By: Hillel Fuld

When I sit down to write a blog post, I often plan it out for hours before. I think about the content, and how unique my angle is. I think about the title and how I will make it enticing enough for people to click. I think about the length of the post and I think about what other articles to link to.

I am writing this post by going back to the reason I started this blog, to just put what I am thinking down on paper. I have no idea how this will come out and I have no idea if I even have a unique angle or story to add to the millions of tweets and blog posts that have and will be written about Steve Jobs on the day of his passing.

All I keep thinking is how does a CEO of a tech company make so many people around the world, geeks and non geeks, love and respect him so much? I mean, just open Twitter and you will see what I mean. No one is talking about anything else.

I think the answer is one simple word. PASSION.

I am not going to link to any of the articles I have read over the years about Steve Jobs because the list would not end. There have been so many. They all came down to one thing. Passion.

Steve Jobs loved Apple. He loved great products and he did not stop at anything to create them and inspire millions. There is the story of the Macbook that was ready for release until Jobs discovered that a tiny little screw stuck out a fraction of a millimeter from the bottom. He then postponed the release because it was not perfect.

There is the famous story of how Jobs called Vic Gundotra of Google about the logo of Google on the iPhone. Steve called Vic on a Sunday all frantic because the shade of yellow in the Google logo did not satisfy Jobs as it appeared on the iPhone.

The stories go on and on. The bottom line is, Jobs had true passion and he followed it no matter where it led him.

Here lays the fundamental reason that Steve Jobs has inspired so many people. Everyone, whether they know it or not has a passion of some sort. Most people, if not all, do not let their true passion lead their every day decisions. There are always other factors involved. Money, practicality, location, etc. Jobs taught me that all of that is irrelevant.

If you have a passion for something, follow it. Blindly!

I did that when I started blogging. I did that when I decided to go into marketing. I did that in my personal life on many occasions. Without even one exception, my passions have led me to wonderful places and I honestly, on a conscious level, made all those decisions thanks to Steve Jobs.

I really do not want to go on about how I feel as I do think, to some extent, anything I say will cheapen the way I really feel, and will cheapen the tragic death of such a legendary man. I do, however, want you to watch this video of Steve Jobs speaking at Standford University. I am sure many of you have seen it already. If you have not, you have to, it will inspire you. If you have, I would recommend watching it again. I have watched it countless times and it leads me to think about life in a new way every time. These will be the best 14 minutes you spend today, I promise you that.

In any case, I probably did not add anything you did not already know by writing this post, but I felt a need to write it anyway, so thanks for reading.

Oh, and one last thing (how symbolic, but I honestly almost forgot to mention this), over the years Steve has been known to answer occasional emails and I have been tempted to test that out. I never did. Until two days ago. Except I did not write my very first email to Steve jobs two days before his death because I wanted a reply, I wrote it because I genuinely wanted to write him that he is in m my thoughts.

Here is my email: