lesson he wants us to take away from it is that life is too short not to have fun. So enjoy your time with your team, every second of it, even if they sometimes frustrate you or challenge you, love them and have fun with them.
You can watch the lecture here: