My number one piece of advice is: you should learn how to program.
Mark ZuckerbergRead
Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn't smooth. You'll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don't believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don't give up.
Interpretation
Starting a company is challenging and requires commitment and tough decision-making.
This quote by Mark Zuckerberg emphasizes the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs in founding a company, highlighting that the path is often fraught with challenges, including hard decisions and the necessity of letting go of team members. It underlines the importance of having a strong belief in one's mission, as perseverance is what separates successful founders from those who abandon their efforts.
In practice
During a motivational speech to aspiring entrepreneurs.
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.
Anyone who has played the game professionally, you're always taught that the ball is the most important, most precious thing, so when the ball hits the ground, it's always a mad scramble. It's amazing how many times there is a fumble, and the person who recovers it initially doesn't walk away with the ball.
Success demands a high level of logistical and organizational competence.
I still work hard to know my business. I'm continuously looking for ways to improve all my companies, and I'm always selling. Always.
Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.
Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.
If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you'll achieve the same results.
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