Zuckerberg wannabes squander careers

Part of the problem with movies like the Social Network is that they leave out key details that enabled a company like Facebook to grow so quickly.<p>Firstly, Zuckerberg continued coursework and took all of his finals at Harvard the same time he was starting Facebook. If you don't have the business and technology acumen to take on a rigorous Harvard course load and run a regional business (I believe Facebook was well into the Ivy league at the time) at 19 years old, then think about taking a different route to success.<p>Secondly, I don't know many 19 year olds who can pick up and move to a house in Silicon Valley for the summer without having to hold down a job to pay rent and for food and gas. Heck, I don't know any 30 year olds that can do that. Having achieved 3 months of financial independence at 19 is a good indicator you can do some big things. If I recall, that summer in NorCal cost Zuck upwards of 80k.<p>Finally, for the geek perspective and those who don't think a LAMP website is anything to be impressed by, Facebook had to maneuver a ton of business landmines in those early days. Zuck may not have had all the answers to social patents and investment valuations and expansion strategy, but he found some people who did - Sean Parker and Don Graham. That ability to find people who provide strengths to your weaknesses is pivotal to the success of an entrepreneur.<p>To be able to do all of this at 19, well, there's a reason there's only one Mark Zuckerberg.

While it's just a quick short article - I think the author would be surprised to learn that many people understand they are sacrificing the career path to pursue their startup and that they understand the odds against them. If at the end of it all you look back and say, jeeze that didn't pan out, I should have worn a suit and stood in line like everyone else, then yeah, you made the wrong call.<p>But, if you're like me, even if you're dirt broke (yes) and have failed hard (yes), you don't care because you enjoy the ride and are learning along the way. I haven't chosen to skip the career route because this is easy - but because it's the only thing I can do. I doubt the author would understand that...or maybe it's just a throwaway article written to get a few hits.

If you can't get the user-agent hack to work, or don't have the time or means, the gist of the article is this: spectacular Web successes such as Amazon, Google or Facebook are the exception not the rule, and lead talented people to chase rainbows rather than building solid, steady, profit-making businesses.<p>This line in particular chimed for me: "Most companies service mundane requirements, quite possibly business requirements rather than sexy consumer projects like Facebook." I once spent some time temping in an office that was part of a complex. Every week a stream of small businesses, some who had contracts with the company, others who were just pitching, would come to the door: cleaning, stationery supply, printer cartridge collection, sani-bin removal and replacement, pest control, and so on. It opened my eyes to how many business niches there are out there.

Blocked by a registration wall, unless there's a popular hack around this that I don't know about.

It is false to think that everyone who is working on social network idea are only motivated by money and want to become next zuckerberg. potential of revolutionary social network goes beyond money and zuckerberg. To earn yourself disproportionaly more amounts of money than other people means that arhitecture of such network is limited to subset of architectures that puts only you in charge.

&#62; But for virtually the first time in the history of capitalism, the internet bubble permitted early-stage companies with no tangible assets to raise significant capital based on a plan – but without property, franchises, revenues, patents and certainly no profits.<p>This sounds plausible, but is it actually true? What were the railroad, oil, electrification, automobile, and aviation booms like?<p>Zuck in 2004 had his laptop; Google at the same time had 1e11 dollars or more. But a similar capital difference separates the Wright Brothers' initial contraption from the cost of the planes made by Boeing.<p>Anecdotally, it seems that many industries got their start with garage scale tinkering. How did those old school entrepreneurs raise the capital to build their businesses, back before VC? Probably has an interesting answer.