I got a chance to sit down and interview Matt Mullenweg for The Businessmakers Radio Show last night and I have to say that if you have ever heard people say that Matt is brilliant it’s an understatement. Matt has wisdom well beyond his years and its easy to see why . During our conversation I asked Matt to expand on a quote from a previous interview where he said “If you do anything for money you end up selling out. Do what you love, what you can’t not do and the money will follow“. This is something that I have heard Guy Kawasaki say a lot but is not the opinion of the average entrepreneur. Matt’s answer was simple yet elegant. “In economics money is a trailing indicator…money is an indicator of something that was very innovative several years ago. When the herd is following something it’s already too late“. It’s refreshing to see that Matt sees success in business as more than just a mixture of financial and non-financial performance measures. A good strategy should include both outcome measures (the lag indicators that most people focus on), and the drivers of those outcome measures (the lead indicators). In a nutshell you can’t be the next Google or Youtube by copying Google or Youtube.

We also talked about his background in music, leaving CNET and some of the pitfalls of starting Automattic. The full interview will be broadcast on the show in the next week or so. I’ll be sure to announce it when it is ready.