(Book Review) The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich
When I was at MPH Bookstores in Subang Parade, side-by-side with Richard Branson’s Losing My Virginity book was Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Billionaires. I stared closely and it was like red vs blue. Eventually, I chose the blue. It was tightly wrapped-up with plastic. Without knowing the content, I just bought The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook because it’s cheap and only few copies left. That’s a sign this is a popular and bestseller.
Back home, upon tearing the plastic wrap and observing the cover of The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook I knew I made no mistake and it’s a wise decision because of its inspiring story. The cover gives a preview into the world of Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, the people behind the early days of Facebook.
The author, Ben Mezrich, tells the genuine story with the help of Eduardo Saverin on how Facebook was started and how it has become a dorm-room experiment worth over $15 billion company. Ben Mezrich never met Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. All Zuckerberg’s character being written based on interview with various people, including Saverin, and he spin-it-off and spice-it-up in his own imaginative ways. Exaggerative I must say. He’s a drama king.
The chronological book started with Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin met at a fraternity function while freshmen at Harvard University. It’s an eye-opener for me. I have never been to United States, let alone Harvard University. Being a Malaysian, I never knew an existence of high-profile club in the American university, such as Phoenix, which Saverin was trying to become a member. Remember college-related blockbuster movie in Hollywood? Similar to that, it tells an in-depth story about freshmen dorms, Quad and houses.
It revealed that Zuckerberg do not know how to approach girls. It was a shameful moment when one of the girl Saverin and Zuckerberg double-dated has no interest at all to Zuckerberg. Felt annoyed, a smart guy Zuckerberg promised to use his hacking and programming knowledge to lure all the girls in Harvard.
Like a James-Bond suspense movie, Ben Mezrich created a thrilling moment where he assumed Zuckerberg began by hacking into the university’s dormitory rosters and loading pictures of every person on campus into his laptop. In addition to make his job so cool, Zuckerberg blogged about it. What he has done and what to do next. He called it Facemash, a sort-of “Hot or Not” comparison site.
The site was largely successful as people emailed the site to everyone they know and there were thousands of visitors in only one day. Mark never imagined this site would blow up as it had and knew that he may be facing some legal issues. The site, which hosted on his laptop, went crash.
As a result of his hacking, Zuckerberg has been called-up to Harvard’s review board. He apologized and told the board that he never intended any harm. The website has been removed. All of a sudden, Zuckerberg became a talk-of-a-town. Everywhere he goes, people recognize him for the trouble he created.
He attracted two members of Harvard’s prestigious rowing team, Winklevoss twins. The Winklevoss twins wanted to see him for a discussion on a secret project, a social networking site where people on Harvard can communicate in a new and innovative ways. Zuckerberg seemed excited and happy to be part of the team. Zuckerberg continue the project even without any payment or reward. He noticed that the site being developed lack some key elements. He stopped the project and quit.
Zuckerberg started his own project that changed the world today. Zuckerberg came up with an idea similar to that of the Winklevoss twins called thefacebook. His creation would not only allow people to meet one another, but would allow them to create circles of friends, post pictures, talk about their interests. These are the key elements missing with Winklevoss secret project. Interestingly, Zuckerberg even created an interesting feature where people can leave messages on their friends’ “walls”. Similar to the Facemash, the new website was released and extremely popular. Zuckerberg’s website created a new buzz and had most of Harvard’s campus registered. Nearby colleges joined in too and millions of people had joined thefacebook within a year.
Winklevoss twins were not happy. Zuckerberg’s creation was very identical to their secrect project, Connect U. They threatened Zuckerberg with a legal lawsuit and ended-up getting $65 million compensation when Facebook became a world phenomenon.
Eduardo Saverin felt the same way. He was not happy. He helped Zuckerberg during the early days of thefacebook but been phased out when the company went public. Similar to the Winklevoss twins, Saverin went for a lawsuit and his name mysteriously reappeared as co-founder.
Zuckerberg met a new friend, Sean Parker, a Silicon Valley darling and creator of Napster. Parker knew he could make thefacebook to greater heights as how he changed the world of music with Napser. Record label nearly dies because of his file and music-sharing software.
Parker convinced Zuckerberg to follow his pathway. He knew a lot of billionaire and potential investor for thefacebook. They both cruised the company and change the name of thefacebook to Facebook. It went from nothing to enormous giant company. Parker didn’t stay long. He was kicked out of the company due to legal issues.
Zuckerberg is now worth over $15 billion dollars. He turned-off many offers, even from Microsoft and Google. He sold a very small percentage, 1.6 percent stake of Facebook to his idol, Bill Gates of Microsoft for $2 billion dollars.
This book is highly recommended to anyone, but a must-read to technopreneur.
My Dream Job Essay
Last week in my E-Commerce class, my lecturer, Mr Rozaini Rejab asked a question: “What do you want to do if somebody give you RM50,000 to fund your business?”. The class remained silent.
On 24th August 2007, I went for an interview at Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd for their Cradle Investment Programme (CIP). I pitched about my idea in front of an Investment Manager to create a Web 2.0 application that will change the world. Codenamed “Job 2.0”, by the mantra of “What is your dream job?”, it revolves around user-generated content (UGC) that let anyone post their dream job and share with others. Unpredictably, I was selected for the RM50, 000 grant. I was stunned. I didn’t expect that. However, one year later, the “Job 2.0” went bust due to some manpower, technical and project management issues. I went broke when required paying back the amount.
Three years down the road, after all the hassle that I’ve went through, I found it pretty ironic when my lecturer, gave an assignment to blog about “My Dream Job” which carry 10% mark for BEL7084, Information Systems and E-Commerce subject. My heart whispered, “This is like replaying my old VCR!”. Suddenly, it reminisce me the Steve Jobs’ speech on YouTube during Stanford University Commencement Speech 2005 about “Connecting the Dots”. Look for 0:55 minutes. It really inspiring and connects my “previous” dots.
I’m a System Engineer by profession at one of the public listed IT company. The pay is satisfactory, I’m blissful with my job, but it’s never enough. Even Cradle made me broke, the entrepreneurship spirit in me never faded away. I want to be a successful entrepreneur, not for the sake of money alone, but also for the self-satisfaction. That’s my dream job. Look at to the above picture, I love to be a boss, managing my own company . I’m good at PR, community-building and crowd-sourcing. Advertisers will pay me if my web application is successful.
Why I want to be an entrepreneur? That’s a tough question. Referring to Big Five personality traits that I’ve studied during Organizational Behaviour subject, I came to know that my personality is Openness to Experience. I scored high in the personality test. According to study, there is a correlation between Openness to Experience and Entrepreneurship.
Being a successful entrepreneur, I know that I can always give something back to the community. Rules of the nature, the more we give, the more we get. I aspired to help people. Money is important, but it comes to second. I’m looking for self-satisfaction.
But why I still work as a System Engineer? That’s another tough question. I’m too coward to leave my current job due to family commitments. I have a family to feed. Becoming an entrepreneur doesn’t guarantee a return in a very short period. I need an excess of cash. Sustainable business is another thing to consider. I am not ready for this due to these financial constraints. Furthermore, I don’t have strong business background. Not even a business foundation. That’s why I pursue MBA.
I’m broke when I was forced to pay back Cradle. If given the opportunity to get another round of grant, I will ensure myself fully prepared. Lesson learnt, I couldn’t be an entrepreneur by doing it part-time. I must be willing to take risk, resign from current job and chase my dream job. High-risk, high-return. Business knowledge and networking are essentials.
Thus, taking an MBA is the best decision I’ve made in my life. I may be good in technical point-of-view, but I’m lacking in business perspective. MBA astonished me with real-life questions, which can only be answered by real-life experiences.
Year 2010 will end real soon now. 2011 is promising. I hope that I will rise and shine again in 2011 to achieve my dream job.
Wish me luck!