What Job Seekers Should be Learning from Mark Zuckerberg

Cocky, arrogant, extremely intelligent, socially awkward.  All words that have come to describe Facebook, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. When the founders of Twitter initially met with “Zuck” about a potential acquisition, one of the founders said that “it seemed like he had 12 people in his head.  He was prpared for every scenario.”

Regardless of your personal opinions about the twenty-something CEO, none of us can deny the fact that what he’s done with Facebook is truly amazing.

Sure luck had something to do with it.  Most successful individuals would agree that they’ve all benefited from lady luck.  But you can’t take advantage of those breaks when they come your way if you’re not ready.  Mark has mastered six ingredients necessary to be successful. Ambition, Vision, Determination, Execution, Luck and Timing.

Here’s how you can use these elements to achieve success in your job search, life and as an entrepreneur.

Ambition. The cornerstone for any successful person is ambition or the desire to want to achieve the absolute best!  Ambition is a requirement to be successful.  You can’t wake up in the morning, and want to half-ass your way to  success.  The challenge is harnessing this ambition and chanelling it appropriately.

Your drive to succeed will consume you at times, but it shouldn’t be to the point that everyone sees it.  The best laid plans are the ones that people never saw coming. When everyone is looking right, your move should be to go left.

Vision.  You don’t have to be a visionary to have vision.  Having vision means being able to spot a need or a problem and being able to offer a clear cut solution for it.

Stay Focused. Ever since Facebook began to experience massive growth, calls for the social network to go public were deafening, but Zuckerberg would have none of it. Staying focused and building a great product was the only thing he was concerned about.  He had missteps, but he never lost his focus.

There is a time and place for everything.  Stay focused, and it will pay dividends in the long run.  That $1 Billion offer that he turned down from Yahoo, pales in comparison to the $100 Billion valuation they now have.

Determination. Nothing can ever take the place of persistence.  Nothing!  To quote the late Steve Jobs, “I am convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. “

Determination and drive are some of the key elements that drive Zuckerberg.  Those late night coding sessions, expanding one college at a time, and quietly picking off MySpace are all evidence of his determination.

You have to have enough faith in yourself to be able to charge ahead regardless of what obstacles or circumstances stand in your way.

Luck.”Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” – Oprah Winfrey.

Mark has had a fair amount of luck come his way.  It’s not about the luck you get, its about what you do when those lucky circumstances come your way.  If you get a chance meeting with an potential employer at a networking event.  Make sure you either have a copy of your resume in your car, or saved in an email that you can fire off right away.

You can create your own luck.

Timing. Timing is everything.  Facebook wasn’t the first social network.  They just happen to have come along at the right time with the right product.  Not being afraid to fail is also part of your timing.  The internet is full of success stories.  You never hear about the failed startups that the founders of Groupon, Zynga or even Steve Jobs had.  These failures yield the best lessons.  You can take these lessons and apply them to the next opportunity that comes your way.  When it’s time to strike, you strike with everything you have in you.