Mar. 4th, 2007 by Nate Whitehill
Wordpress is one of the most widely used pieces of blogging software on the Net. We use Wordpress everyday to spread our ideas and connect with people all around the world, but how many of you actually know who created Wordpress?
Type “Matt” into Google and you have your answer. Matt Mullenweg is the #1 most important Matt in the world, according to Google, as well as the founding developer of Wordpress. The kicker is that he is only 23 and he released Wordpress 2 years ago, when he was 21. Matt was born in Houston, Texas and moved to San Francisco in 2005 to work for CNET Networks.
After quitting his job at CNET in late 2005, he has devoted the majority of his time to developing a number of open source projects and is now a frequent speaker at conferences. In late 2005, he founded Automattic, the business behind Wordpress and the spam-catching software we all love, Akismet.
In November of 2005, Wordpress stopped being invite only and opened up to the world.
Matt is also the guy behind Ping-O-Matic, the software that pings search engines when a user publishes a new blog post. This has been instrumental in getting all of our blogs indexed by the search engines. It is great too because Google search results have a special love for blogs that the other big name search engines do not appear to match. Ping-O-Matic has helped our blogs reach a much larger audience, thanks to Matt’s work.
I read an interview Matt did with Digital Web Magazine and they asked him why he chose to make Wordpress and open source, GPL-license as opposed to a licensed plan. His response was:
If you do anything for the money you end up selling out. Do what you love, what you can’t not do, and the money will follow.
I think the WordPress value to the community as a GPL extension of what came before is a million times more valuable than whatever pittance I would have gotten from doing a proprietary thing. The benefits I’ve gotten personally from focusing on what I love have been numerous, and go beyond the purely monetary.
Matt has the attitude of a true winner. He says, “do what you love, what you can’t not do, and the money will follow.” He loves being able to empower other bloggers. I think that is the best advice anyone has ever given about success - do what you love, the money will follow. I have heard that from my dad way too many times count, but the fact is, it’s true. Working is less painful when you enjoy what you are doing, and as you enjoy it, you want to do more of it. I work 10-12 hour days, but it’s what I like doing, so it doesn’t feel like work.
I really get a kick out of hearing about young entrepreneurs, especially those in their early twenties. It is amazing the amount of young entrepreneurs who are changing the way we use the web.
The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is also 23. Makes you think…what were you doing in your early twenties? Probably not changing the web.
Update - Matt Mullenweg personally thanked me for writing this article. The real thanks goes to Matt for the amazing work he has put into Wordpress.
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March 4th, 2007 at 5:51 am
Sweet!
March 4th, 2007 at 9:09 am
That’s very true Nate. I agree with you on the quote. It’s hard to make money when you don’t love doing what you’re doing.
March 4th, 2007 at 9:10 am
And I don’t like how MBL only allows 1 avatar per URL… so Jane’s photo always pops up when I leave comments. I’m gonna have to figure out a way around that.
March 4th, 2007 at 10:25 am
I guess at 23 I’m here commenting on your blog!
24 next week. :p
March 6th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Happy Birthday, Ryan! Yes, the commenting on my blog is appreciate, no matter what your age!
March 4th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Truly inspiring, Doing what you love and you will succeed, Props to him,
March 4th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Great piece with an inspiring message!
(P.S. At 23 I was in a doctoral program in clinical psychology.)
March 6th, 2007 at 1:09 am
Hey Mark, judging by your web site, it looks like you have done quite well for yourself! Congratulations!
March 4th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Geez, 21 years old!!!! That’s insane.
Hey, why does my picture show when john leaves a comment??? That’s strange.
March 4th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Are you guys using the same computer? The avatar is stored via a cookie, so if you log out of MBL and have John log in when he leaves a comment, that should fix the problem.
March 5th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Very nice article !!
March 5th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Great quotes. At 23 I was teaching AP English–and challenging my students with the fact that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she was only 18. Newton formulated the law of gravity at the age of 25. Matt is another good reminder that we shouldn’t sell ourselves short because of our age.
On the other hand, we shouldn’t think we’re too old to change the world! Goethe wrote Faust at 80. Verdi wrote Ave Maria at 85…
March 6th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Hey Mark, thanks for the comment. You were certainly doing some very interesting things at age 23, as well. You are so right - no one should ever sell themselves short whether it be age, gender, race, etc. We all have the power to create our own destinies! Good luck to you!
March 5th, 2007 at 10:35 am
While this Matt fellow is pretty amazing for creating Wordpress, the current state of the software is crappy. Bloated and hacked.
19,000 lines of PHP: 19389
In comparison, Mephisto: 8891 (3728 is actual code, the rest is testing code)
Typo: 9338 (3898 of which is tests)
http://wordpress.org/development/2007/03/upgrade-212/
Maybe if they cut it down to a manageable amount of code, they could actually screen their codebase before releasing a hacked version.
March 5th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Their code was hacked on their servers after it was released. The version itself was not flawed with the hack.
Let the rest of the world vote on what blogware they like…so far that seems to be Wordpress. Let Hank stay at home alone in his Mother’s basement and count lines of code, which is irrelevant.
March 5th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Wordpress rocks, it’s great that Matt in numero uno in google, he deserves it
March 5th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Well, it time I suppose it will get better. Software development always goes that way. After initial release you are SUPPOSED to go back through and see what you can improve upon.
Same theory with web design. Go back through and figure out what you need to speed up your page while maintaining current design.
March 5th, 2007 at 10:43 am
[…] Changing the Web at 21: “Wordpress is one of the most widely used pieces of blogging software on the Net [it powers […]
March 5th, 2007 at 10:45 am
I’m sorry, but Wordpress, and “blogging” are rather uninteresting. The fact that less than 3% of the population can or has tried to do something large doesn’t make it great. I mean, I can’t ride a unicycle across a highwire while balancing little people on my shoulders, but it’s not something very useful or desireable either. *shrug*
Oh, and then there are all of the Wordpress “Errors Connecting to Database. . .”
March 5th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Those “Errors connecting to database” are usually issues with shared hosting and have nothing to do with Wordpress itself. Any DB intensive app (i.e. a site with lots of hits) on a crappy shared host is subject to the same thing. I’m surprised you found your way on to the Internet…
March 5th, 2007 at 10:47 am
and i havent done anything substantial in my life till now…im 24
March 5th, 2007 at 10:50 am
I’m just about to turn 23 and possibly looking for VC for a new branch of a company I started at 18
Any takers?
March 5th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Cool, but they got one part wrong. I’m the most important Matt in the world.
March 5th, 2007 at 11:13 am
It’s not about the money, it’s about the freedom. Great work man, you’re an inspiration!
March 5th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Great to see folks such as Nate doing what he loves. There’s nothing better than creating your own destiny.
Anyway, I got started doing some cool things well before my 20s — but I wasn’t “changing the web”. Some things I’m grateful for are opportunities to correspond with the likes of Bill Gates and other CEOs. I’ve always been a learner, and I’ve been fortunate to learn from some great people.
March 6th, 2007 at 1:06 am
Hey Ronald, thanks for the comment. You are right - it is such an incredible feeling to feel like I am creating my own destiny. That is awesome that you have corresponded with some big name CEO’s in the tech world. Learning from greatness inspires greatness!
March 5th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I donated after I fell in love with Wordpress and he actaully sent me an email saying thank you. That’s pretty cool considering I only sent $50.
March 5th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Very inspiring quotes in this post. I feel I have the same mentality toward programming. I have never heard of Matt before in my life until reading this. But I certainly know of what WordPress is.
I am a fellow developer who just turned 25 on Saturday Night!
I dont agree with some people knocking down the software (Hank). Even though the code might be too many lines, or may be hacked all to hell, he still made it work and obviously it works well enough to be widely adopted. Programming is not at all about limiting the lines of code. Some people program more efficiently by breaking it apart in a manner that seems clean and logical to them.
Please feel free to drop by my web app at memorycrawler.com. I love programming it every night and will maintain focusing on the application rather than making money.
March 6th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Happy Birthday to you, Dave! I also agree with you that there are different ways to determine a piece of software’s success. The fact that Wordpress has been so widely adopted is clearly because it has so much value and it performs correctly most of the time. Granted, no software is perfect, but Wordpress is certainly better than any other weblog solution right now, and I think that the fact that most A-list bloggers use it is a clear indication.
March 5th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
[…] I had no idea that Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress (the blogging software that everyone uses), is only 23 years old. I also thought that he was British for some reason. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, is also only 23, but I knew that. (via Nate Whitehill) […]
March 5th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
[…] Oh, today was pretty exciting - my last post almost made it to the front page of Digg before it was buried. It beat my previous record of 16 diggs with 41 altogether so far. Thanks to everyone who voted! Also congratulations to Nate for making it to the front page with his article on Matt Mullenweg. […]
March 5th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
[…] read more | digg story […]
March 5th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
At age 21 I was still in high-school
March 5th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
I still have 4 years to work on that
Allen.H
March 6th, 2007 at 12:57 am
Allen, by the time you are 21, I am afraid of what you’ll be up to! How many businesses will you own? I am sure, a ton!
March 5th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Way way back in the day, by the time a man or woman was 21 or 23 he or she had lived most their life already and did many of the major accomplishments they would get to do. Today, many 21 year olds, due to the nature of society are still getting their feet wet in the ‘real world’ and have no idea what they are capable of, much less reach those aspirations. Kudos to those who realize what they can do and go forth and do it. Some people never do. At 21 or 61.
March 5th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
I agree that when you look too much at age it can become limiting and ultimately lead you nowhere. You have to try to be inspired by the fact that if he can do it at 21 then there’s no barrier to entry for you. At 32 I feel like I’m just getting started.
March 6th, 2007 at 1:01 am
Frank, I totally agree. Any observation about another can ultimately either be inspiring or intimidating, and the difference simply comes down to a person’s attitude. Not to mention, their desire for success wil ultimately be one of constant inspiration or none at all.
March 5th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
[…] Changing the web at (age). Kinda makes me think. Filed under: Elsewhere | […]
March 5th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
. . .my point still stands. Wordpress isn’t impressive. Not to mention, the entire thing could be written in RoR in a matter of minutes (a bit of hyperbole there). Blogging is uninteresting and the entire “advent” of it while empowering for others that know no better, is still pretty much, eh. . .ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz
March 5th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I’m on my way to changing the web. I still have another 7 or so years till I’m 21.
March 6th, 2007 at 1:10 am
Time is on your side, my friend. Good luck to you! Work hard and stay hungry!
March 5th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Great Post Nate . . . . I never really knew much about how wordpress began and now i know . .
March 6th, 2007 at 12:58 am
I was very surprised to learn that Matt was so young, but at the same time, it almost made sense. I mean, look at what young people are doing on the Net these days… It really is incredible. The successful entrepreneur is getting younger and younger.
March 6th, 2007 at 12:18 am
[…] Mullenweg on designing open source software: If you do anything for the money you end up selling out. Do what you love, what you can’t not […]