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Biography of Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg's wife is building the biggest charity in history (5 pics) Mark Zuckerberg University

Mark Zuckerberg is an enterprising businessman whose biography is of burning interest among young people and the older generation. His name is associated with the creation of the world's largest social network Facebook, whose number of users exceeds 2 billion. A prominent polyglot and resourceful programmer, he became the best in many areas. Zuckerberg is a dollar billionaire with an official salary of $1.

Childhood and youth

Mark Eliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984 in the White Plains suburb of New York in a Jewish intelligent family of doctors. Mark's zodiac sign is Taurus. Parents Edward and Karen Zuckerberg still practice medicine today: the father is in the field of dentistry, and the mother is in psychiatry. The family of the youngest billionaire on the planet has many children, four children have grown up in it: Mark Eliot, Randy's older sister and two younger ones, Ariel and Donna.

"Everything should be simplified as much as possible, but no more."

Filmmakers have not bypassed the history of the creation of the popular project. made a feature film "", where he played the main character. Zuckerberg spoke negatively about the picture, the plot of which he called implausible.

Personal life

The personal life of the red-haired and short (height 171 cm) billionaire Mark Zuckerberg does not correspond to the ideas of the richest person on the planet. He leads a secretive life, does not boast of wealth and does not waste money.

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Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla

He has a modest car, a Volkswagen Golf GTI, which Mark drives himself. For casual wear, the programmer prefers jeans and gray T-shirts. This commitment to minimalism allows the entrepreneur to devote more time and attention to those things that are of interest to him.

In 2012, Mark married longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan, whom he met in 2002 at a Harvard student party. A Chinese by nationality, she was distinguished by perseverance in achieving the goal - to realize the American dream of her parents and receive a decent education in the United States. For the sake of entering a prestigious university, the girl even took up tennis, although she never had a passion for sports.

Read also 6 celebrities who hid their pregnancy until the last

Young people maintained a relationship even after their life paths diverged for a while. Priscilla continued her studies while Mark settled in the capital of Silicon Valley.

The first years after the wedding, the newlyweds unsuccessfully tried to become parents: Priscilla survived 3 miscarriages. But at the end of 2015, the couple had a daughter, Max, which was the happiest moment in the life of the spouses who dreamed of a child. After 2 years, the wife, who was named August.

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Mark Zuckerberg and Morgan Freeman

Until 2015, the multibillionaire lived exclusively in rented dwellings, without forking out for his own. Upon learning of his wife's pregnancy, Mark Zuckerberg built a cozy family nest for the comfortable life of the long-awaited first-born. The housing cost Zuckerberg $ 7 million, and the programmer made his purchase on his own, without resorting to the services of an agent.

The Facebook founder's home is located in the historic center of Silicon Valley - Palo Alto, a 10-minute drive from the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park. There are no extra servants in the billionaire's mansion, the function of the butler

Mark Zuckerberg known worldwide as the creator of the very first social network Facebook and as a successful entrepreneur, whose fortune is estimated at several tens of billions of dollars. Despite his young age - 33 years old, Mark Zuckerberg's biography is already full of interesting events and facts.

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Biography

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg ( Mark Elliot Zuckerberg) was born in the small town of White Plains, located near New York, on May 14, 1984 in a Jewish medical family. His mother Karen Zuckerberg is a psychiatrist and his father Edward Zuckerberg is a dentist. In addition to Mark, they have three more children: daughters Ariel, Randy and Donna.

From school, Zuckerberg began programming, but this was not his only hobby. He also took lessons in fencing, mathematics and several languages. After graduating from elementary school, Zuckerberg transferred to an elite school " Phillips Exeter Academy“, where the emphasis was on programming.

At the age of 12, he created his first program " ZuckNet“, which is a local chat in which members of his family could communicate with each other. And for graduation work in the last year of schooling, Mark developed an Internet application " Synapse", which recognized people's musical preferences.

The project was successful, and Microsoft even wanted to buy him for $ 2 million, and take him to work, but the graduate refused this offer.

Having entered the Harvard University Department of Psychology in 2002, the future billionaire continued to study various programming languages, and over time, together with a team of other students, which included Dustin Moskowitz and Chris Hughes, he began to develop.

After 12 years, Mark Zuckerberg still received a degree from Harvard

In 2004, Zuckerberg launched the first version of the social network Facebook, which immediately became popular among Internet users.

Mark Zuckerberg's wife

Mark Zuckerberg with Priscilla Chan

Zuckerberg got married on May 19, 2012 to Priscilla Chan whom I met while studying at Harvard. Interestingly, initially all the guests were invited to a party on the occasion of Priscilla's medical education.

Arriving at the private house where the couple lived, they learned that the wedding ceremony would actually take place. Also, according to Wikipedia, it was on this day that Facebook went public, and the billionaire sold part of the shares of the social network.

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife do not like to appear in public, spending most of their time in their house. The family also donates a large amount of money to charity.

Last year, Mark and Priscilla founded their own foundation, which funds the development of drugs for various diseases. Until 2026, the organization will provide a total of approximately $3 billion.

On December 2, 2015, the couple had their first daughter, who was named Maxine, and two years later, on August 28, the couple had another daughter - August.

Mark Zuckerberg with his wife

Mark Zuckerberg regularly posts photos on his Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/zuck/) of how his family spends time: walking, celebrating holidays, or doing various things in their private home.

Mark Zuckerberg's fortune

Mark Zuckerberg's net worth is currently estimated at approximately at 70 billion dollars. It is not difficult to guess that almost all of his business is based on.

Zuckerberg earned his first capital in the first year of the existence of the social network, when he was able to attract large investors. With the development of his project, Mark simultaneously increased his income.

Already in 2010, the talented programmer became the youngest billionaire on Earth, and Forbes estimated his fortune at $4 billion. In the same year the magazine Time awarded Mark Zuckerberg the title of " Person of the Year". Starting from that moment, in seven years his capital increased by 17.5 times.

However, despite the large incomes, neither the billionaire nor his wife have ever been seen squandering money or spending heavily. In contrast, the family lives rather modestly in their Palo Alto cabin.

Mark instead of an expensive Mercedes drives an ordinary Volkswagen Golf, which even an ordinary average worker can afford. As mentioned above, Zuckerberg and Chan donate a large part of their income to various funds, and not so long ago, the creator of Facebook even said that he plans to spend 99% of his earnings on charity during his life.

Zuckerberg now owns a 24% stake in Facebook and is the company's CEO. This year, Forbes magazine included Mark in the top five richest people on the planet.

Facebook Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook launched on February 4, 2004. The creator himself describes the process of working on the social network without any special colors. According to him, every day, after classes at Harvard, he met with his team of students, and together they wrote the program code for the future site. And then they tested the developments.

When the social network was brought into working condition, its first version was launched. Zuckerberg almost immediately started looking for investors who would help develop the project in the future, but for now hewas in search, Facebook was financed from his personal pocket. In order to seriously engage in his offspring, Mark left the university and invested all the money set aside for further education in the social network.

Within a few months, the list of investors included such well-known Internet personalities as Reid Hoffman- business network creator LinkedIn, Peter Thiel— co-owner PayPal, as well as Sean Parker- file sharing developer Napster. By early next year, the total investment in Facebook was several million dollars.

In 2005, the total number of registered users of the social network reached five million users! This gave Facebook the seventh most popular site in America.

Such a success of a rapidly developing resource could not fail to attract the attention of large IT companies that wished to acquire it. Zuckerberg received several offers, but he refused all of them.

A truly watershed year for Microsoft was 2007, when Microsoft acquired a 1.6% stake in the company for $240 million. Thus, the social network began to be valued at $15 billion. This made it possible to sell the assets of the social network for huge money and receive large investments for the development of the project.

Having reached a new level, Zuckerberg opened an office in Dublin and began working on expanding the functionality of the site. In 2009, the company announced the first profit. At the same time, the Facebook website opened up access to the program code, so that any user can now create an application for a variety of purposes and upload it to the network.

Since then, the social network has grown rapidly. In 2015, the site became the second most visited in the world, second only to the search engine. Google. At the moment, the monthly attendance of the resource is on average 2 billion people.

In terms of revenue, the company has an annual profit of approximately $10.2 billion and an annual turnover of $27.6 billion. Facebook.Inc also owns a photo sharing service. Instagram, as well as messenger whatsapp.

Some interesting facts about Facebook statistics

  1. In August 2015, the service reached the mark of one billion daily visitors;
  2. Every day, social network users upload approximately 300 million images to their pages;
  3. The number of daily video views is approximately 9 billion;
  4. During the first seven years of the social network's operation, its various pages were opened 1 trillion times;
  5. People post 6 billion likes every day;
  6. On March 13, 2010, more people visited the social network than the Google search engine;
  7. In 2017, the total value of Facebook shares reached the $500 billion mark.

In 2017, the company did a lot of work on the development of Facebook. Along with Instagram, the social network has added the ability to leave stories that disappear from users' feeds after a certain period of time. There was a service that tracks the victims after natural disasters. This may save many lives in the future.

Since the beginning of the summer, the company has been mulling over a way to introduce pay-per-view news, which will be activated after a user opens a certain number of posts. Along with the introduction of pay-per-view content, Facebook.Inc also plans to start paying active users for posting various useful content.

And the priority at the moment for Zuckerberg and his team is to create artificial intelligence that will recognize the current mood of users based on the material they view, pages, videos, images, and the frequency of use of certain emojis.

Mark Zuckerberg's Rules for Success

Many people ask themselves: what is the secret of Mark Zuckerberg's success? However, there is probably no concrete answer. The billionaire himself is in no hurry to reveal any secrets, so one can only guess, analyzing the work he has done over the past 15 years.

  1. Zuckerberg has always been goal-oriented, putting his principles above all else. He tries to make the most of all the opportunities available to him and get as much knowledge as possible. All this turned him into a purposeful and educated person who thinks sensibly and soberly assesses the situation.
  2. Zuckerberg owes a large part of his success to the people who have been working in his team all this time. The billionaire is excellent at recruiting and motivating employees to bring maximum value.
  3. One of the valuable qualities of Mark are modesty and generosity. Zuckerberg never tries to stand out from others or draw attention to himself. And constant donations to various charitable foundations speak of his desire to help people.
  4. Perhaps Mark Zuckerberg is the only billionaire who does not have his own business secret, but simply tries to give himself completely to work and not make mistakes.

Film "The Social Network"

In 2009 director David Fincher announced the development of a film based on a period in the life of Mark Zuckerberg and his team, when they developed the first version of Facebook while studying at university. Responsible for writing the script Aaron Sorkin, and the book " Reluctant billionaires«.

The motion picture was supposed to show the first months of development of the social network and show how Zuckerberg brought together the personalities who laid the foundation for the first version of Facebook. Of course, there were some assumptions and deviations from the real story in the script, so that it would be more interesting for the viewer to watch the movie.

Several candidates were considered for the role of Zuckerberg, including Andrew Garfield (he nevertheless took part in the film and played Eduardo Saverin) And Shia LaBeouf, but eventually got it Jesse Eisenberg. Also in the "Social Network" played and Justin Timberlake playing the role Sean Parker.

The film was released on October 28, 2010. The film was well received by the audience and grossed $225 million on a budget of $40 million. The average rating of critics on Kinopoisk is 7.7 points.

The plot takes viewers to 2003, when, while still a student at Harvard, Zuckerberg gathers his first team and begins work on the future social network Facebook.

Over time, they manage to achieve overwhelming success, but it turns out that not all of the main characters were ready for the popularity that fell on their heads. The film also tells how Zuckerberg became the youngest billionaire on the planet.

  • Three Oscars: for best editing, soundtrack and screenplay;
  • Four Golden Globes: Best Film, Screenplay, Soundtrack, Director;
  • Three British Academy Awards: Best Editing, Screenplay and Directing;
  • Winning the French César Award for Best Foreign Film.

Mark Zuckerberg himself did not comment on the film in the first months after its release, deliberately ignoring questions from the press. He only said that in the movie the story is a little distorted, and in reality the process of creating Facebook was more boring, without any "plot twists".

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984 in White Plains, New York, into a prosperous and educated family. His father, Edward Zuckerberg, had a dental office right in his own house. Mother, Karen, was engaged in psychiatric practice until the birth of four children.

The boy from early childhood became interested in computers.

In an effort to develop the interest that has arisen, the parents hire a tutor for their son, who, however, can hardly keep up with the young miracle.

Years at Harvard

In 2002, Zuckerberg entered Harvard University. By his sophomore year at an Ivy League school, the boy is gaining a reputation as the university's top software engineer. He comes up with a program called "Facemash" that compares pictures of two students and lets users vote for the one they like best. The program is a huge success, but later it is closed by the administration of the educational institution, which considered it unethical.

Following this, three of Mark's classmates, having heard about the success of his previous projects, offer to help him create a social networking site they call "Harvard Connection". The boy gives his consent, but soon leaves the project, developing his own website.

By joining forces with friends, Zuckerberg creates a social network, originally called "The Facebook", allowing users to create profiles, upload photos and communicate with each other. After graduating from his second year, Mark quits his studies, devoting himself entirely to the site, and transfers the created company to Palo Alto, California. By the end of 2004, the Facebook social network already has 1 million users.

The rise of Facebook

In 2005, venture capital firm Accel Partners invested $12.7 million in the network, then open only to Ivy League students. Zuckerberg's company is opening up to other colleges, high schools and international schools, and by the end of 2005, the number of subscribers exceeds 5.5 million.

In 2006, the creators of Harvard Connection claim that Zuckerberg stole the idea from them and demand damages.

Initially, the parties come to an agreement on compensation in the amount of 65 million US dollars, but the legal debate in the case will last until 2011.

In 2009, fate throws another challenge to Zuckerberg when Ben Mezrich's book Reluctant Billionaire breaks sales records. The author manages to sell the rights to screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, and the critically acclaimed The Social Network wins eight Academy Awards.

Zuckerberg refutes the veracity of the shown story, citing many inaccuracies in the film.

But despite all the criticism, Zuckerberg and Facebook continue to thrive. In 2010, the Times magazine named Mark "Person of the Year". That same year, Forbes placed it at number 35 on the 400 List, valuing the network at $6.9 billion.

Humanitarian activities

Having accumulated an impressive fortune, Zuckerberg is throwing millions into various charitable activities. In December 2010, Mark signs the Giving Pledge, committing himself to give half of his wealth to good causes throughout his life.

Share issue

In May 2012, two major changes take place in Zuckerberg's life. “Facebook” makes an initial public offering on the free market, raising $16 billion in the process, making the company the largest Internet equity project in history.

On May 19, 2012, the day after the stock was placed, Zuckerberg marries Priscilla Chan, whom he has dated for many years. The guests who came to celebrate Chan's graduation from medical school were surprised to find themselves at Mark and Priscilla's wedding ceremony.

In May 2013, Facebook makes its first Fortune 500 list — and Zuckerberg, at age 28, becomes the youngest CEO to make the list.

Quotes

Now people are getting richer from the success of their companies at a much earlier age, and therefore many have a great opportunity to start earlier and have time to see the fruits of their good deeds.

Understanding people is not a waste of time at all.

Our mission is to make the world more open and united. We do this by empowering people to share whatever they want and connect with whoever they want, no matter where they are.

Facebook today is not just a collection of information, it is a community of people using our network to communicate and share information. And they will do it as long as they trust us.

The center of the world is not computer applications. These are people.

The true story behind Facebook is that we've been hard at work all this time. I mean, the truth would most likely seem boring to everyone. In the sense that for six years all we did was sit at a computer and write programs.

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Mark Eliot Zuckerberg(Eng. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, in English transcription Zuckerberg) is an American entrepreneur in the field of Internet technologies, one of the developers and founders of the social network Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg today is the head of Facebook Inc, a billionaire, his fortune in 2017 exceeded $ 74 billion.

Childhood and education of Mark Zuckerberg

Father - Edward Zuckerberg- Practicing dentist. He did not leave his medical career even after his son became a billionaire.

Mother - Karen Zuckerberg— a psychiatrist.

The Zuckerberg family has four children. Mark - the only boy - was the second child. Mark's sisters - Randy, Donna, Ariel.

In the photo: Mark Zuckerberg with his sisters (Photo: instagram.com/zuck)

The biographies say that the parents immediately noticed the great abilities of Mark Zuckerberg. But he was brought up in religious strictness, as was customary in Jewish families. But, apparently, something did not work out with religion, because now Mark openly tells everyone that he is an atheist.

Edward Zuckerberg gave his son his first PC (a Quantex 486DX based on an Intel 486 processor) when Mark was 10 years old. Edward Zuckerberg had plans to give Mark a good education. He was the first to teach his son the Atari BASIC programming language.

Mark spent hours at the computer. His friends brought their primitive drawings, and Mark Zuckerberg created the first computer games based on them. According to the writer Jose Antonio Vargas when "some kids played computer games, Mark created them."

Schoolboy Mark Zuckerberg created a simple, but quite acceptable software product "ZuckNet". Mark's father was delighted with his son's creation and installed ZuckNet in his office, allowing him to communicate with his assistant from home. Zuckerberg's ZuckNet is considered a "primitive" version of AOL's Instant Messenger that came out the following year.

And little Zuckerberg came up with a computer version of the then popular game "Risk".

Edward Zuckerberg hired his son a private tutor, who immediately realized that it was already difficult enough to be ahead of the knowledge of this child prodigy Zuckerberg Jr., who was clearly waiting for a career as an excellent programmer.

Mark Zuckerberg began his education at the Ardsley School, then moved to the private Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. There, Mark was the first student in mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural sciences, foreign languages ​​- all this had time. Entering college, Mark Zuckerberg indicated that he spoke French, Hebrew, Latin and ancient Greek. Mark's friends recalled how easily he could quote passages from the Iliad in the original. In addition, Mark was actively involved in fencing, excelled in this sport and was the captain of the school fencing team.

And yet in the first place Mark Zuckerberg was programming. His abilities, now manifested in software development, attracted attention. While still in high school, Mark Zuckerberg developed the Synapse music player, which combined elements of artificial intelligence.

Programming career of Mark Zuckerberg

After graduating from high school, Mark Zuckerberg entered the prestigious Harvard University, choosing, on the advice of his mother, a specialty - psychology. But programming continued to captivate Mark. While still in his second year at university, he created the CourseMatch student program, which helped students at the beginning of each semester in choosing the courses they would like to study. With CourseMatch, they could see the number of students enrolled in a particular course and the list of names of those who had already signed up for it, allowing them to make an informed choice. Zuckerberg's second project was Facemash, which starred in Mark's biography.

In the photo (left): the beginning of Mark Zuckerberg's studies at Harvard University. Pictured (right): earning a degree from Harvard University (Photo: AP/TASS)

The talented young man decided to use the Facemash software to create a communication masterpiece in the form of the Facebook social network, which was supposed to expand the communication of Harvard students over the local network. His classmates helped him with this. Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin And Dustin Mokowitz. As friends recall, Mark did all this for fun.

By the way, Mark Zuckerberg had the idea for Facebook when he was still in high school at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. This school had its own Facebook or "book of faces", a directory with the names, addresses and photographs of students. At Harvard, Zuckerberg took the initiative to create a similar network resource, but he was refused, citing a privacy policy. I had to create Facebook at once for the whole world.

But first, after Zuckerberg hacked into secure sections of the Harvard University computer network and copied private photos, the site was closed by the administration and Mark was accused of violating security, copyright, and privacy. Zuckerberg had to apologize.

Facebook Career

However, he appreciated the scale of the idea, and already on February 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched Thefacebook at thefacebook.com. Zuckerberg left Harvard, and all the money set aside by his parents (85 thousand dollars) he invested in the social network - he saw it as the best way to develop his career. In 2004, after moving to Palo Alto, Zuckerberg registered his project as a legal entity, becoming the CEO of Facebook.

Zuckerberg, Moskowitz and other friends moved to Palo Alto in Silicon Valley, where they rented a small house that served as an office. Initially, they thought about returning to Harvard, but the work dragged on.

At this stage, among Zuckerberg's friends, a role in the successful development of a career was played by Sean Parker, who found the first investors of Facebook - the founder of PayPal Peter Thiel And Reed Hoffman. Parker, on the other hand, ensured that Mark Zuckerberg had 3 out of 5 seats on the board of directors.

In 2005, Mark Zuckerberg purchased the Facebook.com domain for $200,000 and managed to get rid of the article The. Then the social network already had more than 5 million users.

Pictured: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Photo: DPA/TASS)

Finally, in 2007, Microsoft valued Mark Zuckerberg's project at $15 billion and acquired a 1.6% stake in the company for $240 million. Then the career of Zuckerberg and his offspring only gained momentum.

In 2012, Mark Zuckerberg visited Russia. The billionaire took part in two programs on Channel One and spoke to students at Moscow State University. At the Facebook World Hack developer conference in Moscow, Zuckerberg named the main advantage for developers - access to an audience of almost a billion people, this is the maximum number of users on the Internet.

In the photo: Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of the social network Facebook, walking along Red Square (Photo: Facebook / TASS press service)

In 2015, Facebook became the second most visited website in the world, the number of social network users reached one and a half billion people.

And Mark Zuckerberg turned out to be the youngest dollar billionaire with an official salary of ... $ 1. The programmer also won the "titles" of one of the most influential people on the planet and the most successful businessman under the age of 40.

In the fall of 2018, the Free Press wrote that Mark Zuckerberg could lose his post on Facebook. The news reported that the idea was put forward by Facebook investors back in June, and then Mark was also opposed by some investment funds that own shares of the company.

Personal life of Mark Zuckerberg

The founder of the social network Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, one of the richest people in the world, in his personal life is an absolute monogamous - since his student days he has been dating an old girlfriend Priscilla Chan.

Pictured: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan (Photo: AP/TASS)

Priscilla Chan was born on February 24, 1985. Her parents were Chinese refugees who fled Vietnam on boats. Zuckerberg's wife is a pediatrician by training. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she attended Harvard University and received her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Sophomore Mark Zuckerberg met his future wife at a fraternity party at Harvard. Since 2003, Mark and Priscilla began to meet. In 2010, the future wife moved in with Zuckerberg in Palo Alto.

On May 19, 2012, Mark Zuckerberg married Priscilla Chan. The couple held a celebration for Priscilla's medical doctorate, but when close friends and family showed up in the backyard of the couple's Palo Alto home, they were told they were in for a wedding. According to a representative of the couple, the wedding was not timed to coincide with Facebook's IPO, but rather the end of Priscilla's education.

On December 2, 2015, the couple had a daughter, Maxima Chan (Max), and on August 28, 2017, the second, who was named August.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken maternity leave due to the birth of his second daughter.

In the photo: Mark Zuckerberg with his wife and daughters (Photo: instagram.com/zuck)

“I will spend one month of vacation with my wife and girls, and then we will spend a whole month together in December,” he wrote on his Facebook page. At the end of his message, Zuckerberg joked that he hoped that when he returned, his office would be "standing still."

Mark Zuckerberg did the same after the birth of his first daughter. Zuckerberg explained this decision by the results of studies, according to which the temporary departure of parents from work after the birth of a child has a positive effect on the family as a whole.

Zuckerberg's wife is a Buddhist, Mark himself became a less zealous atheist over the years, in particular, noted the importance of religion, including Buddhism.

Mark Zuckerberg income

As of February 2016, Mark Zuckerberg's fortune, according to Forbes, was almost $50 billion. And by the end of 2017, the income from Facebook made Mark even richer; as of November 2017, Zuckerberg's fortune is estimated at $ 74.2 billion. He is in the top five richest people in the world.

Pictured: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Photo: AP/TASS)

The success story of Mark Zuckerberg is a combination of talent, cold calculation and a series of incredible coincidences that allowed the genius to become the youngest billionaire in world history. Having founded the social network Facebook in 2004, already in 2010 he is included in the Forbes magazine list with a personal capital of $ 7 billion and ranks 29th in the ranking of the richest Americans.

Dossier:

You can look for the reason for the incredible success of Mark Zuckerberg for a long time, looking at his actions and milestones in his biography through the prism of time, and not find answers. After all, the history of any public person, and even more so a billionaire, is covered with mysterious dark spots. But it is safe to say that he lit the star of his fame with his own hands.

The young genius made his passion for programming the meaning of his life. Creating a trial version of Facebook in an ordinary student dormitory, I did not even think about billions. He dreamed of uniting friends, but he was able to bring together billions of people on the planet.

“The thing that really excites me is fulfilling the mission of creating an open society,” - M. Zuckerberg.

It was the friends who not only helped Mark launch his project, but also suggested how to expand the business and start making money. However, life, surrounded by millions of friends and billions of dollars, was not carefree. Enemies and envious people, lies and deceptions, intrigues and betrayal appeared.

"You won't find 500 million friends without finding a few enemies," - M. Zuckerberg.

But even lawsuits could not unsettle him. There is always a smile on his face, he is confident in himself and clearly knows in which direction to move on.

Over the past seven years, he has increased his fortune 10 times: from $ 7 billion in 2010 to $ 70.1 billion in 2017. Billions daily bring millions in profits - in 9 months of this year, his fortune increased by $ 14.1 billion. But the goal is and what remains is the building of a community that will be able to freely communicate throughout the world.

The dynamics of the rapid growth of the state is clearly visible on the graph.

Figure 1. The dynamics of the growth of Mark Zuckerberg's fortune for 2009-2017
Source: Forbes

Mark Zuckerberg has 96,934,567 followers as friends on his personal Facebook page. But 99% of them failed to achieve the same success in business. So what is the secret to take off? In a randomly caught wave, a competent calculation, a combination of circumstances? Let's try to find answers in a brief biography of Mark Zuckerberg. And even though he is young, he already boasts not so much of the quantity as of the quality of his years.

Childhood achievements

Mark himself describes himself as a hacker by vocation, but his first achievements are more related to the development of programs and games. Even in childhood, a Jewish boy, born on May 14, 1984 in the city of White Plains, New York, showed extraordinary abilities.

Figure 2. Mark as a child.
Source: 24smi website

On his 10th birthday, he received a computer as a gift, but he perceived the new technology not as an opportunity for entertainment, but as a way to make a dream come true. Although it is in his case that it is difficult to draw a clear line between a hobby and self-development. Approaching the issue in an adult way, Mark independently began to study the literature on programming and bring his knowledge to life. As a result, the first developments appeared:

  • the zuck.net messaging network, which was appreciated by his family;
  • computer version of the board game "Risk";
  • Synapse Media Player is a self-learning MP3 player capable of recognizing the listener's preferences.

It was the latest development that caught the attention of Microsoft. But the programmer refused the lucrative offer, posting his offspring on the network.

"Inspiration is not for sale" - M. Zuckerberg.

The circle of interests of the gifted boy was not limited to programming. He was fond of mathematics and natural sciences, fencing and ancient languages. A broad outlook and determined the future fate - he became a student at Harvard, but chose the Faculty of Psychology.

When Passion Becomes Mania: The Scandalous Projects of the University Years

How to stop the flight of thought and slow down before the line that is dangerous to cross? Mark never saw this line and thoughtlessly went forward, obeying his ideas. Fortunately, these extraordinary decisions were closely related to programming.

One of these spontaneous projects was a site where a programmer posted 500 paintings asking friends to describe works of art in the comments. In this way, a negligent student solved the problem of preparing for the exam. Thanks to an extraordinary approach, the innovator received credit, but it was the most harmless project.

Figure 3. Zuckerberg with friends.
Source: 24smi website

For the creation of the FaceMash website, which was “laid down” by the Harvard server, Mark had to answer to the administration. At first glance, the idea was humorous and harmless. After a quarrel with a girl, a programmer, having hacked into the university network, downloaded photos of students and put them in pairs for a comparative vote. All programming work took 2 hours. The voting attracted the attention of 500 students, and the server went down, which showed the vulnerability of the university's Internet protection.

"Infringement on privacy" - part of the commission's guilty verdict did not frighten the genius, but prompted the idea of ​​​​creating a social network.

But the opening of the new project "The Facebook" was not without scandal. Mark was accused of stealing the idea by the Winklevoss brothers, who hired a programmer to complete the development of HarvardConnection.com, an intra-Harvard social network.

“He who made a comfortable chair should not pay everyone who makes chairs,” Zuckerberg will say at the trial.

For the idea "flying in the air", Mark still had to pay opponents in 2009 $ 45 million.

The development of "The Facebook", which the student worked with his fellow students (Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskowitz, Andrew McCollum and Christopher Hughes), took all the time. There was simply not enough time to study, and the choice was not made in favor of education.

Mark leaves the university walls, where he was destined to return. In May 2017, being a well-known billionaire, Zuckerberg received a diploma from the university.

Figure 4. Zuckerberg with his parents at his graduation from Harvard.
Source: Instagram page

"Mom, I always told you that I would come back and graduate" - Zuckerberg.
Source: personal page on Instagram

After receiving his diploma, he delivered a heartfelt speech to Harvard graduates:

A new round of fate with Facebook

February 4, 2004 is considered the birthday of the popular network. But the site received its modern design, name and concept with the arrival of Sean Parker in the project.

The eccentric, extraordinary hacker, gushing with ideas, immediately found a common language with Zuckerberg.

They divided the roles perfectly. Mark, as a programmer, worked on the technical side with his friends, and Sean took care of all organizational and administrative issues.

“Usually I would wake up in the bedroom, look into the kitchen and go to program. I had a girlfriend at the time, but when she suddenly disappeared, I wasn’t too upset. After all, I always had Facebook to throw a good party.”

The result of their joint activities was a change in the name and design of the site, as well as:

  • moving the team to Silicon Valley;
  • attracting investors to the project - it was Parker who achieved cooperation with Peter Thiel, Hoffman and Pincus;
  • access to new continents;
  • increase in subscribers to 1 million people.