My number one piece of advice is: you should learn how to program.
Mark ZuckerbergRead
This is a perverse thing, personally, but I would rather be in the cycle where people are underestimating us. It gives us latitude to go out and make big bets that excite and amaze people.
Interpretation
Underestimation can be an advantage, allowing for bold risks and impressive achievements.
Mark Zuckerberg reflects on the advantage of being underestimated, suggesting that it provides a unique opportunity for individuals or teams to take significant risks that can lead to remarkable outcomes. This mindset fosters creativity and innovation, as the pressure of expectations is lifted, enabling new ideas and ventures that can surprise and delight others.
In practice
During a motivational speech at a startup conference.
My number one piece of advice is: you should learn how to program.
I literally coded Facebook in my dorm room and launched it from my dorm room. I rented a server for $85 a month, and I funded it by putting an ad on the side, and we've funded ever since by putting ads on the side.
People can be really smart or have skills that are directly applicable, but if they don't really believe in it, then they are not going to really work hard.
Simply put: we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services.
The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?', It's, 'What do people want to tell about themselves?'
Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.
Everybody told me I was making a mistake by going into this business, but I know how to grow hair as well as I know how to grow cotton.
The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything.
I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don't believe in the whole thing of just using other people's money. I don't think that's right. I'm not going to ask other people to invest in something if I'm not prepared to do so myself.
If you want to achieve your highest aspirations and overcome your greatest challenges, identify and apply the principle or natural law that governs the results you seek. How we apply a principle will vary greatly and will be determined by our unique strengths, talents, and creativity, but, ultimately, success in any endeavor is always derived from acting in harmony with the principles to which the success is tied.
Remember, either you control your money or it will control you.
God, I hope I wear this jersey forever.
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