The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

Seems like a risk-taker who has the mindset he has nothing to lose has the opportunity to think riskier and take bigger chances. Often people who have it good (like being students at Harvard) turn out successful, but they don’t become revolutionaries in their industry. Your ownership of the company should come down to how much you produce in value to benefit the company. (Bad move by Eduardo to be alone in New York while the rest of the team is in California.) Unless you’re ok with losing control, it’s a huge mistake to live in a location different from where all the other founders and employees are working on the company. It’s wild that after Facebook took off, Mark Zuckerberg seemed more famous than Bill Gates during Gates’ speech that Mark attended. Facebook added users like it was nobody’s business, virality is a main reason why. He was a workhorse on the computer in the early days of Facebook.Ī business that knows how to manufacture virality by getting their customers family and friends to join them is going places. Mark Zuckerberg is a great entrepreneur because he has incredible focus where he can ignore any distraction (including sleep) to stay on task. Too much to lose by being lazy or relaxed about it. If you enter a business agreement with someone, no matter how early in the process, make sure the expectations are clear and legally binding. Everyone else will always be playing catch up to the company or individual who makes the first big land grab and gets popular for it. It’s a 10x, 100x, or 1,000x advantage to be the first adopter of something (in this case a social network exclusive to Harvard students). In Zuckerberg’s mind, he was doing less than shoplifting by borrowing pictures of Harvard classmates from the school’s databases. Many hackers and computer nerds think differently about justice and fairness than traditional organizations do. All it took is missing a meeting, living in a different hall, or living in a different dorm and the odds are they don’t join Mark with Facebook. The phrase “it pays to be in the right place at the right time” couldn’t be truer when it comes to the cofounders of Facebook. Eduardo Saverin was lucky to meet and befriend Mark Zuckerberg of all people he could have met at Harvard.

Luck can play a significant role in how successful or rich people become.

In this book summary of The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, you’ll find my notes, valuable lessons, and important action steps.