The Charlatan talked to Matt Roloff, star of the TLC show Little People, Big World, before his keynote speech at Carleton’s fall orientation Sept. 1.
The Charlatan (TC): Do you often speak to university students? How about freshmen?
Matt Roloff (MR): I speak to universities and campuses around the country and in Canada. I haven’t been to Canada in a couple years, but I’m always excited to come up here—it’s a journey across the country, from coast to coast, but I’m excited about it. I can’t remember a time when I spoke strictly to freshmen, first-year students, so it will be interesting. I know it will be rah-rah, very happy, not having started their studies yet, but getting acclimated to the school. They’ll be having a fun week.
TC: What will you be talking about today?
MR: I speak a lot about resilience and and bullying and entrepreneurship and things like that. This time, I’m just going to tell some stories. I’m not even sure if people watch our show up here, so I’m interested to see.
TC: What are some things you try to impart when you speak to large groups?
MR: Today what I’m going to try and impart is basically some simple steps that would help someone lead an extraordinary life. If you want to find, you know, what is your life and what is your legacy, starting with your earliest thoughts that you go through and freshman in college or starting your working career, and then to your legacy, to really put some steps to it that can remind you how to leave a legacy you can be proud of. I‘m going to talk about resiliency a bit, talk about diversity, about creativity and work ethic. I’m going to tell some stories from my life that people don’t know from the television show that may help people connect the dots a little—from where I started as a child with the tough childhood I had in the hospital, to the success that I’ve been able to see, my journey—all in a 30- or 40- minute talk.
TC: How has your life experience made you a better person and speaker?
MR: There is no doubt that my experience and my journey has been interesting and unique, but [it’s] really founded on positive attitude and resilience, and finding the joyful angle to everything that happens. Bad things happen to good people sometimes, when things don’t go the way you want and you don’t get the grades you want, you don’t make the sports team or you’re not born with the body you want, but you can look at it in a positive way.
TC: Did you go to college and do a frosh week?
MR: I did not—I went straight from high school into the working world. Back in the day, when I graduated from high school in 1980 they had trade school, so I went to trade school for a year and went into computer programming. It’s one of my big regrets in life, that I didn’t go to college and wasn’t able to join the military—that was another, I would have liked to be able to do one of those two things. But that wasn’t the path set out for me, and I look back now and even though I missed those experiences, especially when I speak on-campus, I get to sort of live vicariously through some of the students I have talked to.
TC: Can you talk a bit about your own career? How did you end up here?
MR: I was fortunate to have a very successful software career, got to travel the world selling software and teaching people about programs. That afforded me the ability to start Roloff Farms and build the ultimate playground for my kids, and the rest is history I suppose!
TC: Do you have a favourite moment from the TV show?
MR: I do, yeah, there’s one moment that sticks out. It was when Jeremy and Zachary, my two twin boys, were building a structure and Jeremy almost ran Zachary over with the tractor and they were kind of bickering at each other, so I had a chance to sit down with them. And the camera happened to be there but it was almost as if it wasn’t there, and I just talked with the boys and gave them some fatherly advice about getting along and kind of melted away their frustrations with each other in that moment. I looked back on that moment and it sticks with me. I don’t even remember what episode it was in, but it was a moment. Of course, there’s plenty of moments when you’re on TV and you look back and wish you had done things differently, but every once in a while you look and get to see that maybe, “I handled that situation well.” Everyone should turn a camera on themselves and watch themselves—they will learn and grow from that experience. It’s been a fascinating journey for me.
TC: What was having a camera follow you in your daily life like?
MR: It’s had its ups and downs for sure. There were days where it was wonderful and great—there were days where it was gruelling and difficult. We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to educate people about dwarfism and to normalize people that look different. We’re very proud of the fact that there are a whole slew of other little people shows that have followed, so society is learning as a whole . . . that little people are just an example of one class of different person who noticeably looks different, but they are just normal people. In the first years of our show, it was more overt that we were teaching people. Now what we do is live our life and let the camera follow. We hear anecdotally from little people and others that look different . . . that the show Little People, Big World has helped them. That people are more accepting, there is not as much pointing . . . We can’t take credit for all of that, but we are a small piece. Being able to come to campuses and talk to young people about accepting and beyond the bully stage—hopefully most folks as they go into higher education have outgrown that, but it goes beyond bullying and goes into help find someone who looks or thinks differently and pulling them into your world and accept them and connect.
TC: If you had to give one piece of advice who did stand out and look different, what would it be?
MR: A piece of advice would be: don’t blame everyone else. Take out own part of the ownership. Get out there, throw your shoulders back, be proud of who you are and what you look like. Hold your head high and just put yourself out there. Basically, craft your destiny.
TC: Is there a piece of advice you’d give to first-year students?
MR: Don’t mess it up! Obviously there is the whole thing about the grades, but I think if there is one thing I would tell frosh to do is to reach out to people. There’s the popular crowd and a clique, but if they go to a party or an event and they see someone, try to practice the notion of walking up to someone who is shy or alone and maybe doesn’t have any friends, reach out to that person and touch that person in some way. You never know you might make a friend. If you learn to do that when you go to a party or you go to a sporting event and you see someone who doesn’t look like they are connecting, introduce yourself, network. Because you never know what careers people will go on to, when you’ll be sitting across the desk in an interview, and it might come in handy.
TC: What are you hoping people take away from your talk today?
MR: I hope they remember it, and I hope that as they run into various situations and encounters and endeavors—whether it is starting a business or going to work for somebody, that they will remember some of the small things. That they’ll look at me and see, you know I can barely walk, I have a hard time putting my socks on in the morning, as testimony from the television show I still get out there and build things and try to make something happen every day. There are no excuses for people. Put your positive attitude on and craft your life. You only have one shot at it.
