I had such a good time meeting and listening to Craig Newmark speak last night.  This event was brought to SF by Zocalo Public Square Lecture Series.  I became a fan of Craig, when I saw a video of him on youTube and he was asked why he didn’t sell craigslist.  His response was “I didn’t need that much money…”  I stopped listening after that because I was too busy picking my jaw off the ground.  I was determined to meet this man.

This is what I found out…

He is quirky, funny, humble, genuine, and thorough.  His business title is “Customer Service” and he truly lives up to that title.  His email address is craig@craigslist.com.  Everyday he checks and responds to emails (complaints) from millions of his users.  During the event, I twittered a comment about him “@craignewmark is funny, charming, and humble.”  And true to his words, the next morning I got a response back from him “@aMAIzing Hey, thanks, that’s way too kind!”

The most memorable statement that he kept repeating for everything that he has accomplished up to this point was “It’s not for moral or altruistic reason, I just did what feels good and makes sense.”  Craig is not loud, excited, or chest thumping.  He is this humble, understated man who simply says “let’s do something about it” in every situation that he is in.

Finally, about the money thing…  a woman asked him “how did you avoid the temptation of selling out?” He said “What’s the point in accummulating more money?”  His stand around money, impresses me to no end.

So of course what does one do when one meets one’s hero??? One runs down to the reception area, pushes everyone out of the way, and gets a picture with the hero, of course!!!  To my defense, Craig has a picture of himself with Obama as his profile pic for his Twitter account.  I think he actually smiled in that picture.

Don’t I look happy in this picture???