当代最伟大的12位企业家

7. 马克•扎克伯格

公司名称：Facebook

销售额：37.1亿美元

市值：750亿–1,000亿美元 (估计值)

员工人数：3,200

建议: 信奉偏执。

    等到今年5月马克•扎克伯格庆祝28岁生日时，Facebook很可能已经上市，成为历史上规模最大的IPO。外界期待已久的这次上市活动将造就数百位百万富翁和一家估值近1,000亿美元的网络公司，而这位当年从哈佛大学（Harvard University）辍学的科技奇才也将成为同龄人中新一代的比尔•盖茨。

    然而，这一切距离扎克伯格当初在哈佛大学宿舍里推出这个社交网站的时间仅仅只有短短八年。人们很容易将他的成功归结于运气和时机。那就大错特错了。帮助Facebook成为全球第一社交网站的是一个偏执的创业天才，他从硅谷另一位传奇人物、英特尔（Intel）的安迪•格鲁夫身上汲取了灵感。众所周知，格鲁夫常常宣称的：“只有偏执狂才能生存”，而且他一直在用生命实践这个箴言。

    扎克伯格是当今硅谷最偏执的企业家，事事绝不想当然。正是由于这个原因，他才得以不断推动Facebook平台的创新和调整，降低开发人员为这个网络社区编写应用软件的门槛，同时确保每个新版本都领先于竞争对手。Facebook迄今为止还没有在社交领域遭遇任何严重的挑战，甚至行业巨头谷歌去年发起的挑战也不例外，而唯一最重要的原因也正在于此。

7. Mark Zuckerberg

Company: Facebook

Sales: $3.71 billion

MarketValue: $75 billion-$100 billion (estimate)

Employees: 3,200

Advice: Embrace paranoia.

    By the time Mark Zuckerberg celebrates his 28th birthday this May, Facebook will in all likelihood have gone public and become the biggest IPO of all time. The long-anticipated event will create hundreds of millionaires, result in a valuation of an Internet company that will approach $100 billion, and make the geek who dropped out of Harvard University his generation's Bill Gates.

    Yet it has been only eight years since the social-networking site was launched from Zuckerberg's dorm room at Harvard. It would be easy to chalk a good bit of his success to luck and timing. But that would be a serious mistake. What's helped make Facebook the world's dominant social network is an obsessive entrepreneurial genius who has taken a page from another of Silicon Valley's legendary denizens, Intel's Andy Grove, who famously stated -- and lived by -- the dictum that only the paranoid survive.

    Zuckerberg is the Valley's most paranoid entrepreneur these days, taking nothing for granted. It's why he has pushed out a constant flow of innovative changes to Facebook's platform, making it easier for developers to create applications for the community and ensuring that each new iteration keeps it ahead of the competition. It's the single most important explanation for why Facebook has yet to face any formidable rival in its space, including last year's challenge from heavyweight Google.