December 7: Your critics are the ones who still care

"When you’re doing something badly, and nobody bothers to tell you anymore, that means they gave up."

Source: Randy Pausch
Published: September 2007

Your critics are the ones who still care

After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch gave his last lecture. Here’s a lesson he shared about appreciating your critics:

There was one football practice where my head coach rode me. The entire practice he was telling me what I was doing wrong and making me redo things.

When practice was over, one of the assistant coaches came over to me. “Tough practice,” he said. “That’s a good thing. When you’re doing something badly, and nobody bothers to tell you anymore, that means they gave up. That’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones still telling you they care.”