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Founders at Work.pdf

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416 <strong>Founders</strong> <strong>at</strong> <strong>Work</strong><br />

Livingston: Wh<strong>at</strong>’s your best quality?<br />

Trott: Can you even say wh<strong>at</strong> your best quality is without sounding . . . I guess<br />

I’m not humble. I really care about people. I think th<strong>at</strong>’s one of the reasons I<br />

tend to be flippant <strong>at</strong> work or critical of people and make fun of them in a<br />

joking way. It’s th<strong>at</strong> I care about everybody. And I don’t want to be th<strong>at</strong> sensitive<br />

person, so if I have a choice of complimenting a person or making a joke, I’ll<br />

make a joke. I’m like th<strong>at</strong> dad th<strong>at</strong> won’t hug. It’s really p<strong>at</strong>hetic.<br />

Livingston: How did it feel to get famous so quickly?<br />

Trott: It’s weird because—and I’m not comparing myself to a celebrity—when<br />

people want to be celebrities or actors and they say th<strong>at</strong> “this is the thing I want<br />

most,” then they get to th<strong>at</strong> point and they realize, “I feel the same way.” I feel<br />

the same way th<strong>at</strong> I really did 4 years ago. I have more confidence now, which<br />

is a really important thing, and I’m happier. I can actually say I’m happier,<br />

which I think the people who get famous can’t say.<br />

I’m not famous in the sense th<strong>at</strong> anybody outside of weblogging will know<br />

who I am, but I’m still famous to the point where I don’t feel comfortable just<br />

writing about anything online anymore, because people will dissect it. Th<strong>at</strong>’s<br />

hard. But it’s been good, too, because I think we’ve gotten closer to wh<strong>at</strong> people<br />

really want. You can’t have someone leading a company who is so concerned<br />

about the whole world knowing wh<strong>at</strong> they’re doing and caring about being<br />

famous, because th<strong>at</strong>’s not how most people are.<br />

It’s been better th<strong>at</strong> I’ve become more inward, because I think th<strong>at</strong> th<strong>at</strong>’s<br />

how people function. If I cared most about getting the most number of readers<br />

for my blog, th<strong>at</strong>’s not going to scale, because most people aren’t th<strong>at</strong> way.<br />

I went from th<strong>at</strong> in 2002—th<strong>at</strong> was probably the height of the popularity of my<br />

blog—to where I am now, and it’s just like, “I like my LiveJournal because<br />

20 people read it.” And figuring out how to make th<strong>at</strong> experience better is really<br />

important.<br />

Livingston: How do you handle people who criticize you?<br />

Trott: There are a lot of people, especially competition, who really criticize the<br />

company for no reason. They personally <strong>at</strong>tack us. They say we’re stupid. It’s<br />

really mean. Th<strong>at</strong> stuff bothers me. Not as much anymore, because you have to<br />

realize th<strong>at</strong> people don’t do this sort of stuff unless they’re really . . . It’s like<br />

when your mom tells you th<strong>at</strong> the reason a girl is picking on you in school is<br />

probably because she’s depressed. You have to understand they’re coming from<br />

a place where they feel like they have to do it. We’ve never done things like<br />

th<strong>at</strong>. Sometimes I wish these people would get told off. But we’re successful<br />

and th<strong>at</strong>’s one of the reasons why we get picked on. You don’t pick on the<br />

underdog.<br />

But it’s hard, and th<strong>at</strong>’s why I’d recommend doing something like the<br />

LiveJournal for some friends th<strong>at</strong> know you in real life, because it’s not fun to<br />

be torn apart or written about. I got a lot of th<strong>at</strong> and th<strong>at</strong>’s kind of why I stopped<br />

blogging—because people were critical of me.

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