Mark Zuckerberg is a world business leader, entrepreneur, investor, programmer, author, philanthropist and the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Facebook, which happens to be the most popular social media in the world and also one of the most successful companies in the planet. Mark Zuckerberg is currently the world number 6th richest man with a Neth worth of $73.1 B according to Forbes.
KEY FACTS ABOUT MARK ZUCKERBERG
- Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has seen his net worth soar as the social network’s stock price has skyrocketed.
- Mark Zuckerberg was born on 14th May 1984 in White Plains, New York in the United States of America. He is currently 33 years old.
- In April 2018, he testified before Congress after it was revealed that Facebook shared users’ data with political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
- Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard in 2004 at the age of 19 for students to match names with faces in class.
- He took Facebook public in May 2012 and still owns nearly 17% of the stock.
- Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook stake over their lifetimes.
Mark Zuckerberg mother’s name is Karen Zuckerberg, she is a psychiatrist and his father’s name is Edward Zuckerberg, he is a dentist. Mark Zuckerberg ancestors came from Germany, Austria and Poland. He and his three sisters, Randi, Donna and Arielle were brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York, a small Westchester County village about 21 miles north of Midtown Manhattan.
Mark Zuckerberg attended Ardsley High School in New York, United States of America. While still at Ardsley High School in New York, Mark Zuckerberg excelled in classes because he was absolutely intelligent. He was later transferred to a private school known as Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in United States. While in his junior year at Phillips Exeter Academy, Mark Zuckerberg won prizes in science such as math, astronomy, physics and classical studies.
In his youth, he also attended the Johns Hopkins Centre for Talented Youth summer camp. On his college application, Mark Zuckerberg stated that he could read and write French, Hebrew, Latin and ancient Greek. During his days at Johns Hopkins Centre for Talented Youth summer camp, he was the captain of the fencing team.
After completing his high school education, Mark Zuckerberg attended Harvard University in United States of America where he launched Facebook from his dormitory room on 4th February 2004 with his college roommates: Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
After which the group began expanding the company across college campuses, it expanded rapidly, reaching one billion users by 2012. Mark Zuckerberg took the company public in May 2012 with majority shares.
Mark Zuckerberg began using computers and writing software in middle school. His father taught him Atari Basic Programming in the early 1990s and later hired software developer named David Newman to tutor him privately. Mark Zuckerberg took a graduate course in the subject at Mercy Academy.
Mark Zuckerberg during his high school years had worked under the company named “Intelligent Media Group” to build a music player called the Synapse Media Player. The device used machine learning to learn the user’s listening habits, which was posted to Slashdot and received a rating of 3 out of 5 from PC Magazine. By the time Mark Zuckerberg began classes at Harvard University, he had already achieved a reputation as a programming prodigy. He studied Psychology and Computer Science at Harvard University and belonged to Alpha Epsilon Pi and Kirkland House.
Success Story
While many intelligent people attend Harvard University, Mark Zuckerberg became known quickly as the go-to computer programmer on campus. By his sophomore year, he had already built two programs: CourseMatch and FaceMash. Both programs became wildly popular, but the university shut down the latter program after it was deemed to be inappropriate.
Based on his acclaim on campus, Zuckerberg partnered with friends to create a social networking site that allowed Harvard students to connect with each other. The site officially went live in June 2004 under the name “The Facebook,” and Zuckerberg ran it out of his dorm room.
After his sophomore year, Zuckerberg dropped out of college to pursue what was then called Facebook full-time, and the website reached 1 million users by the end of 2004.
This explosion of user growth attracted the attention of many venture capital firms, and Zuckerberg eventually moved out to Silicon Valley in 2005. Facebook received its first round of venture capital (VC) investments from VC firm Accel Partners, which invested $12.7 million in the site that was still only open to Ivy League students.
By the end of 2005, however, Facebook was opened up colleges and other schools, causing the website to reach 5.5 million users. Since 2005, Facebook has received numerous acquisition offers from the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft, has been through legal battles, and has increased the number of its users all the while.
As of 2015, Facebook has over 2 billion monthly active users, and it is valued at a market cap of $272 billion as of July 2015. Zuckerberg, who owns nearly 423 million shares of Facebook stock, has become one of the youngest multibillionaires in history.
Net Worth & Current Influence
Thanks to Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has a net worth of $34.8 billion as of July 2015. At the age of 31, this makes him one of three billionaires with a net worth higher than their current age in billions of dollars.
When it comes to influence, Zuckerberg has signed the Giving Pledge, which means he will donate at least 50% of his net worth to philanthropic causes before he dies. In 2010, for example, he donated more than $100 million to save the Newark school system in New Jersey.
Most Influential Quotes
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk … In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”
This is a perfect example of Zuckerberg’s thought process. As someone who has created products since the age of 12, he knows that taking risks is necessary to achieve success.
“Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.”
This type of “ask for forgiveness and not for permission” attitude has helped Zuckerberg build one of the most influential companies of all time.
In 2010, Time magazine listed Mark Zuckerberg as one of the 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world as a part of its personality of the Year Award. In December 2016, Mark Zuckerberg was ranked 10th position on Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful People on the planet.
In 2012, Mark Zuckerberg got married to Priscilla Chan and the marriage is currently blessed with two beautiful kids namely Maxima Chan Zuckerberg and August Chan Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg is currently living in a mansion worth millions of dollars with his family in Palo Alto, California in the United States of America.
On 10th April 2018 and 11th April 2018, Mark Zuckerberg began testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation regarding the usage of personal data by Facebook in relation to the Facebook-Cambridge Analytical data breach. Unfortunately, Mark Zuckerberg refused a request to appear before the Parliamentary Committee in the United Kingdom to give evidence on the matter.
Mark Zuckerberg is an active humanitarian and a philanthropist, having donated his parts of his wealth to the less privilege, handicap and those born with disability. In October 2014, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg donated US$25 million to combat the Ebola virus disease, specifically in the West African countries where the Ebola virus epidemic was rampage.
Check out Mark Zuckerberg New York Time Best Selling book 50 Inspirational Lessons to Learn from Mark Zuckerberg Facebook CEO and use the lesson learnt to grow your business and career in life.
In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg foundation announced that it would give $600 million to Biohub, a location in San Francisco’s Mission Bay District near the University of California, San Francisco, to allow for easy interaction and collaboration between scientists at University of California, University of Berkeley and Stanford University.
Mark Zuckerberg is currently the fifth richest and most influential man in the world with an estimated net worth of $66.4 billion.
