In recent days there have been lots of wonderful things said about Dave Goldberg, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur, SurveyMonkey CEO, investor and philanthropist who touched a great number of people before his tragic death Friday evening.
But it wasn’t until sitting in a private memorial for hundreds of Goldberg’s friends and family at Stanford University’s Memorial Auditorium Tuesday morning that it hit me how unique Dave truly was and what we should all—even those who never knew him—learn from his 47 years.
Nearly four years ago, I was in a similar situation just a stone’s throw away on Stanford’s campus, watching throngs of Valley elite celebrate the life of Steve Jobs. That celebration, located at Stanford’s more ornate Memorial Church, united many of the same people but with a formality that was necessary given Jobs’s fame.
