They didn't need to work their backsides off to get to where they are. They just made a semi-decent product at the right time and money was thrown at them.
There are millions who just weren't there at the right time and probably far more flamboyant ones because the longer answer is the author is probably mixing up boring with stable.
Isn't is possible that they got incredibly lucky AND worked their backsides off?
It should be clear that (1) abundant money and (2) abundant brains and (3) abundant luck are ALL necessary criteria for out-sized successes.
That's absurd.
He started by limiting Facebook to colleges so it could scale.
He was able to attract top class engineering talent to help him.
He entered a crowded market and obliterated all his competitors entirely through having a superior social networking product.
He retained control over his own company - avoiding the kind of agist outing that Larry Page and Sergey Brin experienced (i.e. investors who demanded "adult supervision" in the form of Eric Schmidt).
He convinced Instagram to sell, and made it profitable, apparently.
He convinced WhatsApp to sell and probably will make it profitable.
How many people in the tech industry can point to such a track record at all, let alone at Zuck's age? The guy doesn't only seriously understand tech. He also understands people.
For whatever missteps they've made, on the balance it's been absurdly well run.
I think he easily makes the list of the top ten smartest people in tech, along with Bezos, Scott Cook, Jonah Peretti, etc.
Hard working or not, it’s hard to find an example billionaire who, if you look back far enough, didn’t have some lucky event that enabled that success.
I reached out to someone that is easily a peer of these types once and asked for advice, wanting to know what their secret was. Their reply was indeed that they were afraid it was was mostly luck.
That said, that individual is far more interesting than most of their peers (even those that are more successful financially).
1) Take having fun seriously
2) Getting lucky is fine
I know he worked hard on things, but basically his point was that he was very lucky and in the right place at the right time.