Introduction
Anyone who had been acquainted with the social media site Facebook at least knows that the famed website is the brainchild of a college dropout Mark Zuckerberg. The movie was an adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s book“The Accidental Billionaire.” It generally features how Facebook came to life through its two founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Severin. The two characters based on real-life individuals both lives the college life at Harvard in 2003. However, individual difference sets them apart from each other. These differences and similarities will encompass this discussion focusing on three important elements namely background, aspirations and differences in outlook for success. It is apparent from the film that the two characters are looking forward to achieving their goal of building a social network, but ended in separation as they came to realize the end of the goals.
Background
Mark and Eduardo are college buddies back in Harvard University. Eduardo is taking up bachelor in Economics while Mark is taking up computer programming. Although, both characters are depicted in the movies as college students, their intellectual capacity is geared towards separate area of expertise. Eduardo is an economics and business genius making money even while in his early years in college by investing in stock market. On the other hand, Mark is more of a computer programming wizard who had once crashed Harvard’s network by setting up a website that had 22,000 page requests in two hours choking the school’s network system. However, there is one similarity between the two characters during their time in Harvard and that is to be a member of the University’s prestigious fraternity such as the Phoenix Club.
Aspirations
Since Mark is a programming wizard while Eduardo is a business genius their differences are apparent from the way they handle the planning of the early version of Facebook. Both agreed to have a common goal and that is to create a website that connects people where everyone can virtually socialize. However, Mark played the role of the architect of the whole website up to writing the codes. Eduardo on the other hand has a different goal that explains the reason for teaming up with Mark in creating Facebook. Eduardo is playing the role of a CFO who handles the business end of the website. He made contributions to the project by putting up capital for start up out of his own pocket. On the other hand Mark’s initiative is to create a place where everyone can socialize regardless of social association. This is due to his frustration of not being able to get into Harvard’s exclusive clubs and he sees “The Facebook” as his ticket in getting there. Eduardo is already on the initiation stage of his membership to the fraternity club, which defeats the purpose that Mark has in creating the website.
Outlook for Success
Mark realized the potential of Facebook in connecting people together as a socializing tool. However, Eduardo’s outlook for success starts with ventures and capital. He believes that in order for the website to expand, there must be a business segment in the venture that will pour in profits to keep the website operation going through advertising. However, Mark thinks differently and he believes that in order for the website to spread across, there must be a person with enough experience in the field to bring Facebook to the public. That is the reason why Mark brought in to the team Sean Parker who is also the founder of Napster. Eduardo believes that his capability as a businessperson would bring Facebook the investment it needs to expand. On the other hand, Mark wants to take bold steps in order for Facebook to succeed. Sure enough, the website received an investment funding from a Silicon Valley company that brought in $500,000 worth of investment. Such development overwhelmed Eduardo to the point that he failed to see where he is heading in the company. Mark continued to succeed while Eduardo was left with a marginal ownership of the company, which led to a legal battle between the two and eventually ended up their friendship. This exemplifies that when two people had different objectives towards a common goal, both will journey to different directions and one will get the shorter end of the stick.
Conclusion
Comparing Mark and Eduardo from the film “The Social Network” gives the audience a sense of irony, that even though two person acts towards a common goal, but has different objectives the results is that one of them will end up in an opposite end of their journey. Mark is a character that is not afraid to take bold steps regardless of the risk he might encounter along the way. That is because his aspirations are fueled with enthusiasm and creativity. Eduardo on the other hand might have been not so successful in keeping his foothold in the company. This is because his aspirations towards the creation of Facebook lack the same level of enthusiastic energy as what Mark has demonstrated. Mark has a definite purpose beyond profit for putting up Facebook while Eduardo’s purpose in the Facebook goal is not as strong as that of Mark’s.
Works Cited
Rottentomatoes.com. "The Social Network." rottentomatoes.com. rottentomatoes.com, n.d. Web. 9 July 2013. <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-social-network/>.
The Social Network. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake. 2010. Columbia Pictures, 2010. Film.
