The World At His Fingertips

Mark The Man

Harvard University clearly is and means different things to different people. To a certain Mark Zuckerberg, it just meant “OK, I’m in Harvard – so what? Or what next?” depending on how you read him. Most likely, both!

He just doesn't seem to give a damn for anything – academics, classmates, studies – not even the girl who seemed to have caught his eye, if not touched his heart. He doesn’t hesitate to be deliberately indiscreet and rude with her, risking even the friendship. And when she is gone, he doesn't seem to care! Unlike Bollywood – where the hero would have spent his lifetime brooding over a girl he lost. To Zuckerberg, ‘what next’ in life seemed to be more important than "who next!"

Freudian Impulse

It all starts with Mark and his friends dabbling with the computer in his dorm and developing a website that lets users look at pictures (with names) of university girls (two at a time) - got by hacking into the Harvard network and rating “who’s hotter”. Information and pictures of girls in every residence hall is with Mark. Most girls don't like it for its offensiveness, but on the whole it is a hit within the Harvard community. Sigmund Freud would have smiled in his grave!

Mark is soon the most talked about guy in the campus … more for his website than for the academic punishment he gets for hacking. But being the maverick that he is, he doesn’t care!

Mark’s seniors - the Winklevoss Twins - Cameron and Tyler, and Divya Narendra - ask for and manage to get a minute of his time. A minute that was to sow the seeds of a global social networking revolution and show the world what entrepreneurship is.

The twins share their plan (or was it an idea? Yes, it looked like!) on building a dating website. His ‘rating’ site skill is a useful asset. Mark says ‘Amen’ and begins his work - only to discover soon they have a narrow vision and that he can easily see a vastly different landscape. Therein lies his smartness – walk out and find a way to do it on his own! He is absolutely clear about what his mind has gotten into and won’t get out of!

A Revolution In The Mind

The first signals of something cool about to happen on the internet have been sensed and amplified by Mark Zuckerberg. Imagination is clearly the first step to Innovation.

Most Harvard students seem to be busy in their academics. They know well what they are there for. They seem to be having a good time, going about their classes and interactions with a mix of seriousness and fun! But to Zuckerberg, every interaction needed to be analyzed and evaluated – from a ‘social networking’ perspective. With every idea he picks up, there is only one place he will run to – the computer in his dorm!

"Girl, are you single and ready to mingle?" becomes an important piece of information to be added to the website!

Few more lines of code. One more ‘field’ added to capture one more piece of ‘vital statistic’ that helps him move one more step forward in his mission of letting people ‘get to know other people without really knowing them’.

Mark Zuckerberg is a fine example of an inventor being Passionately Obsessive! Obsessively Passionate!!


It All Started Here

In Eduardo Saverin , his best friend, Zuckerberg finds a seemingly perfect partner. Eduardo had earlier helped Mark with the chess game algorithm for the ‘rating’ website. And now he helps Mark with a seed capital of US$ 1000 to get going. Like a man possessed, Mark works on their project and completes it and they distribute it within the campus. Students love it! thefacebook.com is born with 70% equity for Mark and 30% for Eduardo.

The Winklevoss twins and Divya are upset, angry and green with envy. Cameron and Divya want to sue Mark, Tyler counsels moderation and arbitration since they have to behave like 'Harvard gentlemen'.

Meanwhile thefacebook.com grows in popularity and is extended to other schools. The founders keep a close watch on the membership count – they celebrate at every milestone – be it 1000, 100,000 and so on! TheFacebook.com is set to become a phenomenon.

You Need Money To Make Money

Eduardo’s girlfriend introduces Mark and Eduardo to Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster. Parker mentors them on running an internet business, on the nuances of entrepreneurship and on raising capital so essential for growth. He introduces them to potential investors.

Parker also opens up their minds to thinking BIG … while Mark and Eduardo look at valuation of their company in single digit million dollars, it is Parker who says the company is worth a billion dollars!

And finally, Parker also advises them to move to the Silicon Valley – an advice that Mark immediately takes but Eduardo demurs, is sceptical about and stays put in New York. The stage is set for the drift in the equations between Mark, the CEO and Eduardo, the CFO to begin, widen and the relationship to eventually snap.

thefacebook.com is no longer the same and has become facebook.com

Eduardo begins to feel insecure. He will no longer be the ‘go to’ man for every thousand dollars that the business needs. His role will be diluted and authority undermined. His worst fears come true when on a visit to the Valley, he discovers exactly these as happening. As CFO, he freezes the bank account.

Parker nets in an angel investor and Mark calls up Eduardo to land up for a meeting to finalize. For the first time, Mark, voluntarily places an unusual emphasis on “We” rather than the customary “I” - bringing a smile on Eduardo’s face.

Eduardo and Mark meet the investor. Eduardo signs the documents blindly and in a spirit of “trust” and it’s all gone. Eduardo has unwittingly signed a “death certificate” – little realizing his equity is going to get diluted to 0.03%!

Success Has Many Fathers …

Facebook is now a phenomenon with membership heading towards 1 million. The Winklevoss twins decide to sue. Having realized that his share has been diluted, Eduardo too decides to sue Facebook. That’s the beginning as well as the end of the controversies surrounding Facebook. Controversies that ended in court rooms and out of court settlements.

The Production

The story is very contemporary and reflects the reality of the present era, regardless of how much of it is true about Facebook. The presentation is very crisp, the dialogues are superbly worded complemented by razor-sharp delivery, the audio visual effects are delightful and take away the fuzziness, if any, in the story. The photography is beautiful and as captivating to the mind as it is to the eyes – be it the campus, the bars or the court scenes.

For the sheer sharpness of focus on what needs to be conveyed, the script is a winner from any stakeholder’s perspective. As for the actors themselves and their acting, each is better than the other in being a personification of perfection.

At the premiere of the movie in Garuda Mall, Bangalore last Thursday, it was a near full house that showed up on a cold, rainy night. It is clearly a movie that must be watched by the professionals and businessmen of the present day world. Not sure if the pretty babes and their caretakers - who were frequently heading towards food court or restroom - understood or enjoyed what was going on. But they were all definitely Facebook addicts!

Mark Zuckerberg …… And His Lessons For Entrepreneurs


Mark Zuckerberg is a genius who used the power of his mind to see the invisible needs of visible human beings. Something that management guru C K Prahlad called as “Strategic Intent” many decades back. Mark also saw what he had in him and how to use it; what he didn’t have and where or who to get it from.

Mark Zuckerberg is also a shark who used the power of his mind to bite the lesser species – Homo Sapiens v1.0 …..Homo Sapiens v1.9 - in every weak spot at every opportunity. For example, in a court scene, when the jury begs for attention, Mark says 'his mind is on something so different that his opponents don’t even have the intellectual ability to think of but will claim to be theirs!'.

As our Bollywood babes would say, "...the script would have demanded that!"

As to how Mark says the many things he says, one should only see the movie to experience it! Standing tall and heard the loudest was his line:

“If you were the inventors of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook!”

Most other key actors are as good as the best I have seen in all my life – but nowhere near Mark!

In the way I experienced it, the movie is a lesson on how entrepreneurs can sow a seed called ‘idea’, see them germinate to become a plant and how the plant needs to be watered so that the buds can blossom. And all this has to happen at the speed of light!

It also highlights the importance of acknowledging the role of mentors and having the right mentors to make the unimaginable become real.

Is There Anything Immoral Or Unethical About Mark Zuckerberg?

Businesses thrive and flourish on the greed of its founders. However, this greed should be directed at the competition and not on the Co-Founders – in letter and spirit. A fact acknowledged by the court when Eduardo won his case.

With the money he now has, he can buy the world – but if ever he goes bankrupt in his lifetime again, he can never get the spirit of Eduardo Saverin to be with him.

At no stage of the movie does the viewer get an impression that Mark Zuckerberg is “An Accidental Billionaire”. It this technology age, it always looked like ‘a windfall that was waiting to happen to him’.

Somewhere along the way, if the Mark Zuckerbergs can be a bit more fair, moral and ethical to the Eduardo Saverins of the world – who, as buddies, extend every possible help in the embryonic stages of the business - on money matters and not short change them, the world will be a better place for entrepreneurs and the people whose families depend on them for livelihood.

Otherwise, the Zuckerbergs suck and no wonder Mark is a Harvard drop out because there were a few things Harvard would have tried to teach him - moral and ethical obligations - and he would never learn!

Acknowledgements:

My sincere thanks to @kingfisherworld for the invite to the premiere of The Social Network at Inox, Garuda Mall on 11th Nov 2010. The complimentary Kingfisher Ultra was cool as ever.

When it comes to hospitality, it is not easy to match Kingfisher! via @kingfisherworld on Twitter