Mark Zuckerberg Calls the 'A-Ha!' Moment a Myth In his third-ever town hall-style Q&A, the Facebook founder discussed some misconceptions that surround entrepreneurship.
By Geoff Weiss
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
During Mark Zuckerberg's first-ever trip to Bogota, Colombia -- where he touched down yesterday to herald the launch of Internet.org -- the Facebook founder made a rather surprising admission: "I'm a big fan of Shakira. A really big fan," he blushed. "I don't speak Spanish, but I like her Spanish music."
Zuckerberg, who seems more visible than ever of late after kicking off a virtual book club and rolling out a series of public town hall-style discussions, spoke of his love for the pop star -- among more serious topics -- during the third-ever installment of Q&A with Mark, which can be viewed in full right here.
In his latest talk, Zuckerberg took the time to share some fascinating thoughts about entrepreneurship, including common misconceptions that surround founders. When asked about the "exact moment' that he came up with the idea for Facebook, Zuckerberg paused quizzically and said, "I don't think that's how the world works."
"Ideas typically do not just come to you," he said. "It's a lot of dots that you connect to make it so that you finally realize that you can potentially do something."
Related: To Improve His 'Media Diet,' Mark Zuckerberg Announces Virtual Book Club
Another popular fallacy, he said, is the notion that he created Facebook singlehandedly. "Yeah, me and thousands of other people -- and then millions of people using our products -- built the community."
The danger in propagating such narratives, Zuckerberg says, is that it can be deeply discouraging to aspiring entrepreneurs. "It makes you feel like, "Hey, I haven't had my moment…maybe I'm not as good as people who built a whole company buy themselves.'"
Building businesses, he believes, is actually a lot more accessible than the media makes it sound.
At the end of the day, Zuckerberg also attributes Facebook's success to an incredible stroke of luck. "There was no reason why a group of college students should've been able to build this network," he said. "Some company that knew way more about building things should've done that instead. So there was definitely a lot of luck involved in the fact that we ended up being the people to do it."
And for that opportunity, he says, he is endlessly grateful.
Related: 'I Am Not a Cool Person': Our 5 Favorite Takeaways From Mark Zuckerberg's First Public Q&A
