It's humbling, in the sense that you don't really know how tall the mountain is until you get to the top and look around. When you become CEO of a company as bi

It's humbling, in the sense that you don't really know how tall the mountain is until you get to the top and look around. When you become CEO of a company as big as Microsoft, or so I'd imagine, you get a true sense of just how vast and all-encompassing your responsibilities have become. The task is much bigger than you are. That said, I'm sure at least 50% of the usage choice in his email was rhetorical gesture. It's become commonplace for people receiving awards, honors, or offices to describe themselves as "humbled." Somewhere in the semi-distant past, someone determined that this was a good PR move.