As a journalist, I know that sometimes people in my profession get fixated on a particular storyline — in some cases before they even know anything about the subject — and then do everything in their power to force every peg into that particular hole. And I know that sort of thing is particularly prevalent when it comes to “the hot young startup” storyline.
That’s why Matt Mullenweg’s description in his latest blog post rings such a loud bell. There seems to be an unquenchable desire for that quintessential startup myth, of the young founder discovering something in a flash of insight and then becoming a gazillionaire overnight, to the point where some magazines create stories pretty much out of whole cloth to try and get them to fit the archetype, no matter what the cost to their believability. But Matt puts his own story so much better when he says:
“I’m not a millionaire, and may never be, but there are now hundreds of people making their living using WordPress, and I expect that number to grow to tens of thousands.
That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning, not the prospect of becoming a feature on an internet behemoth’s checklist.”
Well said, Matt. I for one find that a much more powerful story.