Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most widely misunderstood people on earth.

When most people think of Mark Zuckerberg, they see him from that Hollywood movie from 2010. They think young Zuckerberg is the steely-eyed, hoodie-wearing robot who stole an idea and capitalized on other people’s data to grow wealthy. But he’s not. At least not entirely. Sure, Zuckerberg has some of those qualities. But like most caricatures, the reality is far more human, far more complicated, and far more interesting.

The REAL Story of Mark Zuckerberg

By the time Mark Zuckerberg was old enough to drive, he had already taught himself how to code.
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14th, 1984, in White Plains, NY. He was the second of four children. His father, Edward, worked from home as a dentist. His mother, Karen, was a psychiatrist. Expectations were high in the Zuckerberg household, but they were loving expectations. There was an emphasis on hard work, but there was also an emphasis on quenching the drive those kids had to learn more, to know more. It was in that environment that Zuckerberg began coding at a young age.
His dad taught him Atari BASIC when he was about 10. From there, his absorption with computers was undeniable. He wrote code after school and on weekends. He built ZuckNet, a messaging program that linked all the computers in his parents’ home and his father’s dental office. There was essentially no social network at the time, but Zuckerberg had built a private instant messenger.
His talent was undeniable by the time he got to high school. He built music software that both Microsoft and AOL tried to buy during his junior year in high school. He was 16 years old. He said no to both.
Zuckerberg attended Harvard University in 2002. He never really bought into the whole college partying scene and came to Cambridge knowing he wanted to build things.

What Zuckerberg Built

From the earliest days of Zuckerberg’s career, he showed an understanding of himself and a focus that few entrepreneurs ever achieve. Zuckerberg repeatedly turned down millions, even billions, for his company. Everyone around him told him he was nuts. When Yahoo offered $1 billion for Facebook, Zuckerberg turned them down. flat. Reportedly, he thought about it for less than a day. The room of Zuckerberg’s senior staff thought he was crazy. Zuckerberg thought he’d be right.
And he was.
Facebook would eventually grow into the single largest social network in human history. By 2012, Facebook had reached 1 billion users. Today, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—the life Zuckerberg has built—touch approximately 3.2 billion people every day.
3.2 billion. Every. Day.
Odds are, if you’ve picked up this article, you have an account on at least one of Zuckerberg’s companies.
Underneath all of the caricatures of Zuckerberg as a boy genius or a greedy capitalist are the actions of an empowered entrepreneur building highly successful companies.
MARK ZUCKERBERG
Born May 14, 1984 — White Plains, New York
Education: Harvard University
Current Position: Co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms
Net worth: ~$200 billion · March, 2021
Family: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative · Signed The Giving Pledge, pledging to give away 99% of Facebook stock during his lifetime.