On FACEBOOK - The Road Less Travelled Made All The Difference!

Early Days of Facebook, Inc

In the autumn of 2005, a 21 year-old Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, sat across from Michael Wolf, President of Viacom's MTV Networks in a plush Gulfstream V private jet and refused a $1.5 billion buyout offer saying, "You just saw my apartment, I don't really need any money. And anyway, I don't think I'm ever going to have an idea this good again". He did manage however to learn as much as he could from Wolf on how Viacom makes money from MTV over the course of the 5 hour flight from San Francisco to New York. This and an insightful history of the ubiquitous phenomenon that is ruling cyberspace is provided by David Kirkpatrick in his upcoming novel, "The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World”. In those heady days, there were quite a few people who advised the young chap to sell his creation and finish school, rich beyond his wildest dreams but this stubborn creature went against all conventional wisdom and still lacking adequate funds bootstrapped this venture all the way to the Dot.com Hall of Fame. He and his team managed to have fun running the company in its formative years; a bunch of tweens working through booze fueled parties and friendly camaraderie. However much the company and its founder have both matured, it still maintains a relatively easygoing working atmosphere in Palo Alto, California.

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room with a bunch of his friends and associates in 2004 under, as some would claim 'controversial circumstances', but the viability and overwhelming success of his invention soon brought all manner of suitors clipping at his heels. Facebook was exponential in its growth, even from the early onset. Within 4 months of the sites launch, he was perched on the brighter side of a potential $10 million dollar handshake and he refused without even taking the offer seriously. He and his team of friends and associates have turned Facebook into such a global web juggernaut over the past 6 years that Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft was willing to pay $15 billion for Facebook outright, but after serious haggling succeeded in only purchasing 1.6% at $240 million, essentially giving Facebook an implied book value of $15 billion. From $10 million through an astronomical figure of $15 billion, Zuckerberg has been steadfastly stubborn in his refusal to completely sellout and Facebook now has almost 500 million users and is worth an estimated $24 billion and counting; its heavily anticipated IPO is bound to instigate the greatest investor frenzy since Google. As Fortune would put it, Zuckerberg has succeeded in creating "the worlds most-coveted web giant." His personal net worth is estimated at about  $5 billion (representing 24% of Facebook, Inc) and he still wears frazzled hoodies, baggy pants and open-toed adidas flip-flops. That lucky f^&%*$!!!!!!

Personally I have been on Facebook since September 2004 and was probably among the first 200,000 to sign up. It was then thefacebook.com, a static page with no chat, apps, games and even no privacy; everything was open so long as you were in the network. At the time Facebook was essentially the privilege of American college kids until it was opened up to high schools then the rest of the world to such an unprecedented and overwhelming response. I have observed with rapt attention as this toddler technology that was very much experimental has grown into a full fledged and mature product that has become indispensable to many millions, inspiring a cornucopia of applications and an easy way to connect, reconnect and stay in touch. There was even a period of about 2 years when I practically ignored Facebook as its exclusivity paved way for universal access above the age of 13 but even amidst such changes the social network still wound its way back onto my fingertips because it has given rise to several brilliant new ways to communicate and a platform for rabble rousers such as myself to State Our Plays. Now FB is omnipresent on WEB 2.0; thumbs up Recommend signs are everywhere and all manner of websites are vying for recognition on the social network and its colossal and constantly growing user base. Facebook will generate $500 million in advertising revenue this year and this figure is projected to be in the billions a few years hence.

WOW! From chugging mountain dew coding other people’s websites deep into the night, Mr. Zuckerberg has come a long way. The question I have is what would this story have sounded like if he took the first $10 million dollars and didn't take the risk of holding out to the very end? He would certainly be wearing his hoodies, and baggy pants today but I doubt he would have had the ability to change the world as he did. He took the road less travelled, and it has made all the difference.

For an excerpt from David Kirkpatrick's, "The Facebook Effect" please visit this link http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/technology/facebook_excerpt.fortune/index.htm

Ghana's 21 Hours of Fame.......The Aftermath!!?

OBAMA CAME TO GHANA!......Now that he's gone back 'home', the mania, the glitz and the glamour have died down and practical realities are setting in. The question I have for myself and everybody else is this; how have we benefited from his 21 hours here and how will our lives change for the better now that his entourage is gone? What tangible gains have we made as individuals, as a country and as a continent?.....I've realized that Barack H. Obama summed the ultimate point of the speech himself, "We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans." So did this guy travel all the way from Washington to Accra via Moscow and L'Aquila to spend 21 hours here only to tell us a lot of things that are self-evident? Why would such a busy man, in fact the most powerful man on the face of the earth take such a humbling trip to a little known country in Africa which has little significance on the global socio-political kaleidoscope; WHY?.....Why not a bigger African country; why not a more developed African country; why did he choose the most boring place in the whole of Africa? No wars here; we have pliable roads, electricity, Mobile Internet and ATM's; many lovely hotels and its hot and rainy this time of year; in fact we are so boring that we rarely (if ever) appear on CNN or BBC!.....Why not Kenya, or Senegal which is much like Ghana in many respects? I mean, to be honest and fair, Ghana is neither the best, the richest, the most developed or even the most peaceful African country.....I mean Botswana is a fair example of another consistently democratic African nation......talk about South Africa, or Guinea or Nigeria (Ok....ok.....but its not such a bad place you know). I'm just trying to figure out all the other reasons for his choice apart from the obvious because the obvious reason has been bandied about for a while now but does not adequately address the whole picture.

I personally think Obama coming to Ghana was as much a personal trip as it was a political statement. He is a very astute and talented politician and his choice of a very small but quintessentially African 'success story' (by the relatively low African standards) for his first trip to sub-saharan Africa as the sitting president gives him and the US a great opportunity to kill many birds with one stone - commend Ghana, and vilify the so called miscreat nations; to affirm his own African roots and concurrently show Africans that he will not simply throw money at us simply because he is one of us; his trip also highlighted how truly safe and sound Ghana is especially in terms of its ripeness as a tourist destination (refer to I SPY....00.What is there to spy on in Ghana) which I think this was an intended consequence as well; but ultimately (and obviously) Obama's trip was to reward Ghana and Ghanaians for our commitment to democracy seeing as how we appear to be an island in a sea of poverty, tyranny and oppression.....right? Pardon my slight sarcasm here but it is important to realize that we still have such a huge amount of WORK to be done so we shouldn't be patting each other on our shoulders yet......we should rather saddle up for the tough times and painful choices ahead.

Another significant statement President Obama said was, "Above all, it will be the young people - brimming with talent and energy and hope - who can claim the future that so many in my father’s generation never found." This was after he had recognized the role of the members of parliament and the people they represent as the real purveyors of change; but he emphasized the role of the youth as the most pivotal in this century if Ghana and Africa as a whole is to rise out of perpetual poverty and over-dependence on inadequate Aid and Financial Support from the West. Essentially you don't have to be Nkrumah to effect positive change as well as succeed greatly in this life; you can just be yourself and hone your talents, use your energies wisely and never loose hope; if you are willing to make the necessary sacrifices and do the necessary work success is always inevitable. The main ingredient has already been provided by our politicians over the past 16 years - an imperfect but working democracy that supports the will of the people. We live in a country where anybody can laugh at the president's 'Ecominic' blunders, disrespect and disregard serious efforts by former regimes, where no corrupt official is safe from the media, where anybody can say and do as they like without fear of persecution and we take all this for granted. Consider China where even Facebook and Google are closely monitored and filtered, and insulting the political regime will subject one to severe harassment and persecution - overtly and covertly. It would be impossible for me to do this blog and state my true personal views if I were living in North Korea, nor would I hope to survive long if I were a Zimbabwean making fun of Mugabe's political mistakes and verbal blunders. Why concentrate on criticizing the bad when we can focus on utilizing the good and changing things for the better. We have here a peaceful, culturally rich and diverse, gradually improving socio-economic system that has reputable and working institutions (Obama congratulated these institutions even though they are inefficient for a reason; they work) as a basis upon which we can lay the foundation for our future success and wealth; the earlier you start building your house, the more resources you put into it and the better your plan the earlier your beautiful home is completed, the better it will look and the longer it will stand.

All throughout Obama's speech, I observed that whenever the camera's panned to the audience all one could see were 'old' people, the Giants of Ghana; the big people, the accomplished people.....The Dinosaurs......what a contrast to similar speeches he gave in Egypt at Cairo University and even more recently at the New Economic School, Moscow, Russia where he spoke primarily to students and the youth: their nations' future leaders - making similar profound policy statements to the Arab world and the Slavic nation - as well as dealing directly with the incumbent leaders.......I'm not saying that him speaking to the Giants of Ghana is wrong; it just appears as a stark contrast to what happened elsewhere, especially in the US where he toured the countries Universities and gave numerous campaign speeches. Discernibly with all the clapping and according murmurs there was a certain undercurrent of hypocrisy that wafted through the hall, for Some (but not all) of these same Giants are part of the very problems that Obama's speech sought to highlight and address; perpetuating corruption, inefficient bureaucracy, enriching themselves at the expense of the people they represent, begging for help when they mismanage things instead of doing their job well in the first place.....Some of these Giants are the problem but we are the solution because in time we shall also be giants like them. It is my hope that when that time comes we will be an even wealthier, stronger, more peaceful and democratic country.......but for that hope to become a reality the WORK starts NOW.

My challenge to myself and any youth reading this is simple; how do we claim the future that our forebears never found and are still struggling to find? Claiming our future would definitely involve honing and polishing our skills and talents for being young is like being a freshly discovered, unpolished, uncut and rough diamond; and growing up is the painful and difficult process of shaping that diamond into a glittering and beautifully cut stone that shines brilliantly always. This is a very difficult process to implement well especially here in Ghana and Africa in general where opportunities are easier to exploit and utilized by those with political and economic connections - but why loose hope when the whole world lies at our feet and opportunities abound and beckon - why loose hope when it is very possible and success is staring you right in the face......it is folks so don't blame blindness when Mr. Opportunity passes you by.......we can all create a better future for ourselves....Yes We Can.....YES WE CAN!!!