Second, they wished they'd taken more risks. Third, they wished they'd done some good that would remain after they were gone. You have to take the risk of reaching out to others. You have to pay the price in time, talent, and treasure now in order to do something that will endure after you're dead. I am aware that it is fashionable to be cynical, and I could reel off most of the aphorisms attributed to Vince Lombardi.
Cynicism is nothing new.
It has always been fashionable to be cynical. A young Apollo, golden-haired, Stands dreaming on the verge of strife, Magnificently unprepared For the long littleness of life. And a thousand lost golf balls. That will be the epitaph of most people in your generation as it is the epitaph of most people in my generation. It is the epitaph of the dull, of the copies, in every generation.