Mark Zuckerberg. The name itself is synonymous with young entrepreneurship. He took a familiar route of the greats: smart enough to get into a prestigious school (Harvard); recognized by those who knew him as capable, creative, and committed; and he dropped out of college to found a multibillion dollar company. Some speak of him with reverence, others with envy, but none can deny that Mark Zuckerberg changed the world we live in. Social media is a hot topic, with enough moral issues for a study of the French Revolution, yet it’s enlightening to think of how social media happened before thinking about what it’s done.
In creating Facebook, Zuckerberg either stole it, built it using spare parts from other ideas, or came up with it along with others, depending on who you ask. What’s undisputed is that, with no patent to aid him, Mark Zuckerberg created a website with scale and function that the world had not seen before. I believe that two distinct traits led to his success.
He Thought BIG
Even if he completely ripped the concept off of 3 friends, Facebook would not and could not have happened without the Zuck’s massive magnification of the concept. An idea was floating about a network for students at the university. Zuckerberg saw Harvard as nothing but a beta test pool, a trampoline off of which to jump. An idea for 7,000 students became an idea for 7 billion people because Mark Zuckerberg refused to be contained to what’s right in front of him. When ideas are left alone, opportunities are lost.
He Acted
10 years after Facebook was launched, Zuckerberg recounted his first thought of a global social network. Unsurprisingly, it was in the midst of a casual conversation about the college social network. How many great innovations have been thought of in passing, but thrown to wind? Zuckerberg represents the proactive-ness that entrepreneurs should have. It’s often better to juggle 2 great ideas and a bad idea than to pick one early on, and pray it’s the right one.
In Zuckerberg, we find our generation’s Jobs. Web interaction has been wholly changed by encompassing social media networks, and thus, so have bodily interactions. For better or worse, Zuckerberg is proof that often, the biggest innovation comes through preexisting ideas, given new proportions.
Zuckerberg is not necessarily the smartest or the most savvy entrepreneur, but he was ready and willing to take the risk when his friends were not. He also was very good at adapting and learning what needed to be learned to make his idea a success.
The concept we discussed in class about ideas being a collection of little things coming together through the adjacent possible and slow hunches is very applicable here. Intellectual property laws are so finicky, I constantly hope we can come up with a better system somehow. It continues to seem that those who make the most impact (Jobs, Zuckerberg) are a mixed bag when it comes to their character and behavior.
I really enjoy your blog post style! I haven’t always been a fan of ‘Zucks’ business style, but how can you not respect a man who has made as much money as him.