Pausch identified passion as the essential ingredient for a well-lived life. He warned the graduates that they would not find passion in things or in money, because the more they accumulate, the more they will use material possessions as the metric, and there will always be someone with more. Instead, true passion must come from within. Pausch pointed to honors and awards as nice things, but only meaningful to the extent that they represent genuine respect from people you admire. To be thought well of by people you think even more highly of, he said, is a tremendous honor. His advice was grounded in the clarity that comes from knowing his own time was running short.