The spirit of an entrepreneur
Introduction:
This book consists of Zuckerberg 9 speeches about the entrepreneurial process including the innovations, designing new products etc. Zuckerberg uses his own points to deliver the speeches with his own experience supporting his thoughts.
Firstly, we need some background information about Zukerberg: Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer, Internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the chairman, chief executive, and co-founder of the social networking website Facebook. His personal wealth, as of December 2015, is estimated to be $46 billion. Zuckerberg receives a one-dollar salary as CEO of Facebook. In the spirit of The Giving Pledge, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced they would give the majority of their wealth over the course of their lives to "advancing human potential and promoting equality".
Together with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, he launched Facebook from Harvard's dormitory rooms. The group then introduced Facebook onto other campuses nationwide and moved to Palo Alto, California shortly afterwards. In 2007, at the age of 23, Zuckerberg became a billionaire as a result of Facebook's success. The number of Facebook users worldwide reached a total of one billion in 2012. Zuckerberg was involved in various legal disputes that were initiated by others in the group, who claimed a share of the company based upon their involvement during the development phase of Facebook.
Since 2010, Time magazine has named Zuckerberg among the 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world as a part of its Person of the Year distinction.
Structure:
Since this book is a collection of Zuckerberg’s speeches, so the structure of the book is obvious. It can be divided into nine chapters:
①Product development at Facebook
②Team dynamics
③Hiring the right people
④Generating revenue
⑤Entrepreneurial skills learned
⑥Listening skills in an entrepreneur
⑦Investing in new ideas
⑧Free time fosters free thinking
⑨Challenges going forwards
Zuckerberg’s speeches cover many aspects of the entrepreneurial process and each one of his speech can be a separate lesson for youth who want to start a business. The book is well organized and structured, so it is easy for readers to find the content they want.
Summary:
In this book, Zuckerberg uses his own examples to illustrate the significance of the stress-free team and effective team communication. He also points out that listening is an essential skill for an entrepreneur and all they do is to make a better world. Facebook lay great emphasis on innovations and free thinking, which help build the innovative organization culture and allow Facebook to become more competitive and never fail to seize the golden opportunities in this rapid developing society.
Analyses of the text:
In this book, Zuckerberg’s language is humorous and it is easy to read. Almost everyone can understand the meaning of the content even he is not major in business. But neither does Zuckerberg. According to his life experience, he majored in psychology when he was in university. Therefore, through his words, we can imagine Zuckerberg is like the older brother taking patiently with his younger brothers and sisters. Although his language is easy and comfortable, the meaning that hides deep behind the language is profound; his words are also enlightening. His qualities worth learning but it are fair to say that not everyone can absorb the qualities and let it becomes a part of his personality.
Furthermore, I want to analyze some of the sentences in the book. In chapter one, Zuckerberg said: “So, when we’re designing stuff, we look not necessarily just about what any given users going to experience, but what is going to be better for the whole community and the whole product.” From where I stand, people increasingly tend to pursue wealth by using any methods. Therefore, innovations are created for the sake of innovations and profits instead of the whole society. People may pay little attention on the environmental effects unless they are punished and sometimes innovations cannot help improve the quality of the environment at all. I was totally impressed by what Zuckerberg said when I read the first sentence of this book at the first time. The first sentence of this chapter reminds us that we should shoulder the duty of being a human being, and it also reminds those who ignore their social responsibility and pursue economic profits blindly.
As for teamwork and group communication, Zuckerberg said: “I can make it so that people are more with each other and can communicate more freely. This is like kind of my answer at the top of my head by doing this we kind of create a culture where people just talk to each other about stuff and get what each other is thinking more clearly than they would if the organization is more bureaucratic or if like people wouldn't be heard. Since people are always talking, ideas get down stuff each other and then eventually, someone starts making something, and we are done.” I perceive that effective communication is definitely an essential part of a successful corporate. Without equal communication, a team cannot run well and may even trigger emotional conflicts. With free communication, group members are able to exchange their ideas and ultimately have a brilliant mixture of these ideas, and that is the world changing innovations begin to happen.
In the world saturated with information and opinions, sometimes we have to speak out loud in order to be heard and we have to repeat our views again and again in order to be spotted and remembered. But in Susan Cain’s view, she pointed out that many people has chose to pretend to be an extrovert since we lived in a value system called Extrovert Ideal but later she explained that from the theory of evolution to van Gogh's sunflowers to the personal computer——came from quiet and cerebral people who knew how to tune in to their inner worlds and the treasures to be found there (Susan Cain 2012). We need more time to keep silent and listen to others patiently. As Hemingway said: “ I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” Similarly, Zuckerberg mentioned the importance of listening in his speech, saying that the successful entrepreneurs are great listeners and then translate that into interactive learning and the organizations tend to be great listening organizations. It is apparent that listening plays a significant role in an organization but few people manage to get the hang of it.
Reflection:
From my personal perspective, Zuckerberg is a successful entrepreneur with innovative ideas and sufficient skills. He appreciates people who have high IQ and a high level of passion to the new field. He said, “but if you find someone who is raw intelligence exceeds their but has 10 years lots of experience then they can probably adopt and learn way quicker and within a very short amount of time be able to do a lot of things that person may never be able to do. And the second is just alignment with what we are trying to do.”
From his speeches and the collection of his speeches, we are able to discover what hide behind his humorous speeches—his qualities and spirit. To the best of my knowledge, Zuckerberg is a gentle and quiet person in his daily life. But he can be confidence and active when he is on the stage sharing his own ideas. I was impressed by his confidence when I watched his speeches via internet after reading the book and I started to reflect on myself: I was always shy and unconfident when I stood on the stage and I did not dare to share my personal thinking. Although listening is important, one is supposed to share his thoughts no matter they are right or not.
In China, many people may perceive that they are forced to spend most of their time to study and prepare for endless examinations by repeatedly reciting; therefore, their capacity of imagination may decline due to the overload of homework. As Steve Jobs said, “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” We tend to find excuses not to discover the world and think deep inside the society because of the endless work or homework. As a consequence, we are too lazy to form our own images about the world and then create. We are supposed to learn from Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg that would always cherish innovations and have a desire to make the world better.
This book somewhat reveals Zuckerberg’s personality and his quality. Although the book has a small total words number, it is informative. It is wise for us to patiently taste the content of the book twice and have a little closer look at this business giant.
Conclusion:
Although the number of the words in this book is small, it teaches us the knowledge that an entrepreneur should be intelligent, innovative, and modest and be open to his employees. Zuckerberg is a model of the youngsters who dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur and this book can serve as the guideline when we are on the way to success.
Reference：
Zuckerberg talk about Facebook entrepreneurial process
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/ernesthemi101588.html
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