in a world that’s changing so quickly
the biggest risk you can take is not
taking any risk it’s really good to be
idealistic but be prepared to be
misunderstood people say that you know I
built Facebook or Steve Jobs built Apple
or whatever but you know that’s really
not true
what’s that belief nation it’s Evan my
one word is believe and I believe in you
and I want to see that great thing that
you have inside of you come out so you
can help change the world so to help you
on your journey today we’re going to
learn from the billionaire founder of
Facebook Mark Zuckerberg and my take on
his top ten rooms a success vol 2
rule number 8 is my personal favorite
and I’d love to know which one you guys
like the best and as always guys as
you’re watching if you hear something
that really resonates with you please
leave it down the comments below and put
quotes around it so other people can be
inspired and when you write it down it’s
much more likely to stick with yourself
as well enjoy
ideas don’t come out fully formed they
only become clear as you work on them
you just have to get started if I had to
know everything about connecting people
before I got started I never would have
built Facebook movies and pop culture
just get this all wrong the idea of a
single Eureka moment is a dangerous lie
it makes us feel inadequate because we
feel like we haven’t had ours yet and it
prevents people with seeds of good ideas
from ever getting started in the first
place in a world that’s changing so
quickly the biggest risk you can take is
not taking any risk and I really think
that that’s true right a lot of people I
think think that you know whenever it
comes to whatever you get yourself into
a position where you have to make some
some big shift and direction or do
something you know there are always
people are going to point to the
downside risks of that decision and
locally there may be right right I mean
if for any given decision that you’re
gonna make there’s upside and downside
but in aggregate if you are stagnant and
you don’t make those changes then then I
think you’re guaranteed to fail right
and not not catch up so to some degree I
think it’s really right that over time
the biggest risk that you can take is to
not take any risks wasn’t so long ago
that you know I was a student and you
know sitting in in a seat in auditorium
like you guys are here today listening
to I remember very specifically this
time when Bill Gates came to talk it at
Harvard and I’m like wow how do you how
do you do that
and
but you know the trick is is that the
media likes to sensationalize this as if
you have some Eureka moment or you are
some singular person who can’t build
something on your own and that’s just
not how the world works you know
when I was in school I built a lot of
stuff that I just like building there
was not a single moment when I when I
had some revelation that Facebook was
gonna be awesome that’s not maybe how
the media or movies or whatever would
like to portray things it’s not it’s
much less exciting but the reality is I
think most I services in the world that
reach the scale that Facebook has you
start off building something that you
care about and you know you don’t
necessarily think it’s gonna be that big
I didn’t you know I built Facebook the
first version of Facebook for my college
community because I wanted to be able to
connect to the people at my school and I
remember very clearly talking to my
friends at the time and saying you know
it’s how cool is it that we have built
this community for our school you know
one day it’s gonna be awesome when
somebody else builds this for the world
because something like this needs to
exist for the world but it didn’t even
occur to me that you know my friends and
I might be able to play a role in doing
that or because we were college students
right I mean we didn’t have any you know
engineers to work with or servers or
resources or anything like that and you
know there were these huge companies
that deliver products for hundreds of
millions of people
right there’s I always assumed that it
was gonna be like Microsoft or Google or
someone would build this for the world
and what basically just happened is that
each step along the way we just kind of
kept doing the next thing and growing
from there and you know there were teams
inside these other companies that that
thought social media was important and
we’re working on it
but there were all these different memes
and narratives in the world you know
people would say oh well you know this
is just a fad people are gonna use it
but then they’re gonna stop so
you know so a lot of the teams who were
working on didn’t take it that seriously
or you know the the higher-ups and those
companies didn’t care so then get
resources and we just kept going and
going and then people would say alright
well alright fine so maybe people are
using it but it’s never gonna make any
money alright I mean social media
doesn’t make any money yeah we just kind
of kept going and going and then pretty
soon we had a service that was bigger
than any of these other ones and that
kind of is how we are here where we are
there’s no magic a lot of times I think
people just get afraid because you know
often your dream is its it seems like
it’s so so far off but but if you just
kind of focus on building stuff that you
think is good and and you keep on going
at each step along the way and don’t let
people deter you from that and you just
really care about what you’re doing and
kind of don’t give up but each step
along the way then you know I think
that’s how you that’s how you build
something good it’s really good to be
idealistic but be prepared to be
misunderstood anyone working on a big
vision is gonna get called crazy even if
you end up right anyone taking on a
complex problem is gonna get blamed for
not fully understanding it even though
it’s impossible to know everything up
front anyone taking initiative will
always get criticized for moving too
fast because there’s always someone who
wants to slow you down and there are
probably a lot of people who can who can
run Microsoft and do a reasonable job
when I was growing up Bill Gates was my
hero
oh come on yes he’s like Darth Vader
he’s not he’s not Luke Skywalker he’s
the bad guy no he is not
Bill Gates ran
one of the most mission-driven companies
that I can think of right and you know
right now I think Microsoft their
mission is less focused than it used to
be but when I was thinking about you
know what I wanted to be when when I
grew up you know Microsoft I thought had
it had a great mission put a computer on
every desktop and in every office right
or maybe was every desktop and every
call but and you know I mean there are
companies that define themselves by a
way of doing things right I mean there’s
them like the HP way that I was talking
about and there are companies that
define themselves by making a concrete
change in the world and you know
Microsoft did that and like I have a
huge amount of respect for him for doing
that he pushed them and it was an
incredibly inspiring company during the
time that he was doing that I think that
they’re they still are doing a lot of
things but I think that they’ve lost
some of the focus and I don’t know I
mean I think he’s like one of the one of
the greatest visionaries that our that
our industry has never had I built the
first version of Facebook because it’s
something that my friends and I wanted
to use at Harvard a directory and a way
to connect with the other people around
us and I I didn’t think at all that was
going to be a company I remember very
specifically the night that that we
launched the first version I went out to
to get pizza with a couple of my friends
who who now work here and you know and I
remember really clearly we were talking
about how one day we thought that
someone was going to build a community
like this for the world
and that that would be some company but
like it clearly wasn’t gonna be us I
mean it just it wasn’t the event didn’t
even occur yeah no I mean it wasn’t even
an option that we considered that it
might be us I mean we just weren’t
focused on building a company
back then we were just building
something that that that we thought
would be useful at our school with
Facebook there was just such you know
people loved it right and had such an
intensity of using I think within a
couple of weeks two-thirds of students
at Harvard were using it and all these
other students at MIT and other local
universities were writing in asking us
if we could open up Facebook at their
school so we kind of just followed that
right I don’t
you know again we didn’t I didn’t set
out and you know my roommates didn’t set
out to build a service that we’re going
to turn into a company but we just kind
of followed what people wanted and that
led us to expand it to all these other
schools and and eventually beyond
schools and to you know at some point
once we’d hired a bunch of people we
decided to turn it into a company and
and and and go for this mission of
connecting the world but that’s not
where we started you know I always think
that you should start with the problem
that you’re trying to solve in the world
and not start with deciding that you
want to build a company right be the
best company is that that get built are
things that are trying to drive some
kind of social change even if it’s just
local in one place I you know more than
starting out because you want to make a
bunch of money or have a lot of people
working for you or or build some company
in some way so you know I always think
that this is kind of a perverse thing
about Silicon Valley in a way this
really is that you know people decide
often that they want to start a company
before they even decide what they want
to do and that just feels it’s really
backwards to me and you know for anyone
who said the experience of actually
building a company you know that you go
through some really hard things along
the way and I think part of what gets
you through that is believing in what
you’re doing and knowing that what
you’re doing is is really delivering a
lot of value for people and that’s I
think how the best companies end up
getting made I think the media there’s a
little bit of this cultural bias towards
thinking that you know one person does
this right I mean people say that you
know I built Facebook or Steve Jobs
built Apple or whatever but you know
that’s really not true right I mean it’s
we’re were people we we helped but there
were thousands and thousands of other
people involved in building these things
and the reality is is that as strong as
any one individual is no one person can
deal with all the challenges that are
gonna get thrown at them in anything
that you do and one of the ways that I
think we maintain resilience is by
having co-founders and partners who
complement our strengths and fortify our
weaknesses and can kind of encourage us
and give us a push to to keep going when
things are tough and there’s actually a
lot of data on this that suggests that
that gets started with more co-founders
are more likely to be successful and it
isn’t quite clear exactly from that data
why that’s the case although it is very
clear
in terms of the outcome for the startup
is that it is the case but I would guess
that the reason why that’s the case is
because of this resilience point where
people who start something by themselves
I just think like there’s no way that
any one person can overcome all of the
different things that you need to do to
build a startup or take on any kind of
other project in the world but if you
have two or three or four partners then
I don’t know I mean maybe over time one
of them doesn’t like it and drops out
but you still have enough strength from
the team to power through all the
challenges that you have and that’s kind
of how you go and you know at Facebook
today one of the things that I always
find a little bit funny is again that so
much attention is placed on on me is the
person running the company whereas I
think you know people like Cheryl who
really you know as my partner running
the whole business or you know folks
like Chris Cox who run a huge amount of
our product or Mike’s rep FERC is our
chief technology officer and kind of
make sure that a ton of what we’re doing
works RJ Parikh who then runs all of our
global infrastructure and in all the
data centers around the world we
couldn’t make Facebook work without
those people right and and there were
really hard days where where I’m not
sure what to do next and and they keep
me going we’ve made a huge number of
mistakes along the way right now I
always say I just think we’ve made
probably every possible mistake you
could make is there a decision that
you’ve made that the people around you
told you was a mistake and you defied
them and you were right you know I mean
the most famous one I think probably has
to do with selling the company right I
mean in 2006 right we’re this
opportunity to sell the company to Yahoo
for a billion dollars and we we turn
that down I think a lot of people at the
time thought that we should sell the
company have some wood you know I I felt
really strongly and I think like now
people generally think that that was a
good decision a lot of people who I
think build startups their companies
think that’s selling the company or
going public is this end point where
you win when you go public and that’s
just not how I see it
today I want to talk about purpose but
I’m not here to give you the standard
commencement about finding your purpose
we’re Millennials we try to do that
instinctively instead I’m here to tell
you that finding your purpose isn’t
enough the challenge for our generation
is to create a world where everyone has
a sense of purpose one of my favorite
stories is when JFK went to go visit the
NASA Space Center and he saw janitor
holding a broom and he asked him what he
was doing and the janitor replied mr.
president I’m helping put a man on the
moon purpose is that feeling that you
are a part of something bigger than
yourself that you are needed and that
you have something better ahead to work
for purpose is what creates true
happiness I remember that night I
launched Facebook from that little dorm
in Kirkland house I went to Nokes with
my friend kayaks and I remember telling
him clearly that I was excited to help
connect the Harvard community but one
day someone would connect the whole
world the thing is it never even
occurred to me that that someone might
be us we were just college kids we
didn’t know anything about that there
were all these great big technology
companies with all these resources and I
just assumed one of them would do it but
this idea was so clear to us that all
people want to connect so we just kept
working on it day after day after day
and I know that a lot of you are gonna
have your own stories just like this a
change in the world that seems so clear
that you are sure someone else is going
to do it but they’re not you will but
it’s not enough to have that purpose
yourself you also have to create a sense
of purpose for others maybe you’re
asking yourself can I really do this
well remember what I told you about that
class I taught at the Boys and Girls
Club one day after class I was talking
to my students about going to college
and one of my top students raised his
hand and said that he wasn’t sure he
could go to college because he’s
undocumented he wasn’t sure if they’d
take him
last year I took him out to breakfast
for his birthday and I wanted to get him
a gift so I asked him what he wanted and
he just started talking about struggles
that he saw other students in his class
facing and finally said you know I’d
really just like a book on social
justice I was blown away here is a young
guy who has every reason to be cynical
he wasn’t sure if the country he calls
home the only one he’s known was gonna
deny him his dream of going to college
but he wasn’t feeling sorry for himself
he wasn’t even thinking of himself he
has a greater sense of purpose and he’s
gonna bring people along with him it
says something about our situation today
that I can’t even say his name because I
don’t want to put him at risk but if a
high school senior who doesn’t know what
the future holds for him can do his part
to move the world forward then we owe it
to the world to do our part
– back to my old dorm and this desk –
the poster in the background that is not
my that is not my poster and I would not
have had a poster that cool this is
where my desk was and this is where I
programmed Facebook for you know it took
me about two weeks to program the the to
code the first version of this it was it
was a very simple version that I
launched in February of 2004 so yes I’m
probably ever gonna be back here again
and in this specific room but this has
been a place where a lot of really
special things happen in my life and I’m
really grateful to this place
thank you guys so much for watching I
made this foodie because his Sam Musa
pour asked me to if there’s a famous
entrepreneur that you would like me to
profile next check out the link in the
description and go and cast your vote
I’d also love to know what did you learn
from this video that had the biggest
impact on you what lesson are you going
to take and immediately apply it somehow
in your life or in your business leave
it in the comments below I’m really
curious to find out I also want to give
a quick China to Joseph Austen Joseph
thank you so much for letting me know
that Kevin O’Leary tweeted out his top
10 most success that I made on him I
really appreciate you letting me know
and for all your support thank you guys
again for watching I believe in you hope
you continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
see you soon
many of our parents had stable jobs
throughout their careers but in our
generation we’re all a little
entrepreneurial whether we’re starting
our own projects or finding our role in
another one and you know that’s great
because our culture of entrepreneurship
is how we create so much progress an
entrepreneurial culture thrives when it
is easy to try lots of new ideas
Facebook wasn’t the first thing I built
I also built chat systems and games
study tools and music players and I’m
not alone
JK Rowling got rejected twelve times
before she finally wrote and published
Harry Potter even Beyonce had to make
hundreds of songs to get halo the
greatest successes come from having the
freedom to fail and we want to give
everyone in the world a voice to express
what matters to them where I help bring
people together to be able to solve
important challenges one of the big
things that I think that we need to do
is just help connect the half of the
world that’s not on the internet to the
Internet and that sounds like a very
basic thing and you and I probably take
that for granted because we’ve had the
internet for a while but you know for a
lot of people and a lot of parts of the
world just having access to share your
opinion or send a message to your
partner or your friend or learn what the
prices are for products at the market I
look up basic jobs I mean those are
important things that a lot of people
don’t have an equal opportunity and
access to do so there are a lot of
things that we can do to solve this at
Facebook we’re building a technology
like solar-powered planes to beam down
internet access to places that might be
remote islands or in the middle of a
rainforest we’re working on new business
models with operators to do this but
this remains one of the things that I’m
most excited about for the next decade
and beyond is just unlocking access to
the Internet for the next three or four
billion people and I think if we can do
that all these folks who today don’t
have the tools to you know start
businesses or create new tools they’ll
now be able to make our life is better –
how many of you
remember your first lecture here at
Harvard mine was computer science 121
with the incredible Harry Lewis Harry I
was running late for class so I thrown a
t-shirt and I didn’t realize until
afterwards as I put it on inside out and
backwards and my tag was sticking out
the front I couldn’t figure out why no
one in class would talk to me except for
this one guy K X Jin he just went with
it we started doing our problem sets
together and now he runs a big part of
Facebook and that class of 2017 is why
should be nice to people
[Music]
the most important word ever if you had
to think of one word that’s most
important to you that sums you Apple so
it would be like a little beacon hey
believe nation if you want to know what
the most important one word is for Tony
Robbins Gary Vaynerchuk Oprah Winfrey
will.i.am and Howard Schultz I have a
very special secret video for you check
the description for details
[Music]
the biggest risk you can take is not
taking any risk it’s really good to be
idealistic but be prepared to be
misunderstood people say that you know I
built Facebook or Steve Jobs built Apple
or whatever but you know that’s really
not true
what’s that belief nation it’s Evan my
one word is believe and I believe in you
and I want to see that great thing that
you have inside of you come out so you
can help change the world so to help you
on your journey today we’re going to
learn from the billionaire founder of
Facebook Mark Zuckerberg and my take on
his top ten rooms a success vol 2
rule number 8 is my personal favorite
and I’d love to know which one you guys
like the best and as always guys as
you’re watching if you hear something
that really resonates with you please
leave it down the comments below and put
quotes around it so other people can be
inspired and when you write it down it’s
much more likely to stick with yourself
as well enjoy
ideas don’t come out fully formed they
only become clear as you work on them
you just have to get started if I had to
know everything about connecting people
before I got started I never would have
built Facebook movies and pop culture
just get this all wrong the idea of a
single Eureka moment is a dangerous lie
it makes us feel inadequate because we
feel like we haven’t had ours yet and it
prevents people with seeds of good ideas
from ever getting started in the first
place in a world that’s changing so
quickly the biggest risk you can take is
not taking any risk and I really think
that that’s true right a lot of people I
think think that you know whenever it
comes to whatever you get yourself into
a position where you have to make some
some big shift and direction or do
something you know there are always
people are going to point to the
downside risks of that decision and
locally there may be right right I mean
if for any given decision that you’re
gonna make there’s upside and downside
but in aggregate if you are stagnant and
you don’t make those changes then then I
think you’re guaranteed to fail right
and not not catch up so to some degree I
think it’s really right that over time
the biggest risk that you can take is to
not take any risks wasn’t so long ago
that you know I was a student and you
know sitting in in a seat in auditorium
like you guys are here today listening
to I remember very specifically this
time when Bill Gates came to talk it at
Harvard and I’m like wow how do you how
do you do that
and
but you know the trick is is that the
media likes to sensationalize this as if
you have some Eureka moment or you are
some singular person who can’t build
something on your own and that’s just
not how the world works you know
when I was in school I built a lot of
stuff that I just like building there
was not a single moment when I when I
had some revelation that Facebook was
gonna be awesome that’s not maybe how
the media or movies or whatever would
like to portray things it’s not it’s
much less exciting but the reality is I
think most I services in the world that
reach the scale that Facebook has you
start off building something that you
care about and you know you don’t
necessarily think it’s gonna be that big
I didn’t you know I built Facebook the
first version of Facebook for my college
community because I wanted to be able to
connect to the people at my school and I
remember very clearly talking to my
friends at the time and saying you know
it’s how cool is it that we have built
this community for our school you know
one day it’s gonna be awesome when
somebody else builds this for the world
because something like this needs to
exist for the world but it didn’t even
occur to me that you know my friends and
I might be able to play a role in doing
that or because we were college students
right I mean we didn’t have any you know
engineers to work with or servers or
resources or anything like that and you
know there were these huge companies
that deliver products for hundreds of
millions of people
right there’s I always assumed that it
was gonna be like Microsoft or Google or
someone would build this for the world
and what basically just happened is that
each step along the way we just kind of
kept doing the next thing and growing
from there and you know there were teams
inside these other companies that that
thought social media was important and
we’re working on it
but there were all these different memes
and narratives in the world you know
people would say oh well you know this
is just a fad people are gonna use it
but then they’re gonna stop so
you know so a lot of the teams who were
working on didn’t take it that seriously
or you know the the higher-ups and those
companies didn’t care so then get
resources and we just kept going and
going and then people would say alright
well alright fine so maybe people are
using it but it’s never gonna make any
money alright I mean social media
doesn’t make any money yeah we just kind
of kept going and going and then pretty
soon we had a service that was bigger
than any of these other ones and that
kind of is how we are here where we are
there’s no magic a lot of times I think
people just get afraid because you know
often your dream is its it seems like
it’s so so far off but but if you just
kind of focus on building stuff that you
think is good and and you keep on going
at each step along the way and don’t let
people deter you from that and you just
really care about what you’re doing and
kind of don’t give up but each step
along the way then you know I think
that’s how you that’s how you build
something good it’s really good to be
idealistic but be prepared to be
misunderstood anyone working on a big
vision is gonna get called crazy even if
you end up right anyone taking on a
complex problem is gonna get blamed for
not fully understanding it even though
it’s impossible to know everything up
front anyone taking initiative will
always get criticized for moving too
fast because there’s always someone who
wants to slow you down and there are
probably a lot of people who can who can
run Microsoft and do a reasonable job
when I was growing up Bill Gates was my
hero
oh come on yes he’s like Darth Vader
he’s not he’s not Luke Skywalker he’s
the bad guy no he is not
Bill Gates ran
one of the most mission-driven companies
that I can think of right and you know
right now I think Microsoft their
mission is less focused than it used to
be but when I was thinking about you
know what I wanted to be when when I
grew up you know Microsoft I thought had
it had a great mission put a computer on
every desktop and in every office right
or maybe was every desktop and every
call but and you know I mean there are
companies that define themselves by a
way of doing things right I mean there’s
them like the HP way that I was talking
about and there are companies that
define themselves by making a concrete
change in the world and you know
Microsoft did that and like I have a
huge amount of respect for him for doing
that he pushed them and it was an
incredibly inspiring company during the
time that he was doing that I think that
they’re they still are doing a lot of
things but I think that they’ve lost
some of the focus and I don’t know I
mean I think he’s like one of the one of
the greatest visionaries that our that
our industry has never had I built the
first version of Facebook because it’s
something that my friends and I wanted
to use at Harvard a directory and a way
to connect with the other people around
us and I I didn’t think at all that was
going to be a company I remember very
specifically the night that that we
launched the first version I went out to
to get pizza with a couple of my friends
who who now work here and you know and I
remember really clearly we were talking
about how one day we thought that
someone was going to build a community
like this for the world
and that that would be some company but
like it clearly wasn’t gonna be us I
mean it just it wasn’t the event didn’t
even occur yeah no I mean it wasn’t even
an option that we considered that it
might be us I mean we just weren’t
focused on building a company
back then we were just building
something that that that we thought
would be useful at our school with
Facebook there was just such you know
people loved it right and had such an
intensity of using I think within a
couple of weeks two-thirds of students
at Harvard were using it and all these
other students at MIT and other local
universities were writing in asking us
if we could open up Facebook at their
school so we kind of just followed that
right I don’t
you know again we didn’t I didn’t set
out and you know my roommates didn’t set
out to build a service that we’re going
to turn into a company but we just kind
of followed what people wanted and that
led us to expand it to all these other
schools and and eventually beyond
schools and to you know at some point
once we’d hired a bunch of people we
decided to turn it into a company and
and and and go for this mission of
connecting the world but that’s not
where we started you know I always think
that you should start with the problem
that you’re trying to solve in the world
and not start with deciding that you
want to build a company right be the
best company is that that get built are
things that are trying to drive some
kind of social change even if it’s just
local in one place I you know more than
starting out because you want to make a
bunch of money or have a lot of people
working for you or or build some company
in some way so you know I always think
that this is kind of a perverse thing
about Silicon Valley in a way this
really is that you know people decide
often that they want to start a company
before they even decide what they want
to do and that just feels it’s really
backwards to me and you know for anyone
who said the experience of actually
building a company you know that you go
through some really hard things along
the way and I think part of what gets
you through that is believing in what
you’re doing and knowing that what
you’re doing is is really delivering a
lot of value for people and that’s I
think how the best companies end up
getting made I think the media there’s a
little bit of this cultural bias towards
thinking that you know one person does
this right I mean people say that you
know I built Facebook or Steve Jobs
built Apple or whatever but you know
that’s really not true right I mean it’s
we’re were people we we helped but there
were thousands and thousands of other
people involved in building these things
and the reality is is that as strong as
any one individual is no one person can
deal with all the challenges that are
gonna get thrown at them in anything
that you do and one of the ways that I
think we maintain resilience is by
having co-founders and partners who
complement our strengths and fortify our
weaknesses and can kind of encourage us
and give us a push to to keep going when
things are tough and there’s actually a
lot of data on this that suggests that
that gets started with more co-founders
are more likely to be successful and it
isn’t quite clear exactly from that data
why that’s the case although it is very
clear
in terms of the outcome for the startup
is that it is the case but I would guess
that the reason why that’s the case is
because of this resilience point where
people who start something by themselves
I just think like there’s no way that
any one person can overcome all of the
different things that you need to do to
build a startup or take on any kind of
other project in the world but if you
have two or three or four partners then
I don’t know I mean maybe over time one
of them doesn’t like it and drops out
but you still have enough strength from
the team to power through all the
challenges that you have and that’s kind
of how you go and you know at Facebook
today one of the things that I always
find a little bit funny is again that so
much attention is placed on on me is the
person running the company whereas I
think you know people like Cheryl who
really you know as my partner running
the whole business or you know folks
like Chris Cox who run a huge amount of
our product or Mike’s rep FERC is our
chief technology officer and kind of
make sure that a ton of what we’re doing
works RJ Parikh who then runs all of our
global infrastructure and in all the
data centers around the world we
couldn’t make Facebook work without
those people right and and there were
really hard days where where I’m not
sure what to do next and and they keep
me going we’ve made a huge number of
mistakes along the way right now I
always say I just think we’ve made
probably every possible mistake you
could make is there a decision that
you’ve made that the people around you
told you was a mistake and you defied
them and you were right you know I mean
the most famous one I think probably has
to do with selling the company right I
mean in 2006 right we’re this
opportunity to sell the company to Yahoo
for a billion dollars and we we turn
that down I think a lot of people at the
time thought that we should sell the
company have some wood you know I I felt
really strongly and I think like now
people generally think that that was a
good decision a lot of people who I
think build startups their companies
think that’s selling the company or
going public is this end point where
you win when you go public and that’s
just not how I see it
today I want to talk about purpose but
I’m not here to give you the standard
commencement about finding your purpose
we’re Millennials we try to do that
instinctively instead I’m here to tell
you that finding your purpose isn’t
enough the challenge for our generation
is to create a world where everyone has
a sense of purpose one of my favorite
stories is when JFK went to go visit the
NASA Space Center and he saw janitor
holding a broom and he asked him what he
was doing and the janitor replied mr.
president I’m helping put a man on the
moon purpose is that feeling that you
are a part of something bigger than
yourself that you are needed and that
you have something better ahead to work
for purpose is what creates true
happiness I remember that night I
launched Facebook from that little dorm
in Kirkland house I went to Nokes with
my friend kayaks and I remember telling
him clearly that I was excited to help
connect the Harvard community but one
day someone would connect the whole
world the thing is it never even
occurred to me that that someone might
be us we were just college kids we
didn’t know anything about that there
were all these great big technology
companies with all these resources and I
just assumed one of them would do it but
this idea was so clear to us that all
people want to connect so we just kept
working on it day after day after day
and I know that a lot of you are gonna
have your own stories just like this a
change in the world that seems so clear
that you are sure someone else is going
to do it but they’re not you will but
it’s not enough to have that purpose
yourself you also have to create a sense
of purpose for others maybe you’re
asking yourself can I really do this
well remember what I told you about that
class I taught at the Boys and Girls
Club one day after class I was talking
to my students about going to college
and one of my top students raised his
hand and said that he wasn’t sure he
could go to college because he’s
undocumented he wasn’t sure if they’d
take him
last year I took him out to breakfast
for his birthday and I wanted to get him
a gift so I asked him what he wanted and
he just started talking about struggles
that he saw other students in his class
facing and finally said you know I’d
really just like a book on social
justice I was blown away here is a young
guy who has every reason to be cynical
he wasn’t sure if the country he calls
home the only one he’s known was gonna
deny him his dream of going to college
but he wasn’t feeling sorry for himself
he wasn’t even thinking of himself he
has a greater sense of purpose and he’s
gonna bring people along with him it
says something about our situation today
that I can’t even say his name because I
don’t want to put him at risk but if a
high school senior who doesn’t know what
the future holds for him can do his part
to move the world forward then we owe it
to the world to do our part
– back to my old dorm and this desk –
the poster in the background that is not
my that is not my poster and I would not
have had a poster that cool this is
where my desk was and this is where I
programmed Facebook for you know it took
me about two weeks to program the the to
code the first version of this it was it
was a very simple version that I
launched in February of 2004 so yes I’m
probably ever gonna be back here again
and in this specific room but this has
been a place where a lot of really
special things happen in my life and I’m
really grateful to this place
thank you guys so much for watching I
made this foodie because his Sam Musa
pour asked me to if there’s a famous
entrepreneur that you would like me to
profile next check out the link in the
description and go and cast your vote
I’d also love to know what did you learn
from this video that had the biggest
impact on you what lesson are you going
to take and immediately apply it somehow
in your life or in your business leave
it in the comments below I’m really
curious to find out I also want to give
a quick China to Joseph Austen Joseph
thank you so much for letting me know
that Kevin O’Leary tweeted out his top
10 most success that I made on him I
really appreciate you letting me know
and for all your support thank you guys
again for watching I believe in you hope
you continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
see you soon
many of our parents had stable jobs
throughout their careers but in our
generation we’re all a little
entrepreneurial whether we’re starting
our own projects or finding our role in
another one and you know that’s great
because our culture of entrepreneurship
is how we create so much progress an
entrepreneurial culture thrives when it
is easy to try lots of new ideas
Facebook wasn’t the first thing I built
I also built chat systems and games
study tools and music players and I’m
not alone
JK Rowling got rejected twelve times
before she finally wrote and published
Harry Potter even Beyonce had to make
hundreds of songs to get halo the
greatest successes come from having the
freedom to fail and we want to give
everyone in the world a voice to express
what matters to them where I help bring
people together to be able to solve
important challenges one of the big
things that I think that we need to do
is just help connect the half of the
world that’s not on the internet to the
Internet and that sounds like a very
basic thing and you and I probably take
that for granted because we’ve had the
internet for a while but you know for a
lot of people and a lot of parts of the
world just having access to share your
opinion or send a message to your
partner or your friend or learn what the
prices are for products at the market I
look up basic jobs I mean those are
important things that a lot of people
don’t have an equal opportunity and
access to do so there are a lot of
things that we can do to solve this at
Facebook we’re building a technology
like solar-powered planes to beam down
internet access to places that might be
remote islands or in the middle of a
rainforest we’re working on new business
models with operators to do this but
this remains one of the things that I’m
most excited about for the next decade
and beyond is just unlocking access to
the Internet for the next three or four
billion people and I think if we can do
that all these folks who today don’t
have the tools to you know start
businesses or create new tools they’ll
now be able to make our life is better –
how many of you
remember your first lecture here at
Harvard mine was computer science 121
with the incredible Harry Lewis Harry I
was running late for class so I thrown a
t-shirt and I didn’t realize until
afterwards as I put it on inside out and
backwards and my tag was sticking out
the front I couldn’t figure out why no
one in class would talk to me except for
this one guy K X Jin he just went with
it we started doing our problem sets
together and now he runs a big part of
Facebook and that class of 2017 is why
should be nice to people
[Music]
the most important word ever if you had
to think of one word that’s most
important to you that sums you Apple so
it would be like a little beacon hey
believe nation if you want to know what
the most important one word is for Tony
Robbins Gary Vaynerchuk Oprah Winfrey
will.i.am and Howard Schultz I have a
very special secret video for you check
the description for details
[Music]
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