1. He was a programming prodigy
Mark's father hired a software developer called David Newman, to teach him how to code when he was only in 6th grade. In an interview with the New Yorker, Newman said that it was tough to stay ahead of Mark because of how quick he learns, and how advanced his thinking was, most of the time. The young Zuckerberg walked the halls of Harvard in 2002 to study psychology and computer science, and was also a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi and Kirkland House. Zuckerberg had already achieved a reputation of being a 'programming prodigy' in his early days at Harvard, and in his sophomore year, he wrote the programs CourseMatch, which helped students formed study groups, and Facemash, which was some sort of an entertainment site where students ranked two persons, say if one college girl is hotter than the other.
2. He was a really smart kid
Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984 in White Plains, New York to his dentist father Edward Zuckerberg, and psychiatrist mother Karen. The young Zuckerberg initially went to Ardsley High School, where he excelled in all of his classes, then moved to Phillips Exeter Academy, a private school, where he constantly won prizes and awards in mathematics, astronomy, physics and classical studies. In one summer camp, Mark had also attended the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth where academically-advanced children were identified through an above-grade-level testing program to give them more challenging learning opportunities in the future. Surprisingly, the young tech entrepreneur had also become the captain of the fencing team in his college years, and was able to write and speak four (4) other languages, namely French, Hebrew, Latin and ancient Greek.
3. He created many side projects
When Mark was still in high school, he co-created an app called Synapse Media Player, which was basically an MP3 player that kept track of the user's favourite songs and made playlists based on their selections. Synapse Media was basically an earlier version of the now $67 billion dollar worth company Spotify. When Mark was only 12 years old, he also created an instant messaging program which he called ZuckNet, which connected computers from their home and from his dentist father's clinic, so his father could be informed by his clerks how many patients were coming in. ZuckNet has been considered by many as the primitive version of AOL's Instant Messenger which came out the following year.
4. He had a vision
Mark Zuckerberg had a vision of creating an online directory, primarily focused on students in universities. Basically, the idea was that if you wanted to search somebody, you would just go to Facebook.com, type that person's name, then find out all the information that you need. In his first CNBC interview in 2004, the young Zuckerberg said that he created Facebook mainly because Harvard didn't have any sort of online directory for students, and he only wanted to fill that gap. As the site went from 500 users to thousands in just a matter of weeks, it became clear to Mark to expand to other colleges and universities from other states, and eventually to the world.
5. He worked an insane number of hours
Despite Facebook's success throughout the years, Mark Zuckerberg still actively spends 50 to 60 hours a week in his office at Menlo Park, California. In an interview in 2017, Mark said that if people included all the time he's been focused at their mission since the beginning, he said he's already spent his entire life on Facebook. In the foundation years of the company, Mark had a very small team working the servers of Facebook and there was a lot of hours to put in, especially for him as he was a bit of an OC in making sure everything was working fine and optimised. In one of the scenes from the movie The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg who plays Zuckerberg, can be seen wearing a headphone while coding for hours, to which his friends describe as being 'wired in', which basically meant he was fully focused on the programming stuff, ignoring everything that was happening in the real world.
6. He wasn't intimidated by people
Shortly after launching Facebook from his dorm room in 2004, the young Zuckerberg was confronted by Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, and accused him of intentionally misleading them into believing that he was going to help them build their own social network which would be called the Harvard Connection. The three went to complain to the Crimson, which was Harvard's daily student newspaper, which lead to an investigation and lawsuit against Mark. The young Zuckerberg wasn't intimidated by all of this and instead focused on Facebook's expansion to other universities with the help of his small team comprised of Eduardo Saverin (CFO), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Andrew McCollum (graphic artist) and Chris Hughes (spokesperson). The lawsuit from the Crimson eventually got settled and vanished into thin air, as Facebook became bigger and bigger, and Mark never met or spoke with those three people ever again after moving to Silicon Valley in California.
7. He connected himself with the right people
Mark Zuckerberg began to expand to other schools like Columbia University, New York University, Stanford, Yale and many others with the help of his roommate Dustin Moskovitz. Zuckerberg and Moskovitz eventually moved to Palo Alto, California in Silicon Valley where they met angel investor Peter Thiel, who invested $500,000 in the company. In 2009, the Facebook CEO sought the advice of Netscape CFO Peter Currie about financing strategies for the company, that is not only limited to advertising. Back in 2004, Mark had also been getting informal advices from another entrepreneur called Sean Parker, who became Facebook's first company president when they became incorporated.
8. He was always learning
In an interview, Mark said that he's always aimed to finish one book every two weeks, despite how busy he was. Since his college years, the young Zuckerberg had also made it a habit for him to take on yearly challenges that would allow him to deep dive into a certain topic or expertise. From learning Mandarin Chinese, to building a personal AI for his home, Mark had always used these mile markers to keep him focused and inspired. Zuckerberg said that he wasn't really a high-lever coder in the beginning, and that he only learned how to code C++ from a 'For Dummies' book, which he read and finished in two weeks.
9. He was always open to criticism
Mark Zuckerberg had always mandated his employees to openly correct him anytime and anywhere, even in public. Facebook employees have stood up at a town hall and disagreed with him numerous times, a ritual of the company that he's been really proud of. In the early days of Facebook, despite being the founder, Mark didn't wear any flashy suit and drove in an expensive car coming to work at 11 in the morning. Instead, he worked hard in the ranks of his programmers wearing the same grey shirt and a hoodie for years, wired in to coding for ridiculous numbers of hours. Mark once said that most of the time he could be too focused at the technical stuff, so he really needs people to point out any mistakes that he couldn't see.
10. He was frugal
Today, although Mark Zuckerberg now lives in a massive estate, in a home that is powered by an AI butler with a Morgan Freeman voice, the billionaire said that he found all his previous apartments from Craigslist. With a $40.7 billion dollar net worth, instead of driving a $407,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead, the Facebook CEO drives a $30,000 black Acura TSX instead. In the early days of Facebook, Zuckerberg wore the same outfit everyday even in meetings - a grey t-shirt, jeans and a hoodie. According to Mark, it only takes $200 per year to update his wardrobe, whereas the average American family spends $1,700 per year on clothing.
Comments