Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch died yesterday.

What is remarkable about this?

He was very public about his battle with cancer.

More important, he left a wonderful legacy, as my wife put it to me while I was writing this.

Pausch became well-known for the YouTube video titled “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” — and what turned out to be his last lecture.

As I write this, YouTube shows that this video has been viewed 4,031,952 times.

Why? I believe that the reason is simple: Randy Pausch was a better communicator.

Watch the video; you will see what I mean.

For more inspiration, read his book The Last Lecture.

And, if you believe that you have time to neither watch the video nor read the book, then just remember this one quotation from Pausch: “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”