“No one remembers the mistakes you made, but they do remember what you did well,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, as he spoke to students and faculty of Carnegie Mellon in the Wiegand gymnasium. Carnegie Mellon was the last of three schools Zuckerberg and his team visited on their east coast recruit. He spoke to students at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before coming to Carnegie Mellon.
So, why Carnegie Mellon? According to Zuckerberg, the school is number one in terms of recruitment, with students who have a work ethic and productive mindset that they developed during their time at Carnegie Mellon. The culture of the school pushes people to achieve beyond their potential.
Facebook recently surpassed 800 million users, creating one of the world’s largest and most influential footprints. Zuckerberg says the company is now transitioning a small company with a few experts to a larger company with much more depth. He will continue to try and run the company via smaller groups—but he does not want the company to grow too quickly, for fear of losing the culture that started with the creation of Facebook. The passion and excitement should carry on even with the company’s expansion.
Zuckerberg credits most of his success to perserverance but he still dwells on the mistakes he has made. He believes that even if there are 1,000 things to do, he should only focus his attention on one or two things that are the most important. His main goal for Facebook still revolves around what’s best for the user. He does not want anything to dilute user experience. Facebook focuses on the real identities of people and encourages them to connect with people they really know, unlike other social networking sites. Perhaps this difference is what has set Facebook apart from so many other social networks. Zuckerberg explained that Facebook is not a destination website, but a platform site to enable people to stay in touch make staying in touch easier express their opinions online.
The expansion of social media now allows many people to discuss and express opinions on whatever they personally care about. Facebook is a powerful outlet in allowing this to happen. The supplemental gaming and music aspects of Facebook only increase its popularity among users. Zuckerberg believes the excitement and innovation surrounding the entire platform of Facebook is what makes Facebook unique.
As for Zuckerberg himself, he is beginning to focus on philanthropy. He donated 100 million dollars to the Newark school system to better educate students in math. He hopes to gain experience in philanthropy to learn what works and what doesn’t. Most of his donations focuses on improving education.
And what does Zuckerberg wish he had done differently? Actually attended classes while at Harvard University.