Joy McKnight, Director, Global Product Management, ITW EAE

Viewpoint columns are supposed to look forward. Indulge me for a moment, to look back.

In 2024 I lost the love of my life. After a 44-year relationship, almost 41 of it married. 3 of it with cancer. 1 of it severe. We knew what was coming; but existence was still totally upended. How do you endure passing of the Center of your Universe, every ounce as involved in the running of our business as I was, and still manage to carry on with a semblance of life?

Not easily. Not naturally. Things that once seemed important are trivial now. Since April I have been learning how to grieve, and I’m a very slow learner. It's still mostly raw. She remains omnipresent. Stark realities of physical absence, especially now in Mid-Winter—in High Holiday Season as I write this--are unyielding and merciless. Excruciating.

But business goes on. Despite my personal situation, we've had a decent year. We have a great crew. And good customers. I can't thank them enough. Gratitude sometimes gets me through the day.

We should finish 2024 with a new record in sales. Well done, crew. I'm proud to be your colleague.

We enter 2025 with much uncertainty but determined to make our way with new services and a reinvigorated attitude, come what may. The prospects are scary. Suddenly the economy is complicated by the whims of one man, who appears to have not paid attention on the days of his college economics lectures. I hope he gains wisdom, but not at peoples' expense. Tall order.

I pray that the world is stable, but I think that is more than one can be allowed to wish for. How about good health for all? Enough with bad health.

I hope people sideline their differences, stop casting aspersions against those they barely know, and instead try talking in person. Knowing people rather than abstract caricatures bridges gaps, helps understanding, promotes compromise and the common good, and gets things done. Messily, but finally. That's how our system is supposed to work. E pluribus unum.

As I've urged in previous years, expand your mind, and risk reading something subversive. Expose yourself to those who don’t think like you. They may know something you don't. On that score I’m reading a book called "What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley," by Adrian Daub. Best get acquainted with Peter Thiel and his type. We'll be hearing much from them in the coming four years.

Learn a new subject, preferably one unrelated to your line of work. It adds depth. I'm starting a book on astrophysics. I’ve always been fascinated by black holes and gravitational waves. Now I'm going to dive deeper, mercifully distanced from the intellectual bedrock of Silicon Valley.

As a wise person once said, "Be kind to others, for they are fighting a great battle." Make friends; you’ll need them down the line. Peace to all, if possible. Prosperity certainly, but not at the expense of others. Don't score your riches solely in monetary or status terms. Look around and love those you’re with while you have them. The day is fleeting. Keep dreaming and retaining wonder and delight about what comes next. Embrace surprise.

A beneficent 2025 to all who read this.

Know that an angel, newly appointed, is watching over us all.