A Summary: The 3 Lessons Tetris and Life Have in Common (And Why They Matter Now)

Written by: Brad Pedersen

The response to the Tetris newsletters has been incredible; thank you to everyone who reached out. Several of you asked for a distilled version of the key insights; so here it is, one simple post with the 3 core lessons, all in one place.

I still remember when Tetris first hit store shelves. It was 1989, I was 17 years old, and the Game Boy had just launched. Every kid wanted one; but what made it unforgettable wasn’t the device itself. It was that game; the one with falling blocks that had to be twisted, turned, and fit into perfect rows.

I was hooked. I spent hours immersed in Tetris, heart racing as each level got faster and the stakes grew higher. With less margin for error, every move mattered. The game quickly taught me something essential: order and orientation matter. A misplaced block early on didn’t disappear, it just got buried, making it harder to clear rows later. The consequences of early missteps only compounded as the game went on, often ending with an inevitable, frustrating “game over.”

If you know my story, you’ll understand why Tetris holds even deeper meaning for me. Over the past three decades, I’ve started and scaled multiple companies, many of them in the world of toys and play. That journey eventually inspired me to write Startup Santa, a book capturing my wild ride through entrepreneurial wins, losses, and the unexpected lessons that toys can teach us about life, leadership, and meaning.

That exploration hasn’t stopped. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on all those hours spent playing Tetris, and I’ve realized something: this simple game is rich with wisdom. Just like in life, Tetris rewards those who can recognize patterns, make intentional decisions, and stay aligned with their priorities. The earlier you grasp this, the better your chances of clearing the clutter and finishing well.

So let’s unpack a few truths hidden within this simple yet profound game.

Lesson One: You Can't Control the Blocks You Get, Only How You Place Them

One of the most frustrating parts of Tetris is this: we don't get to choose which block comes next. Sometimes the perfect piece drops at the perfect moment, and everything aligns; other times, we're flooded with L-shapes when all we need is a straight line to clear the row. The game doesn't care about our preferences; it just keeps sending blocks. Our only power is in how we respond.

Life is no different. We don't get to control what comes our way. The downturns, the diagnosis, the betrayal, the dream opportunity that suddenly slips away. None of these are the "blocks" we planned for, and yet, they show up anyway.

Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and author of Man's Search for Meaning, offered one of the most liberating insights that helps us understand this truth: "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

We won't always like the pieces life hands us; but we always get to choose how we respond. And it is in that space, between what we can't control and how we decide to handle it, that our strength is forged.

The blocks will keep coming, whether we're ready or not. We can't slow them down; we can't send them back. But we can choose: will we stack them wisely, learn to adapt, and stay in the game, or will we resist, react, and let the gaps pile up? 

Each piece is an opportunity to grow our capacity, build resilience, and lay a foundation that provides more freedom and optionality. 

The choice is always ours.

Lesson Two: Life and Order Matter; You've Got to Get It Right

In Tetris, we can't just place blocks anywhere and hope for the best. We have to be thoughtful and intentional to place them in the right place with the right orientation. Try to force a block into the wrong place at the wrong time, and we create gaps that become permanent problems, buried under everything that comes after.

Life is no different. The problem is, most of us don't realize this truth until we've already stacked years of misaligned decisions and buried regrets.

We tell ourselves there will be a better time; a season when things slow down and we'll finally invest in our health, our families, or the adventures we've been putting off. But that magical season never arrives. All we really have is the present moment, and each season of life holds opportunities that might not be able to be reclaimed once they pass.

Bill Perkins, in his book Die With Zero, explains that experiences carry different values at different stages. Backpacking through Europe in our twenties is a rite of passage; doing it in our fifties becomes a logistical and physical challenge. The cost isn't just money; it's energy, margin, and flexibility. And those things diminish with time.

But it's not just adventure that has an expiration date. Between the time our kids are born and the age of ten, we are the most important people in the world to them. That short window shapes the trust, tone, and depth of our lifelong relationship. If we miss it, no amount of success later can buy back what was lost. The blocks weren't placed in time, and the foundation suffers because of it.

Many of us believe we'll be able to make up for it later; that we can grind now and return to what matters once we've "made it."  But just like in Tetris, if we wait too long to place the right piece, the gaps become overwhelming and can never be filled.

Getting the order right means honoring the timing. It means knowing what fits now, not someday. Some opportunities have a short shelf life; some investments, like time with our children, are irreplaceable. When we recognize what season we're in and what it uniquely allows, we start making decisions with clarity and intention, helping avoid future regret.

Lesson Three: The Game Speeds Up, So Your Decisions Matter More

In Tetris, as we clear more lines and advance through levels, the blocks start falling faster. What started as a leisurely game with plenty of time to think becomes a frantic exercise in split-second decision-making. The margin for error shrinks. The consequences of a bad placement become immediate and often irreversible.

Life works much the same way and there's actually a scientific explanation for why it feels that way. Psychologists refer to it as "time perception acceleration." When we're young, everything is new, and our brains form rich, lasting impressions. These novel experiences stretch our sense of time. However as we age and settle into routine, fewer new memories are formed and as a result time begins to feel like it's speeding up.

Our teens and 20s feel endless. Our 30s move faster, but we're still building and there's time to course-correct. But by our 50s, time accelerates in a way that's genuinely disorienting. We blink and our kids are grown. We look up and our parents require care. The blocks are falling so fast that we're just trying to keep up instead of being intentional about placement.

This is why awareness and intentionality become even more critical as you age. When we're young and the game is slow, we can afford to be careless with a few blocks. But as the game speeds up, every decision carries greater weight. A block placed wrong later in life, creates a gap we might not have time to recover from in the future.

This means being ruthlessly honest about where our time and energy are going right now. It requires asking ourselves whether the way we're playing the game today is building the life we actually want, or just creating gaps we'll regret later on.

Warren Buffett once said, "The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything." 

In Tetris, that means you can't obsess over fitting every piece into every space. Sometimes, you skip a block. Sometimes, you let one go by.  Not every piece needs to be placed. Some blocks are distractions dressed up as opportunities.  When we treat everything as essential, we will sacrifice what is truly essential.

It's not enough just to survive the game. We need a strategy; a lens that helps us sort what aligns with our values from what merely competes for our attention. One of the most helpful tools we can use is what some call the "regret minimization filter." 

We picture our 80-year-old self looking back and asking: "Will I say I'm glad I did, or I wish I had?" When we understand our true life purpose and align our decisions accordingly, while the game may not get slower, the decision filter will become much simpler.

Finishing Well

The goal of Tetris isn't to play forever; the game always ends. The goal is to last as long as possible and to play it as best as we can, making smart decisions about placement and priority.

Life is the same. It is a terminal event for all of us; none of us gets out alive. The question is whether we're building something we're proud of or just stacking blocks frantically without intention?

I think it is important to take a moment  and look honestly at the game we're playing. Are there gaps forming in our health, our relationships and our work? Are we placing blocks reactively out of fear or pressure, or are we making conscious choices about what we truly value. As the game speeds up, are we becoming more intentional, or are we just moving faster without direction?

The blocks are falling and whether we want it or not, the game is speeding. Despite that we still have time to finish well. This will only happen if we recognize these three truths; that you can't control what happens but you can control your response, that life and order matter and you need to get it right, and that as time accelerates you need to become even more aware and intentional about every placement.

The game ends for all of us. The real question is whether we'll look back and know that we played it well; not perfectly, but with intentionality aligning our decisions with our true purpose.

If you're ready to move from simply striving to truly thriving, and from self-focus to purpose-driven living, visit www.fullspectrumlife.com to explore our Guided Mastermind. It's not for everyone, it is designed for accomplished business leaders who are ready to go beyond financial success and step into a life of true significance

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