Before Randy gave his last lecture he told everyone he had ten tumors in his liver and that he only had a little while left to live. He was in high spirits and in good health. His lecture was about three things, how to achieve your childhood dreams, how to enable the dreams of others, and how lessons learned help you along the way.
The first dream Randy had was being in zero gravity. He worked hard and used his resources to do this and was included in an experiment with one of his students. His second dream was to be in the NFL. He told a story about a coach he once had who did not bring footballs to practice. The coach said only one person at a time touches the football so we are going to work on what the other twenty-one player do on the field. The point of this was to work on fundamentals. Fundamentals are the building blocks. The coach was riding him one day about the fundamentals, and he was told that when someone cares and wants you to do better they will ride you to make you better. It is only when they do not say anything that they do not care. What he got out of that was, "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you want". He did not get what he wanted but he learned a valuable lesson from that childhood experience. A third dream was to meet Captain Kirk, since he could not be him. He realized that he wanted to be a leader like Captain Kirk. Well not only did he get to meet his boyhood idol, but Captain Kirk came to Randy to experience what he was experimenting with in his lab. The last major dream Randy had was to be an Imagineer at Walt Disney. He wanted to make theme park rides like one he had experienced as a boy. After he got his PHD from Carnegie Mellon, he applied for positions with Disney and they told him they did not have any positions available for his area of expertise. This was a brick wall, and Randy said that he realized that brick walls were there for a reason, that they let us prove how badly we want things and how hard we are willing to work to get them. So, he eventually worked hard enough to be able to do a sabbatical with Jon Snoddy at Disney, and work on a virtual reality Aladdin ride with the Imagineering team at Disney. He said this experience forever changed him. He was asked to stay on as a staff member and he turned them down. He had bigger dreams in mind.
Randy wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. He wanted to enable their childhood dreams and the way that he could do that was by becoming a professor. His first experience with making a childhood dream come true was by helping a student named Tommy work on a Star Wars movie. This was not good enough for him, he wanted to reach out to many more students than that, so he created a course where students created virtual worlds. Every two weeks the students had a project, which equaled five projects, and they had three members to a team. He then realized that he wanted to make an even bigger difference so he handed this class over to a former student and he sought a new way to help others. Randy then succeeded in creating the Entertainment Technology Center with Don Marinelli at Carnegie Mellon. This is a two year masters degree program where artist and technologists work together. There was no book just a series of projects the students had to finish before they graduated. The courses were project based and fun, and they had field trips and no dean to report to. This program was so successful that companies submitted written agreements for these graduate students guaranteeing they would be hired. There are now three additional Technology Centers, one in Australia, one in Korea and one in Singapore. One important program Randy also worked on was Alice. It was a computer programing game designed to help kids make movies and games. He said the point of Alice was for million of kids to have fun while learning something hard. He wanted to reach out to millions.
He learned some hard lessons along the way but not without help and support. He had amazing, supportive parents, teachers and bosses. Andy van Dam was one main contributor who urged him to go to graduate school and helped him to get into Carnegie Mellon. Randy also said you learn from your students. Caitlin, one of his former students, had the idea to make Alice a storyteller program, and she helped make it successful. He learned many things along the way. He learned that loyalty is a two-way street, and to never give up. Once again, brick walls help show ones dedication. He also said, "Don't bail; the best gold is at the bottom of a barrel of crap." Get a feedback loop and listen to it and show gratitude. He said to never complain, to just work harder and be good at it, it makes you valuable. Find the best in everyone and be prepared.
In conclusion, he more than exceeded his childhood dreams and those of others. He helped to enable the dreams of others and learned some valuable lessons along the way. It is about how you lead your life. Karma will show itself in the end.
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