So, 2011 has been a very hard year for a variety of reasons. Last week Steve Jobs died. While you can't say it was unexpected, it was shocking. Maybe it's a culmination of all the stuff Laura and I have been through this year, but Jobs passing hit a nerve. Thousands of people have written about him and his passing. What it means. What his legacy is. Many of those authors, like myself, had never met the man. And while some of those words were touching and brilliant. I don't think any of them really sum things up better than the man himself.

Jobs was a commencement speaker at Stanford and his speech there really seemed to sum up how he viewed his life—and death. It's frank. It's sincere. And very inspiring.

I feel like an earlier version of this philosophy was behind the 1997 Think Different campaign Apple launched. And this version that was released a couple of years ago featuring Jobs doing the voiceover compounds that. The broadcast version was narrated by Richard Dreyfus.

For me? I think it's safe to say that I wouldn't be self-employed today if it weren't for Apple. Everything around here runs on Apple hardware and operating systems. Apple builds the tools that let me do the work I want to do.

So thanks Steve. For everything.