I never met Steve Jobs, but I mourn him.

I mourn him because he changed my life and he changed the world.

I mourn him because in my work with executives in the consumer electronics industry, when I am hired to help with marketing, I am basically teaching people how to market like Steve Jobs.

Today, the world mourns Steve Jobs. Around the world, people are laying flowers in front of Apple Stores.

People are sad today, as if a President has passed away.

I’ve done seven interviews in the last 36 hours about Apple — first about the new iPhone, then about Jobs. It’s all people want to talk about. People are mourning a CEO en masse because his work touched the lives of nearly everyone. He changed music. He changed communication. He changed computing. And at the time of his death, he was working on changing television and movies.

One of my favorite quotes of his is about “putting a ding in the universe.”

“Start small, think big. Don’t worry about too many things at once. Take a handful of simple things to begin with, and then progress to more complex ones. Think about not just tomorrow, but the future. Put a ding in the universe.”

Steve Jobs put one hell of a ding in the universe. No, a dent. He dented the universe.

Today we mourn a man who changed our lives.

Tomorrow, we follow his example, and set about putting a ding in the universe.

May he rest in peace.