Mark Zuckerberg is now the sixth richest person in the world based on the latest ranking by Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The 31-year old Facebook founder and CEO is arguably the fastest rising billionaire following an overnight surge of his net worth which now reached as high as $47.5 billion.
Bloomberg's data also reveals that Zuckerberg's net worth even surpassed the likes of Republican-aligned brothers Charles and David Koch. The brothers, who run Koch Industries, share the same net worth value at $45.9 billion each.
The latest ranking had placed Microsoft founder Bill Gates at the number one spot and cited his net worth to have reached $78 billion. Other names that made it to the top five include Spanish fashion businessman and founding chairman of Inditex ($69.7 billion); American business magnate Warren Buffett ($59.4 billion); Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ($55.8 billion); and Mexican business mogul Carlos Slim ($48.6 billion), The Guardian reported.
This means that Zuckerberg is only $30.5 billion away from landing the number one spot on the list.
Prior to his 31st birthday, Zuckerberg has a net worth of around $37 billion.
Based on these figures, Zuckerberg may just be able to match or even surpass Gates' achievement in a matter of three years. In other words, if he consistently gains as much as $10.5 billion a year, similar to what he has achieved between last year and the latest data from Bloomberg, Zuckerberg could just be the world's richest person under 40 years.
Zuckerberg's rise to success has definitely caught the world's attention. Just like other billionaires, he is very willing to share some advice to all those who dreamed of being on his shoes.
Learn to connect. As the founder of Facebook, Zuckerberg had always known the power of connections. His mission of bringing everyone on Earth closer together is seen on his numerous efforts such as launching Facebook's free Internet service to various regions in the world. Roughly speaking, two out of three people with Internet access are on Facebook, according to Time.
Learn to give. Just like the old adage that says "It is better to give than to receive," Zuckerberg lives up to this practice and had been generous in donating his shares to charity. His latest philanthropic move is when he and his wife revealed plans to give 99 percent of Facebook's shares to charity. The announcement came just a little less than two months following the birth of their baby girl. The shares, which had an estimated amount of $45 billion, are aimed to reach the goal of "advancing human potential and promoting equality," according to Digital Trends.
Don't give up. In an impromptu AMA session at Facebook, Zuckerberg was asked about the most important secret of success. His answer is quite simple: "Don't give up." This leads to another advice which has been tweaked a little: "If at first you don't succeed, change something and try again."
Always set new goals. Zuckerberg is one person who has a knack on taking personal challenges in order to learn new things and eventually grow as a person. Some of these challenges he had set in the past include reading two books for every month, learning Mandarin, meeting a new person every day, etc. In one FB comment, Zuckerberg replied to Facebook user Darlene Hackemer Loretto who posted on how she would tell her granddaughters to go on a date with the nerd in their school. She reasoned out that such nerd could turn out to be a Mark Zuckerberg. He replied with the words "Even better would be to encourage them to *be* the nerd in their school so they can be the next successful inventor!," Time reported. The comment, which earned over 20,000 likes, even became a trending hashtag material and is now being known as #bethenerd.
Follow your passion. Since childhood, Zuckerberg had always been passionate about programming. He kept that passion alive in him even if it meant breaking some rules. He even dropped out of college in order to make sure that his passion keeps burning inside him. He was willing to make sacrifices for the sake of his passion.
Take criticisms as a learning opportunity. Zuckerberg had his own share of criticisms just like any other successful entrepreneurs. Some of these criticisms are either meant to attack him personally or they revolve around issues on Facebook. Zuckerberg sees criticism as an important aspect to get on top. He learned to accept criticism and did his best to leverage on it.