When Good Advice Misfires


I was reading this book on Facebook and it described Mark Zuckerberg’s first attempt at building a social networking site at Harvard. In order to get all the student data to fill on his site, he either hacked into the university servers or asked his friends’ with access to that data to give it to him. When the complaints came in, the university hauled Zuckerberg and his friends in. The university felt that Zuckerberg hadn’t tried to use that data for personal gain, just to build a university wide network. So it decided that they were just young and foolish and let them off with a rap on the knuckles.

While Zuckerberg was celebrating the fact that he hadn’t got suspended, the father of one of his friends (Joe Green) who had helped get the data illegally was in the campus. He was shocked to see that Zuckerberg didn’t seem to realize he had just had a close shave with being suspended. And so the father told his son that Zuckerberg was nothing but trouble and that the son should avoid him. Sensible advice, right? The kind any parent would give their child.

The rest is history. Zuckerberg tried his hand at other forms of social networks and asked his friends to invest in his ventures. Including Joe Green. Green checked with his dad who went ballistic. So Joe, the good son, declined. That tuned out to be a “billion dollar mistake”.

Well ok, everyone is a genius after the fact. But it still makes you feel for Green, right? The kid listened to his dad, the advice was sensible under the circumstances, and what did he get for all that? He missed the chance to be a billionaire! I am guessing every time Green finds himself compromising on a car, a house, a vacation, his kids’ hobbies or tuitions, or worrying about retirement, he’ll relive the choice he made. Because not everyone makes choices that cost a billion dollars. Let’s face it: a billion dollars would have set anyone up for life…and still left with you with change.

The obedient kid got nothing. It must hurt so much.

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