With more than 21 million Facebook followers, it stands to reason that Mark Zuckerberg is receiving a lot of wall post notifications right now.
The social network’s founder and CEO turns 30 today, just three months after celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the juggernaut company that turned him into a billionaire.
(Photo: Nati Harnik/ Associated Press)
Best known for creating “The Facebook” in his dorm room at Harvard (and subsequently building it into one of the world’s most important companies,) Zuckerberg was the youngest ever self-made billionaire to appear on the Forbes Billionaires list when he debuted in 2008.
Today, the college dropout is worth an estimated $28.6 billion, or nearly a billion dollars for every candle on his cake, as Kyle Jordan points out.
Many of Zuckerberg’s fans took to social media to wish him a happy birthday this morning, but even more around the web were baffled by how much the entrepreneur had accomplished by such a young age.
To celebrate the occasion, Mashable created an infographic (photo above) contrasting Zuckerberg against the average 30-year-old American male. Venturing beyond his net worth and professional success, the infographic also takes playful shots at the Facebook CEO’s affinity for wearing hoodies and alleged “$1.00” US salary.
To compliment the infographic, Mashable’s Max Knoblauch also created a “Mark Zuckerberg Guide to Hoodie Fashion” — but he was far from alone in calling attention to Zuck’s … relaxed sense of style today.
“The hoodie is to Mark Zuckerberg what the black turtleneck was to Steve Jobs, a piece of clothing that makes for a simple, unfussy uniform,” wrote Simon Chilvers in a Guardian piece called “Happy 30th birthday Mark Zuckerberg – time to dress like a man.“
“Truly, everything he wears looks a mess, as if he has peeled it off a dorm-room floor, given it a shake and put it back on again,” wrote Chilvers.
Many on Twitter are making reference to Zuckerberg’s iconic hoodie today in honour of the occasion, though not all of them agree that it should be scrapped. Some are actually wearing hoodies today as a tribute to the Facebook founder.
Others around the web are rounding up old Zuckerberg quotes to celebrate the occasion, most notably one from a 2007 speech Zuckerberg gave at the Y Combinator Startup School event in Stanford.
While a highly frequented Reddit thread in the TIL subforum claims that Zuckerberg said, “if you’re 30 or older, you’re a slow old man,” CNET and other news outlets report that he actually said, “I want to stress the importance of being young and technical,” as well as, “Young people are just smarter.”
“Why are most chess masters under 30?” he asked at the time. “I don’t know… Young people just have simpler lives. We may not own a car. We may not have family.”
Did, or do, you feel the need to change your fashion style at age 30? Do you think turning 30 is getting old, or just getting better?