Whether you love or hate him, you have to admit that Zuck has done a
great deal for the Internet.
At just 30 years old, he’s worth more than $24.5 billion, making him
the youngest billionaire in the world. But all of his success didn’t
come without hard work, dedication and a ton of mistakes. To celebrate
Zuck’s 30th, here are 30 lessons you can learn from Facebook’s founder:
1. Passion over everything
Zuckerberg is famous for saying,
“Find that thing
you are super passionate about. A lot of founding principles of Facebook
are that if people have access to more information and are more
connected, it will make the world better; people will have more
understanding, more empathy.
That’s the guiding principle for me. On hard days, I really just step back, and that’s the thing that keeps me going.”
2. Do the most important thing you could be doing
Zuckerberg constantly worries about
whether he’s doing the most important thing he could be doing. He says,
“the question I ask myself like almost every day is, ‘Am I doing the
most important thing I could be doing?’… Unless
I feel like I’m working on the most important problem that I can help
with, then I’m not going to feel good about how I’m spending my time.
And that’s what this company [Facebook] is.”
3. Remember, success doesn’t come first
Before Zuckerberg left Harvard, he created “Facesmash,” a site that
judged how attractive students were based on their dorm directory
photos. It didn’t really go over well with the students and faculty, but
catalyzed Zuck’s drive to try something new with Facebook.
4. Never accept the first offer
Before Zuckerberg took Facebook
public in 2012, he had many, many opportunities to sell the company. He
stuck to his guns and believed in what he was doing. This dedication
propelled him into the successful businessman he is today.
5. Be prepared to take criticism
Facebook hasn’t been free from
setbacks. There have been countless lawsuits, bans in certain countries
and other negative feedback that would have scared off even the
shrewdest of CEOs. Not Zuckerberg.
Through determination and thick skin, Zuckerberg and his team have remained strong in the face of adversity, mindful of the hazards and hopeful in their ability to maneuver around any challenge that comes their way.
6. Set personal challenges for yourself
Each year Zuck sets a personal challenge for himself. In 2010, he
learned Mandarin Chinese so he could communicate with his
then-girlfriend’s family. In 2011, he pledged only to eat animals that
he slaughtered himself. This year, he’s pledged to write a
thank you note every day.
7. If you aren’t breaking things, you aren’t moving fast enough
Before Facebook “grew up,” the company’s motto was, “Move fast and
break things.” Zuck says, “We place a really big premium on moving
quickly. One of the big theories that I had about that, was that all
technology companies, and probably all companies, just slow down dramatically as they grow.
But if we can focus at every step along the way on moving quicker …
then we’ll move as quickly as a company that only has 500 people,
because we’ve invested so much in building up the infrastructure and
tools and also the culture that tells people to take risks and try
things out.
8. Let people underestimate you
Zuckerberg said, “This is a perverse thing,
personally, but I would rather be in the cycle where people are
underestimating us. It gives us latitude to go out and make big bets
that excite and amaze people.”
9. Stay humble
Despite being the youngest billionaire, Zuck didn’t just run out and
buy fancy things. Instead, he focused on growing his company. Up until
very recently, Zuck drove a relatively inexpensive Acura and didn’t
splurge on a multi-million dollar home, he opted for a place close to
Facebook’s campus.
10. Partner with people that complement your skills
Back when Zuck used to personally
hire people at Facebook, he said, “We
look for people
who are passionate about something. In a way, it almost doesn’t matter
what you’re passionate about. What we really look for when we’re
interviewing people is what they’ve shown an initiative to do on their
own.”
11. Give back
In 2013, Zuckerberg was the top philanthropist of the year,
donating $990 million to charity.
12. Dream big
Not many believe that their college dorm side project will turn into
one of the biggest sites on the Internet. Today, Facebook has over one
billion users and is a huge part of millions of people’s lives. If you
don’t dream big, you’ll never
achieve your goals.
13. Be exclusive
Exclusivity is a good thing. When Facebook first launched in 2004, it was only available to students at
ivy league schools. This caused students at other colleges from all over the country to want to become part of this exclusive club.
By keeping the site exclusive, Zuck made sure that supply was never
larger than demand and that Facebook remained a highly sought after
prize.
14. Don’t be intimidated by competition
Back when Facebook first launched, it had a ton of competition. All of the competitors were in a
better position
than Facebook, Myspace had five million users and Friendster has just
raised $13 million. Instead of giving up, Zuck continued to work hard
and improve his platform. In the end, look who came out on top.
15. Think long term
“Zuckerberg understands the power of passion and the right attitude.
Sometimes Facebook hires people just to have the right talent on board,
and later on matches up their passions to the projects that they are
best suited to work on,” says Ekaterina Walter, author of “Think Like
Zuck.”
16. Don’t give up
During Facebook’s first summer, before investors, Zuckerberg needed
money to keep going. His parents encouraged him to not give up and
pitched in $85,000 to keep the startup afloat.
17. Make mistakes
Zuckerberg said, “So many businesses get worried about looking like
they might make a mistake, they become afraid to take any risk.
Companies are set up so that people judge each other on failure. I am
not going to get fired if we have a bad year. Or a bad five years. I
don’t have to worry about making things look good if they’re not. I can
actually set up the company to create value.”
18. Take risks
Typically, when you first start a company, you’ll meet and talk with
anyone who will listen. Zuckerberg did the opposite when he was first
raising money for Facebook. He shunned major investors, ignored phone calls and canceled meetings, just to drive up demand.
Eventually, he had 12 large
investment companies,
all fighting to fund his site. While most people would have been too
scared of missing out on an opportunity, Zuckerberg and the rest of the
Facebook team believed in their product enough to wait it out.
19. Hire people you would work for yourself
Zuckerberg has learned a lot about
picking good people to work for him. He says, “overtime what I figured
out was that the only actual way to let someone analyze whether someone
was really good was if they would work for that person …”
20. Money isn’t everything
Before Facebook began making money, Zuckerberg said, “Simply put, we
don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better
services.”
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