Ben Mezrich – The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal

September 22, 2011
2 mins read

It seems that the everything was told about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. The book “The Accidental Billionaires” shows the story from a different perspective.

The story begins at Harvard, but education isn’t the most important thing here. At least not in this story. Students beyond attendance at mandatory courses, trying to organize their social life. Many dreams of getting into one of the more or less elite clubs. Or in fact, to be elected. Once you have become a member of the club, your life is actually changing. The most significant change is that the student begins to have success with women.

Eduardo Saverin really wants to get into a club, and everything indicates that he has the real chance. His colleague Mark Zuckerberg is not interested. He is only interested in computers and programming. He is not even interested in money, what he proved rejecting Microsoft‘s offer (but it was in the days before Harvard). When the two get to meet Bill Gates on meeting with students, Mark Zuckerberg sees his idol on stage, the man who really impresses him. Eduardo is not fascinated by the boss of Microsoft, but he likes money and knows how to get them. For example, thanks to the passion for meteorology, he manages to earn 300 000 dollars from the stock market.

Eduardo gets into the club he wanted, meanwhile Mark proves to all that he is a talented programmer. He created Facemash, a website that allows comparing pictures Harvard’s students. The project brings him fame and some troubles. The project took attention of Winklevoos brothers who offer Mark a collaboration on the Harvard Connect. And basically from that time, everything happens quickly.

Mark starts work on the Facebook, which in his opinion has almost nothing to do with the project of Winklevoos brothers. He draws his colleagues from the room to project. The first is Eduardo, who is responsible for finance of company, what means that he’s making an investment worth $ 1,000. The other two colleagues are Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz.

When Zuckerberg was starting the project, he probably does not expect that within the next few years he become a billionaire, star of the business and the Internet. Meanwhile, the website is becoming more and more popular, so popular that it attracts the attention of Sean Parker, the creator of Napster and Plaxo. This is the second idol of Mark Zuckerberg. Mark, Sean and Eduardo meet in New York, but this meeting changes nothing.

Finaly Mark’s decision to move to Silicon Valley and an accidental meeting with Sean Parker changes the situation. Sean becomes the advisor to Zuckerberg and helps him in dealing with investors. Parker contacts Mark Zuckernerg with Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, as well as the head of the investment fund. The fund, which invests 500 000 dollars in the Facebook. And this is probably the best investment in history, today the shares bought for 500 000 are worth over a billion dollars.

Ben Mezrich author of the book shows Mark Zuckerberg as a man devoid of scruple. For him, the most important project of his life – Facebook. In the less elegant way of he is parting with Eduardo, but on the other hand everything is done according to law. When Sean Parker is arrested with cocaine at a party, Zuckerberg has no doubt: Sean Parker has to go out of Facebook.

The symbolic moment is when Eduardo Saverin meets one of the Winklevoos brothers in New York club. Eduardo stands in front of Winklevoos, shaking his hand and says: “We were all deceived.”

Frankly, after reading the book “The Accidental Billionaires” hard to feel sympathy for Mark Zuckerberg. You can admire his talent, but not the way he acts with men. But maybe if he didn’t take such decisions, Facebook would be popular only on Harvard.

In the book, there often appears the motif of the girls. It seems that the creators of websites have a lot in common with rock stars. They both motivate their actions in the desire to gain the favor of girls. And how can you not believe that women rule the world?

Marek Molicki

Marek Molicki, since 1998 in the online industry. Extremely motivated to reach goals. Ideas deliverer, problems solver, finder of new ways, the doer. Social media fan, public speaker, trainer. Constantly looking for new skills to learn. Impossible is nothing, it's only the question of time and being consequent.
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