Jeremiah Ajayi
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is a business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist from the United States.
He is best known for co-founding Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), of which he is the chairman, CEO, and controlling shareholder.
Born May 14, 1984, Zuckerberg attended Harvard University, where he co-founded Facebook with Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes in February 2004. Initially launched on a few college campuses, the site quickly grew and eventually expanded beyond colleges, reaching one billion users by 2012. In May 2012, Zuckerberg took the company public with a majority stake. He became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire in 2007, at the age of 23.
Zuckerberg’s net worth was $62.7 billion as of August 18, 2022, according to Forbes.
Since 2008, Time magazine has named Zuckerberg one of the world’s 100 most influential people as part of its Person of the Year award, which he received in 2010.
Zuckerberg was ranked tenth on Forbes’ list of The World’s Most Powerful People in December 2016.
Just a few years ago, Facebook’s situation was looking bleak. The company’s IPO was a flop, and its mobile strategy appeared to be in total chaos. Surprisingly, there was even talk that Mark Zuckerberg was not cut out to be CEO. Of course, all of this proved to be just another important stepping stone in Facebook’s rapid rise. After all, the company has a market cap of more than $300 billion, making it one of the most valuable in the world.
Here are 5 lessons to learn from Mark as an Entrepreneur;
- ‘Move quickly and break things.’
“These five simple words perfectly embody the one-of-a-kind philosophy that enabled Facebook to achieve unprecedented levels of innovation and velocity at the same time.” While most businesses fight to maintain the current status quo that was the foundation of their initial success, Zuckerberg believes that “breaking things” is essential to ongoing transformation. When it became clear that a shift to mobile was necessary for Facebook’s future, this worked brilliantly.” - ‘Separate business and friendship.
“Mr. Zuckerberg’s ability to separate business and friendship is a difficult lesson that every founder can learn from him. When Zuckerberg felt his co-founders were no longer adding value to Facebook, he took the initiative to quickly fire them. Of course, many founding CEOs prioritized their friendships over the needs of the business. However, what makes a team so effective in the early stages , agility and accountability is precisely what can break down as the business grows in size. When founding members become micromanagers, they undermine the rest of the team and can prevent a company from progressing. This was averted by Zuckerberg and Facebook.” - ‘Think big, start small,’
“Zuck launched Facebook with a very specific and easily accessible target market in mind: college students. Following the ‘Think big, start small’ philosophy, he then expanded beyond his early adopters and opened it up widely once he had achieved scale. This was a controversial move that was obviously critical in making Facebook the ubiquitous platform it is today. Gain traction with a small group of early adopters before expanding.”
- ‘Stay Connected to the product.
“No matter your role, whether you’re CEO, CMO, or a summer intern, it’s critical to deeply understand the product. This connection to the product ensures everyone is accountable for delivering excellence, and it also keeps you in touch with what your customers need.”
- ‘The trick isn’t to add things; it’s to take them away.’
The suggested social networking platform “HouseSYSTEM” was Facebook’s first competitor at Harvard. The founder, Aaron Greenspan, wanted to collaborate with Zuckerberg. Greenspan quotes Zuckerberg as saying, “It’s too useful, it just does too much stuff.” When developing a product, it is critical to include only the features required for a single, well-defined user story. Making the product into an airplane cockpit with every action possible is distracting at best and will kill your product at worst.”
