Mark Zuckerberg's 5-Word Secret to Success
With the U.S. stock markets going wild for the past week, perhaps some Americans are thinking of trying to make a living by becoming an entrepreneur and launching their own business. There's plenty of opportunity in that world, but each year, many businesses fail, too.
If there's anyone familiar with launching their own endeavor and making it worth billions, it's Mark Zuckerberg. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg is the No. 3 richest person in the world with a net worth of $207 billion, and it's all thanks to his success as the cofounder and CEO of Meta Platforms, the social media mammoth that owns Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Threads.
Back in 2017, Zuckerberg gave an address at Harvard's 366th Commencement. During his speech, he had some advice for budding entrepreneurs.
One quote that stood out consisted of five words: "Be prepared to be misunderstood."
In the full passage, he said, "It's good to be idealistic, but... be prepared to be misunderstood. Anyone working on a big vision will get called crazy, even if you end up right."
He added, "Anyone working on a complex problem will get blamed for not fully understanding the challenge, even though it’s impossible to know everything upfront. Anyone taking initiative will get criticized for moving too fast, because there’s always someone who wants to slow you down."
Zuckerberg also talked about fear and how that plays into succeeding with a business.
"In our society, we often don’t do big things because we're so afraid of making mistakes that we ignore all the things wrong today if we do nothing," he said. "The reality is, anything we do will have issues in the future. But that can't keep us from starting."
So, Zuckerberg says to keep the faith and don't be scared if people think you're crazy or don't get you.
Related: Warren Buffett's 3-Word Advice on Getting Rich Amid Tariffs