Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2010, when The Social Network had just been released. The description of Zuckerberg as “the richest young person in the world” and the present-tense descriptions refer to 2010.
As we all know, the film about Facebook’s early days, The Social Network, has now been released, and its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, doesn’t come off very well. Some say the film clearly reflects Mark’s personality and is based purely on reality. Others say it’s 30% reality. Either way, the truth will never be known, since everyone will tell their own truth or their own lie.
To begin with, there has been an attempt to exaggerate the character of Mark Zuckerberg, to the point of portraying him as antisocial and a sex maniac, sickly obsessed with getting rich at any cost, no matter whom he has to step on. It’s said that he has solved everything by writing checks, and he is also portrayed as envious.
But the only truth and reality is that today Mark Zuckerberg is the richest young person in the world.
1. Mark was a sex maniac: An exaggeration of what any teenager goes through. We’re talking about someone between 18 and 22 years old; nobody is a sex maniac for being curious about sex. In fact, any young person thinks about sex often. Not doing so would be what’s abnormal.
2. Mark was antisocial: If we look at pictures of Zuckerberg, we’re not talking about the typical example of a sexy or attractive person, so he may have found it hard to relate to others. Not because he didn’t want to, but because others made it difficult for him to get into their exclusive circles.
Besides, if a website takes time to build, a social network as successful as this one isn’t built overnight either, but through hours of solitude in the company of your computer.
3. Greedy and ambitious: As Wall Street (1987) put it, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” You have to be ambitious in this world to get what you’re after. Anything that isn’t ambition is called settling.
4. He stole the idea for Facebook: Fine. You should know that markets don’t pay for ideas, but for the results of carrying an idea through. As a child, my grandfather dreamed of travelling to the moon, but NASA got there first, and that didn’t make him sue the United States for stealing his idea. Another curious fact is that the first lawsuit against Facebook was filed when the social network already had 100 million users. Why not file it earlier? It’s easy to claim success once it has been achieved.
5. He solves everything by writing checks: Guilty? Mark has already paid around 97 million dollars to silence people who claim to be the creators of Facebook. I don’t know which is worse: paying to close a court case, or taking the money and opening another case in search of another check.
6. Mark is envious: No. Mark is a multimillionaire, and envy is what he has stirred up in all those who are now trying to bring him down. But as the saying goes: to be successful you need lots of friends, but to be very successful you have to make lots of enemies.
Remember: The road to success is hard. Along the way you’ll have company when there are profits and be alone when there are difficulties, but once you get there, everyone will try to profit from your work. At that point there’s only one message you can send: “Before you criticize me, try to outdo me.”
See also: Business ideas you can start with less than 1,000 euros
We congratulate Mark Zuckerberg on his success in the social networking business.
Featured image: Robert Scoble from Half Moon Bay, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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