From Our Family To Yours...

Few things bring humility like an honest accounting of the things for which you are thankful. In my line of work that goes doubly. Of the blessings I count, anything founded in finance has at its very root the generosity of you the reader. During my UTOSC keynote address in August ("The Free Content Business Model") I was asked how I kept internet fame from going to my head. The question confounded me at first, and for an instant I worried that perhaps being e-famous already had gone to my head and nobody bothered to tell me. Upon further reflection, however, I realized that while it might be possible for an arrogant man to stand in my shoes and revel in the attention, it is unlikely that he could remain arrogant for very long. Arrogance would destroy its very enabler -- the goodwill of tens of thousands of happy readers. Only a fool would stand in front of that audience and proudly announce "oh yeah, it's all about me, baby." A few weeks ago Sandra and I mused upon how fortunate we have been, and how grateful we are for all of you, and especially those of you who have bought things from us. We've been publicly thankful in months and years past, but we wanted to do something more this year. I suggested a Christmas card. Happy Holidays, from our family to yoursSo we printed up a few thousand cards, bought a bunch of stamps, and shipped a card off to every address registered in our store. If you've shopped with us and are still at the same address you may have already received it. Every package that ships from two weeks ago until 2009 will also have a card in it (which likely means some of you will get two, or perhaps three.) It's a small gesture, though it added up to quite a pile on the kitchen table. If some of the mailing labels or stamps look like they were attached by a five-year-old, that's because some of them were. Everybody helped put this together, and we were thankful to be able to. From our family to yours, thank you.