Mark Zuckerberg’s habit for wearing gray T-shirt and denim have been fooling us for years and probably for many more years. How? His modest down-to-earth guy-next-door look creates a false perception that a guy this “regular” can make such a great impact. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for us.
Of course, we admire a billionaire who is friendly and not at all pompous. We love the fact that Zuckerberg lives “normally” like us, without partying all the time. He lives with his wife and baby daughter and he doesn’t wear gold shoes. We are infatuated with the idea that a guy this ultra rich still goes to work every single day and doesn’t blink an eye when changing his baby daughter’s diaper.
The thing is, through his appearance, he makes us believe that anyone can achieve a huge success like him. In reality, it’s not. No matter how casual and down-to-earth you look, you may not be able to be like him. The odds are too slim. You’d need to be at the right time, the right place, and with the right people. Above all, you’d need his super brilliance.
Do you know that at 12, he already invented something like AOL’s Instant Messenger named ZuckNet that was used in his father’s dental office? As a senior in Phillips Exeter, Zuckerberg wrote software for music similar to Pandora named Synapse Media Player and he turned down Microsoft and AOL’s offers to acquire it for millions of dollars. Super impressive for a high schooler.
Mark Zuckerber’s net worth as of May 11, 2016 is $51.6 billion. It’s such a tiny odd for you and me to have such a net worth. According to Forbes, there are merely 1,810 billionaires in the world. With the current world population of 7.125 billion, your odd in becoming a billionaire is tinier than a speck of dust in the solar system: 1 to 3.9 million or almost 1/4,000,000th.
His look has been deceiving us by making us forget that it requires a lot of resources and energy to make FaceBook a $190 billion company that it is today.
Good thing is, we can still emulate Mark in our everyday lives and apply his principles in our minuscule activities. After all, he would agree that every idea is worth fighting for, since every seed can grow into something worthy. Just like his FaceBook, which he started in Harvard dormitory.
You’d never know whether you’d be that special one in four million individuals who rises to the top as a billionaire. Whatever your odd is, you’d never know what your potentials true are if you’ve never tried it. Here are several habits, strategies and principles that Zuckerberg shared on living his fullest business and personal lives.
First, what you sow is what you reap.
Whatever you spend your time in, you’d reap the results. It goes without saying and may sound cliche, but Mark attests that it’s a principle so important that he remembers it every single day. Mark has been coding all his life and he’s harvesting what he has planted years ago.
Second, surround yourself with people better than you.
In his own words, “Only hire people who are so good that you want to work for them.” And great people can be quite challenging to find, but they’re not impossible to find, if you dedicate yourself. In the end, it’s people who run things.
Third, believe in the power of the crowd.
Decisions made by a group of people are better than made individually. He spends at least 3 hours per day with his core team and at least 25 percent of his time in hiring great people. And since his hires are as smart as or smarter than him, we can expect to see great decisions made by this distinguished group.
Fourth, to err is humane, to learn is divine.
Ready to make mistakes, learn from them, and get back up immediately. Stanford Psychology Professor Carol Dweck called it “growth mindset.” You can only grow if you acknowledge mistakes as learning opportunities and truly learn from them.
Fifth, give your all.
Give more than an extra mile. Give ten extra miles. Focus on superlative customer experiences by optimizing or, even, maximizing them. Turn every customer complaint into a positive experience.
Sixth, social bonding is key.
This shines through in FaceBook. After all, it was developed as a social networking site for making friends and finding dates among university students. FaceBook is a reflection of Mark’s belief that social bonding is critical to one’s success, despite what the movie Social Network depicted him.
In conclusion, Mark Zuckerberg’s gray T-shirt and denim pants may be a “fooling factor.” And we may not become a billionaire like him. However, we can still learn from him and apply his principles and strategies in our everyday lives. Eventually, we’d emerge as a better person in business and personal lives. Just like this casual billionaire.
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