I admire what Mark has done and his achievements will be read in many books to come. Actually, they have already made a movie about his work if not about him.
But, let's get some perspective, the making of this man isn't something out of the ordinary. America having a 'black' president or the late Wangari Maathai winning the noble peace prize is surely extra-ordinary. Mark Zuckerberg is privately educated and was brought up in a wealthy, Dobbs Ferry village and he graduated from a private high school in New Hampshire.
Mark's mother was a Psychiatrist and his dad a successful dentist. So, this kid's foundation was pretty strong. Looking at career of his parents, they seem to value education, hard work and nurturing talent. Continue reading this and you will see why.
Unfortunately, there are countries where if one is wealthy, then his/her kids can go to school wherever, even though they (children) may not be academically fit. The Zuckerbergs understood the basics of success and they instilled this into their young son. Is having a basic extraordinary?
It is fairly safe to say that Mark was a rich kid but not spoilt. He wanted to craft his own path and to create his own name. When he was 12, he used to work at his dad's dentist practice and in fact, his father trusted him to make for the practice a Messaging software he called 'Zucknet' that alerted his father when a patient was in. Is hard work and talent extraordinary?
How many parents in this day and age are interested in what their children want to do? Aren't parents fixated with choosing career paths for their children? The path that they assume will rock in money? And to those kids who are unlucky, their parents careless; they don't know where their children sleep, what they eat and who they hang out with. This is the unit David Cameron refers to as 'failed families.' Whatever was witnessed in London last summer, can be called 'extraordinary.' And to other kids, they are engrossed to celebrity culture and they would do anything to be in the tabloids.
I have attended gatherings where speakers have always over emphasized 'dropping out' of school part of Mark Zuckerberg. For crying out loud, Mark went to Harvard and he stopped going for classes to pursue his talent and passion not because he didn't like education nor didn't see the value of it. One thing for sure is he passed his exams somewhere for him to be accepted at Harvard and of course his family could afford it. He knew he had talent and what way to take. Can you recall what he did when he was 12? Zucknet?
Finally, Mark cultivated Facebook by bringing in other talents and people with experience to help him bring his dream into reality. He brought in Sheryl Sandberg from Google. Because of the values his family believed in; education, hard work and talent, Mark has remained at the helm of Facebook. If it was about money, he could have sold Facebook to Microsoft and made a couple of million but it is not all about that, he wanted to make a company. The 'guy' now is putting Facebook into stock market. Is that extraordinary?