67 Inspiring Mark Zuckerberg Quotes
Mark Zuckerberg is the chairman, CEO and co-founder of Facebook.
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 on February 4, 2004.
From there they started taking it other college campuses and the social network rapidly expanded, reaching one billion users worldwide by 2012.
Today Mark Zuckerberg’s estimated net worth is $76.6 billion, making him the 5th richest person in the world (as of 2018).
Whilst Mark Zuckerberg’s story was rather fictitiously told in the movie The Social Network, make no mistake about it, Mark Zuckerberg is a brilliant entrepreneur and a very inspiring individual.
Below you’ll find 67 Mark Zuckerberg quotes that will inspire any entrepreneur and startup to success.
67 Mark Zuckerberg Quotes
1. “The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg
2. “Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.” – Mark Zuckerberg
3. “I remember flying in, driving down 101 in a cab, and passing by all these tech companies like Yahoo! I remember thinking, ‘Maybe someday we’ll build a company. This probably isn’t it, but one day we will.'” – Mark Zuckerberg
4. “There are different ways to do innovation. You can plant a lot of seeds, not be committed to any particular one of them, but just see what grows. And this really isn’t how we’ve approached this. We go mission-first, then focus on the pieces we need and go deep on them and be committed to them.” – Mark Zuckerberg
5. “I feel that the best companies are started not because the founder wanted a company but because the founder wanted to change the world… If you decide you want to found a company, you maybe start to develop your first idea. And hire lots of workers.” – Mark Zuckerberg
6. “People don’t care about what someone says about you in a movie – or even what you say, right? They care about what you build. And if you can make something that makes people’s life better, then that’s something that’s really good.” – Mark Zuckerberg
7. “There are definitely elements of experience and stuff that someone who’s my age wouldn’t have. But there are also things that I can do that other people wouldn’t necessarily be able to.” – Mark Zuckerberg
8. “What really motivates people at Facebook is building stuff that they’re proud of.” – Mark Zuckerberg
9. “I just think people have a lot of fiction. But, you know, I mean, the real story of Facebook is just that we’ve worked so hard for all this time. I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? I mean, we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.” – Mark Zuckerberg
10. “We are a mission-driven company. In order to do this, we have to build a great team. And in order to do that, you need people to know they can make a bunch of money. So we need a business model to make a lot of money.” – Mark Zuckerberg
11. “When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as, is giving people that power.” – Mark Zuckerberg
12. “I literally coded Facebook in my dorm room and launched it from my dorm room. I rented a server for $85 a month, and I funded it by putting an ad on the side, and we’ve funded ever since by putting ads on the side.” – Mark Zuckerberg
13. “I just want to make sure when I have kids, I can spend time with them. That’s the whole point.” – Mark Zuckerberg
14. “A lot of people are focused on taking over the world or doing the biggest thing and getting the most users. I think part of making a difference and doing something cool is focusing intensely.” – Mark Zuckerberg
15. “You get a reputation for stability if you are stable for years.” – Mark Zuckerberg
16. “I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.” – Mark Zuckerberg
17. “I wear the same outfit or, at least, a different copy of it almost every day.” – Mark Zuckerberg
18. “In terms of doing work and in terms of learning and evolving as a person, you just grow more when you get more people’s perspectives… I really try and live the mission of the company and… keep everything else in my life extremely simple.” – Mark Zuckerberg
19. “I always kind of see how I want things to be better, and I’m generally not happy with how things are or the level of service that we’re providing for people or the quality of the teams that we built. But if you look at this objectively, we’re doing so well on so many of these things. I think it’s important to have gratitude for that.” – Mark Zuckerberg
20. “I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person. It’s a pretty good test.” – Mark Zuckerberg
21. “I started the site when I was 19. I didn’t know much about business back then.” – Mark Zuckerberg
22. “Working with a lot of people at the same time is a task. I really like making stuff and getting stuff done. One of the things I really liked about Facebook was that I could always move so quickly. I wrote the original application in, like, nine days at the end of January.” – Mark Zuckerberg
23. “My goal was never to just create a company. A lot of people misinterpret that, as if I don’t care about revenue or profit or any of those things. But what not being just a company means to me is not being just that – building something that actually makes a really big change in the world.” – Mark Zuckerberg
24. “If you go through some big corporate change, it’s just not going to be the same. If we sold to Yahoo, they would have done something different; if you want to continue your vision of the company, then don’t sell because there’s inevitably going to be some change.” – Mark Zuckerberg
25. “Our mission is to connect every person in the world. You don’t do that by having a service people pay for.” – Mark Zuckerberg
26. “Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn’t smooth. You’ll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don’t believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don’t give up.” – Mark Zuckerberg
27. “People don’t care about what you say, they care about what you build.” – Mark Zuckerberg
28. “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” – Mark Zuckerberg
29. “People can be really smart or have skills that are directly applicable, but if they don’t really believe in it, then they are not going to really work hard.” – Mark Zuckerberg
30. “Don’t let anyone tell you to change who you are.” – Mark Zuckerberg
31. “I’m here to build something for the long-term. Anything else is a distraction.” – Mark Zuckerberg
32. “Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend.” – Mark Zuckerberg
33. “Whatever you build, build with care. Anyone who has built something big, has done it with care.” – Mark Zuckerberg
34. “A guy who make a new chair doesn’t owe money to everyone who ever built a chair.” – Mark Zuckerberg
35. “You don’t let people deter you. That’s how you do it.” – Mark Zuckerberg
36. “It is important for young entrepreneurs to be adequately self-aware to know what they do not know.” – Mark Zuckerberg
37. “My goal was never to just create a company. It was to build something that actually makes a really big change in the world.” – Mark Zuckerberg
38. “Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today.” – Mark Zuckerberg
39. “The question I ask myself like almost every day is, ‘Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?’ Unless I feel like I’m working on the most important problem that I can help with, then I’m not going to feel good about how I’m spending my time.” – Mark Zuckerberg
40. “It takes courage to choose hope over fear.” – Mark Zuckerberg
41. “Find that thing you are super passionate about.” – Mark Zuckerberg
42. “So many businesses get worried about looking like they might make a mistake, they become afraid to take any risk. Companies are set up so that people judge each other on failure.” – Mark Zuckerberg
43. “People think innovation is just having a good idea but a lot of it is just moving quickly and trying a lot of things.” – Mark Zuckerberg
44. “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” – Mark Zuckerberg
45. “I made so many mistakes in running the company so far, basically any mistake you can think of I probably made. I think, if anything, the Facebook story is a great example of how if you’re building a product that people love you can make a lot of mistakes.” – Mark Zuckerberg
46. “This is a perverse thing, personally, but I would rather be in a cycle where people are underestimating us. It gives us latitude to go out and make big bets that excite and amaze people.” – Mark Zuckerberg
47. “The most important thing that entrepreneurs should do is pick something they care about, work on it, but don’t actually commit to turning it into a company until it actually works.” – Mark Zuckerberg
48. “The Hack Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete.” – Mark Zuckerberg
49. “If you want to build something great, you should focus on what the change is that you want to make in the world.” – Mark Zuckerberg
50. “Entrepreneurship is about creating change, not just companies.” – Mark Zuckerberg
51. “Some people dream of success…while others wake up and work hard at it.” – Mark Zuckerberg
52. “You are better off trying something and having it not work and learning from that than not doing anything at all.” – Mark Zuckerberg
53. “We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services. And we think this is a good way to build something.” – Mark Zuckerberg
54. “Purpose is that sense that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, that we are needed, that we have something better ahead to work for. Purpose is what creates true happiness.” – Mark Zuckerberg
55. “There were all these big technology companies with resources. I just assumed one of them would do it. But this idea was so clear to us — that all people want to connect. So we just kept moving forward, day by day. I know a lot of you will have your own stories just like this. A change in the world that seems so clear you’re sure someone else will do it. But they won’t. You will.” – Mark Zuckerberg
56. “Ideas don’t come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them. You just have to get started.” – Mark Zuckerberg
57. “The idea of a single eureka moment is a dangerous lie. It makes us feel inadequate since we haven’t had ours. It prevents people with seeds of good ideas from getting started.” – Mark Zuckerberg
58. “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. 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.” – Mark Zuckerberg
59. “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. The reality is, anything we do will have issues in the future. But that can’t keep us from starting.” – Mark Zuckerberg
60. “The greatest successes come from having the freedom to fail.” – Mark Zuckerberg
61. “When you don’t have the freedom to take your idea and turn it into a historic enterprise, we all lose. Right now our society is way over-indexed on rewarding success and we don’t do nearly enough to make it easy for everyone to take lots of shots.” – Mark Zuckerberg
62. “We can all make time to give someone a hand. Let’s give everyone the freedom to pursue their purpose — not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because when more people can turn their dreams into something great, we’re all better for it.” – Mark Zuckerberg
63. “We look for people who are passionate about something. In a way, it almost doesn’t matter what you’re passionate about. What we really look for when we’re interviewing people is what they’ve shown an initiative to do on their own.” – Mark Zuckerberg
64. “I think as a company, if you can get those two things right –having a clear direction on what you are trying to do and bringing in great people who can execute on the stuff—then you can do pretty well.” – Mark Zuckerberg
65. “If I were starting now I would do things very differently. I didn’t know anything. In Silicon Valley, you get this feeling that you have to be out here. But it’s not the only place to be. If I were starting now, I would have stayed in Boston. [Silicon Valley] is a little short-term focused and that bothers me.” – Mark Zuckerberg
66. “I remember really vividly, you know, having pizza with my friends a day or two after — I opened up the first version of Facebook at the time I thought, ‘You know, someone needs to build a service like this for the world. But I just never thought that we’d be the ones to help do it. And I think a lot of what it comes down to is we just cared more.” – Mark Zuckerberg
67. “Building a mission and building a business go hand-in-hand. It is true that the primary thing that makes me excited about what we’re doing is the mission, but I also think, from the very beginning, we’ve had this healthy understanding which is that we need to do both.” – Mark Zuckerberg
