Personal Life
Zuckerberg is still only 34 years old, so the timeline of his personal life is correspondingly short. We discussed his early years in Childhood and Education, so this can only really consider his personal relationships and religion.
Nothing much is known about Zuckerberg's teenage dating exploits, though that might well be because his forays into relationships were few and far between. He met Priscilla Chan at a frat party in his sophomore year at Harvard, where she was also studying, and the couple started dating in 2003, a year before the birth of Facebook.
Find a partner who is your equal, in life as well as in business and shares your values.
Chan was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, and grew up just outside Boston. The oldest of three sisters, her parents were Chinese refugees, who arrived in the US on the Vietnamese refugee boats. As a child, she spoke Cantonese at home.
Though quiet and usually in the background, Chan is as smart as Zuckerberg, which is no doubt what attracts him to her. She was her class' Valedictorian in high school, and she graduated from Harvard University with a BA in biology, and a minor in Spanish. On graduating, she taught science for a year, then went on to medical school at the University of California. She graduated in 2012, married Zuckerberg the same year, and works as a paediatrician. It is likely that it is Chan who pushed for the focus on health at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Personal loss can happen to any of us, however much money we have.
Maxima Chan Zuckerberg (Chén Mingyũ, to give her Chinese name) was born on 1 December 2015, and her parents presented her to the world with their announcement of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (see Philanthropy). The baby, known as Max, was long-awaited: Chan had suffered from three previous miscarriages, and so it was inevitably with trepidation that the couple announced her pregnancy, and relief when the baby arrived safely.
Zuckerberg blogged to his 33 million followers about Chan's miscarriages. Although there were those who felt this was over-sharing, plenty more were positive about his honesty. He wrote:
We hope that sharing our experience will give more people the same hope we felt and will help more people feel comfortable sharing their stories...
Most people don't discuss miscarriages because they worry your problems will distance you or reflect upon them - as if they're defective or did something to cause this. So you struggle on your own.
For anyone, a man in particular, to speak out about the pain and loneliness of losing a child (and, in this tragic case, three children), took many by surprise, but has hopefully opened up a forum for others to discuss what they have been through, and to find support online. It also moves Zuckerberg from his pedestal as a godlike figure in the tech world, and reveals to both his fans and his detractors, that he too is a mortal, capable of misfortune and suffering like any other man.
Conclusion
"Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard at it."
Not all of us can be like Mark Zuckerberg. Intellectually, he is far ahead of most of his Harvard University peers, let alone the general public and his breadth of interests and knowledge- from art history to Latin is unquestionably unusual too. There are only a certain number of Facebooks which can be founded in any generation, one man at a time can be Time magazine's Person of the Year, and with $46 billion currently behind him (and more with every passing day), Zuckerberg indisputably has an advantage on the average man on the street.
But that is not to say that his personal attributes, his values and interests, and the career path he has chosen cannot be a source of inspiration to us all. There are plenty of lessons we can learn from him, and apply in our own lives, which will put us in a stronger position intellectually, personally, financially and in business.
If we were to summarise the content of this book into four unforgettable lessons from Mark Zuckerberg, those lessons would have to be as follows:
- If you have an idea, develop it. And if it doesn't work out, have another idea, and develop that one too. Eventually, you will come up with an idea that you are satisfied with and which is commercially viable.
- When you have found that idea, focus on it. Zuckerberg has focused on Facebook every single day for over a decade. It's taken a great deal of blood, sweat and tears, not to mention brain power, to get this far.
- Remember that human communication and interaction are the most powerful and emotional channels we have. If you can tap into our desire and need to engage with one another, in a way which is effective but unobtrusive, you have the basis for a successful company.
- Give back to the society you live and work in. No one succeeds on their own, and whether you are at the top of your game, or still climbing the ladder, you have a responsibility to contribute your time, money, energy, and ideas to make the world you live in, a better place. Even if you live and sleep work, you still need someone in your life to support you when things are tough. Don't overlook your personal life if you want to be truly rich. Think carefully about what you can do, in each aspect of your life, to apply Zuckerberg's lessons. Your ultimate goal is not just to make money, but to be fulfilled, and to play a positive role in the world. Zuckerberg is a role model for us all.