Inspiring Success story of FaceBook

Mark Zuckerberg’s father said in a radio interview Friday that an early exposure to computers inspired his son’s interest in technology, and he encouraged parents to support their children’s strengths and passions with a balance of “work and play.”

“My kids all grew up around the office and were all exposed to computers,” said Dr. Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist. “There are advantages to being exposed to computers early on. That certainly enriched Mark’s interest in technology.”

Zuckerberg said he computerized his offices in 1985. His son Mark Zuckerberg, co founder and CEO of Facebook, was born in 1984 and was raised in the house where his father’s dental offices are located in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., in suburban Westchester.

The dentist spoke for an hour on Westchester station WVOX in an interview with Paul Feiner, supervisor of Greenburgh.

The dentist said his own computer science background was “limited” – he majored in biology in college – but he said he’s “always been technologically oriented in the office” and “always had the latest high-tech toys,” including an early Atari 800. “It came with a disk for programming,” he said. “I thought Mark might be interested and I imparted that knowledge to him. From there it took off.”

He said Mark got a book on programming, but “ultimately his ability to program was self-taught.”
Feiner and a number of callers to the live radio program asked Zuckerberg for advice on parenting.

“Probably the best thing I can say is something that my wife and I have always believed in,” he said. “Rather than impose upon your kids or try and steer their lives in a certain direction, to recognize what their strengths are and support their strengths and support the development of the things they’re passionate about.”

Zuckerberg said he “didn’t believe in physical discipline” but added that certain behaviours require parents to let children know “right there on the spot, this is a behaviour that will not be tolerated. If you impart your dislikes about certain negative behaviours early in their lives, they will learn to understand what your feelings on certain matters are.”

Zuckerberg said he doesn’t want to portray himself as an expert on child rearing, but he said: “I think that extremes in any form in parenting are not good. Children need to be well-rounded. There’s a place for work and a place for play.”

He described Mark as “a good student” with “a special affinity for math and sciences,” as well as a “very quiet guy” who “doesn’t like to boast about his accomplishments.” He said that when Mark was named Time magazine’s person of the year, his famous son remarked that “it must have been a really slow year. He’s very humble.”

“I’m proud of his accomplishments and the accomplishments of all my kids,” he added. Mark’s sister Randi is marketing director for Facebook, his sister Donna is a Ph.D. candidate in classics at Princeton, and the youngest, Arielle, is a senior at Claremont McKenna College with a minor in computer science. Her dad said “she’s doing a job search right now.”

Asked by a caller whether his wife, Karen, worked when their children were young, he said, “My wife was a superwoman. She managed to work and be home. We had a unique situation because my office was in the house. I highly recommend it if it works for your occupation. It did afford the ability to work and be home with the kids at the same time.”

Karen Zuckerberg is a psychiatrist but she helps out in her husband’s office. Zuckerberg said he uses Facebook to promote his dental practice and spends about an hour a day on the site. He also still does Mark’s “routine dental care.”

intresting facts

Einstein was 4 years old before he could speak.

Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school and was considered "unpromising."

When Thomas Edison was a youngster, his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything. He was counseled to go into a field where he might succeed by virtue of his pleasant personality.

F.W. Woolworth got a job in a dry goods store when he was 21, but his boss would not permit him to wait on customers because he "didn't have enough sense to close a sale."

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.

Bob Cousy, a legendary Boston Celtic basketball player, suffered the same fate, but he too is a Hall of Famer.

A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he "lacked imagination and had no original ideas."

Winston Churchill failed 6th grade and had to repeat it because he did not complete the tests that were required for promotion.

Babe Ruth struck out 1,300 times, a major league record.

A person may make mistakes, but is not a failure until he or she starts blaming someone else. We must believe in ourselves, and somewhere along the road of life we will meet someone who sees greatness in us and lets us know it.

Butterfly

The Story of the Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body,
Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.

Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been
and we would never fly