Pausch offered this as a reframing of failure that cut through all the usual platitudes. He didn't say failure builds character or that everything happens for a reason. He simply pointed out that experience — the thing everyone claims to value — comes precisely from the moments when things don't go your way. The line landed with particular force in the context of his childhood dream of playing in the NFL. He was the smallest kid in the league by far, and he never made it to professional football. But he said he 'probably got more from that dream and not accomplishing it than I got from any of the ones that I did accomplish.' His youth football coach, Jim Graham — a hulking former Penn State linebacker who showed up to the first practice without any footballs — taught him fundamentals, discipline, and the lesson that your critics are 'your ones telling you they still love you and care.'