The Accidental Billionaires

I think the title should be "Billions by Betrayals"; if the story in the book is to be believed.

Mark Zuckerberg as portrayed in the book is an extremely opportunistic, selfish, socially awkward and an extremely intelligent person. Does that make him bad? I don't know. As far as the book goes, it doesn't show him in a lot of positive light except for being the genius behind Facebook and the extraordinary vision he had to develop such a social network. But, surprisingly, even that isn't completely accurate. All credit goes to Mark for creating and developing the website, bringing in new ideas and putting in all the effort. However, the original idea was not his and he actually stole it from two twins and their Indian friend at Harvard who had initially approached Mark to write the code for them. He led them on to believe he was working for them but in the mean time he decided he will take from their idea and then build on it to create his own. That is what he did and even the Harvard authorities washed their hands off it because by the time the situation of unethical conduct with fellow students had reached them for their review, the website had already become extremely popular. So, Tyler Winklevoss, Cameron Winklevoss and Divya Narendra were left with no option but to be angry at having been cheated of a chance of a lifetime or perhaps even a chance to immortalize themselves. The did sue Mark Zuckerberg and there was some settlement to the tune of $65 million but it is reported that they are not happy with it.

One of the co-founders, Eduardo Saverin, Mark's best friend and the one without whom Facebook might have never become a reality due to his initial investment is also now suing Mark Zuckerberg. According to the book, Mark was quite fascinated by a Sean Parker (creator of Napster) with whose help he slowly and steadily edged out Eduardo out of the company completely. It was an extremely smart move and it worked. Now what was Eduardo's fault? He believed his 'best friend' would never cheat him or trick him.

The objective of writing this post was not to tell you the story about Facebook. It is about something that was even discussed in the book, though not very prominently. There should be an order to things, a certain fairness and I always like to believe that these things exist. Unfortunately, it will never be so and that is what upsets me. Mark stole the idea from the trio and they ended up being the losers although they received that huge settlement. They actually didn't care about the money so much (they were already multi-millionaires) as the popularity and the honor they would have enjoyed had they launched the website first, which was called 'Harvard Connection'.

Eduardo not only lost his best friend but also lost hundreds of millions by being tricked out of the company. Is there any retribution for him? I don't think so. And this is what infuriates me many times. Injustice is being done on many as regards people who they trusted behaving unfairly with them and getting away with it many times, even legally. A cash settlement seldom resolves the actual issues but you have to make do with what you have.

I should mention though that the book did not have any inputs from Mark Zuckerberg but from Eduardo Saverin and other parties that were closely related to the entire episode right from its inception till the writing of the book. Mark decided not to be a part of it. However, in trying to be fair to the writer, the book does not seem biased towards or against anyone and my thoughts about the Facebook saga are my own.

Facebook is one of the most successful businesses today and will be for the foreseeable future and I love its various functionalities. I just never expected the story to be so twisted!

The Mysterious Benefactor

'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens was the first time I was introduced to this concept of a 'Mysterious Benefactor'. I must admit, I was very fascinated by it. I started looking forward to my own and I still am. Perhaps, he/she is JATC. If it's a 'she', she is probably my rich wife and if it's a 'he' then he is my rich father-in-law and I don't know who they are so they are still a mystery. Other than these two possibilities, I don't really see a benefactor who will change my life drastically for the better. One thing I have realized is that there is only that one in a billion person who really gets lucky and is able to change his/her life forever.

Surprisingly though, my belief is tested several times. I didn't think that it was such a far-fetched belief to be tested so frequently. I come across people who buy something which is expensive by their standards or it might really be that expensive but they somehow feel that if people found out that they have spent that amount, they would be judged as irresponsible. There is one reason I can consider and that is when, usually Indians have the tendency to put you on a pedestal as a 'badaa aadmi' or 'a rich guy' and that might become an embarrassing title for someone. It might also be that they really wanted to buy that, which was not in their easy grasp but yet they managed to pull it off. There is also that feeling where you have spent on something really expensive and do not want to show-off. But then what's the point? If I buy a Rolls Royce (I know it's an extreme example), even I do not intend to, it is going to show-off itself. That is the nature of some things and you can't do anything about it and I don't even see the objective behind it.

To just give you a couple of examples, someone told me today that they are getting a new bicycle from Dubai where his cousin is and he is giving it to him for free. That is not completely impossible but given his tone and his manner, it was very obvious. Another incident was when I overheard a conversation in my Gym where someone asked a trainer what his Protein supplement can cost him and he said that it was gifted to him by a friend. (I wish I had such friends). I just spent Rs.3400 on a can of Protein supplements!!!

Although I am not planning my life in anticipation of a benefactor, but if there is someone out there contemplating being mine; believe you me, now is the time to make it happen.......