The chapter begins with the twins and their friend Divya launching their website, ConnectU. They got an Indian computer nerd to help them do it and although they are excited that it is being launched for the first time, they are very pissed off. They are still angry because they believe that Mark stole their idea and their franchise. If he had not had done that, it would be their names in the media and their website that everyone nationally would be talking about. Therefore, they think that although the website is out there in the public, Mark has stole their thunder and their website probably will not be as successful. They are not angry at the idea that Mark might possibly make a huge profit out of the website because their families are rich but they're angry at the fact that he is getting fame out of what is rightfully theirs. In addition, it is unfair and frustrating.
In California, Mark and his friends spot Sean Parker as he is walking down the streets around his girlfriend's house. Initially, he does not recognize them and finds it strange that college guys were in this neighbourhood because the environment, overall, is for wealthy older people. He is then happy to be seeing them and sees it as fate had brought them together once again. Sean is living at his girlfriend's parents house and will be homeless in a few days. Mark then makes a gesture that he can come live with them and Sean takes the invitation. Throughout the time that Mark is talking, Sean finds it very strange that Eduardo is not there to contribute and is even thinking that maybe he is not part of the equation anymore. The next few days, Sean begins to realize how passionate Mark is and how much of a genius he truly is. At times, Mark is working from 12 noon until 5 AM to expand thefacebook into a bigger project. Sean starts excluding Edardo from his mind because the fact that he is not here means that he does not want to be here so now knows the way for him to make a huge profit is to work with these four guys in front of him. In Sean's mind, in order to create a social network website, you have to be social. So he is going to try to eradicate Mark's social awkwardness and will introduce him to a world of partying, drinking and girls. As for Eduardo, he thinks that it is simply unfortunate he will not be a part of the journey.
Eduardo is tired of missing the big meetings and the big parties the rest of the guys have been attending. Eventually he changes his mind and quits his internship. He then travels down to California and Mark & the guys are supposed to pick him up from the airport. When they come, he notices that Sean is not with them. Rather, he is at a party. Later on, the guys meet up with Sean at the party where they are invited up to the VIP section with Sean. Sean then pours them a glass of very expensive vodka. At the VIP section, Sean is blabbing on about a time where he was at a party/event for Paypal. Eduardo, on the other hand, is not paying attention because the table next to his is the table of four Victoria Secrets models. One of them begin talking to Mark and after small talk, the next thing Eduardo sees is the model and Mark walking out of the party.
The next day, Eduardo feels his phone vibrate. The person calling is Kelly and suddenly he feels guilty because he has not called her for a while since being in California. Note that Kelly is a very jealous girlfriend who is constantly assuming and accusing Eduardo of cheating. When he picks up the phone, she is sobbing because she had set the present he left for her and his clothes on fire. The fire department had to come set the fire off and were even considering arresting her.
Tyler and Cameron attend a crew meet in England. Although they raced very hard, they are beaten by the Dutch team by two seconds. Afterwards, a man comes to talk to them because his daughter had taken pictures of them racing. When the man says that the daughter can send the pictures to them via thefacebook, both Cameron and Tyler are outraged because they had not realized that the website is becoming an international affair. Their idea is being turned into this exorbitant thing that everyone is talking about.
The next chapter is about Eduardo and his thoughts. He feels extremely excluded from thefacebook because Mark is attending all these meetings set up by Sean with top executives without consulting him. He has been sending Mark numerous messages in the hopes of getting connected with thefacebook. He is also very aware that the company is going to be needing more money as more people join the site. To get his message across, the decides to freeze the account so that neither Mark nor Sean will be able to take money out of the account.
Sean and Mark continue on with their lives. They attend a huge meeting with Peter Thiel, a big business man, who is always looking for the next big thing. Within a span of 15 minutes, he offers them a done deal of $500, 000 to work with them on thefacebook. After careful deliberation, they agree to the deal, agree to drop "thefacebook" to just "Facebook" and agree to letting Mr. Thiel have 7% of the profit. From the perspective of Sean, he thinks that they are better off without Eduardo He thinks that Eduardo betrayed them by leaving at the most crucial time for Facebook, freezing the account, threatening them, and most importantly, threatening Facebook. For that reason, he thinks that Eduardo's 30% profit from the company should be lowered because he is not really offering them anything no longer. Despite that, he is excited to be working towards a company that he knows has so much potential and pleased to be working with Mark Zuckerberg who he knows will do anything for his creation.
"He still had that college girlfriend whom he saw about once a week, and he liked to take long drives when he got tired of the computer-but otherwise he was a coding machine. He lived, breathed, and ate the company he had created." (Mezrich 210)
This quote demonstrates the dedication and hard work Mark had put in before and while creating Facebook. A person once advised me not to text and do other frivolous things because the time that I am taking to do those things are the times where I could be coming up with or implementing on a killer idea. Mark clearly lives by this standard that I was once advised. He only saw his girlfriend once a week (practically was too busy and did not have time for her) and everything he did was dedicated to making Facebook the grande network that it is today. Occasionally, of course, because he is human, he took breaks but those breaks were to take long drives. He did not spend time watching TV or other activities that a copious amount of twenty year olds enjoyed. Rather, he spent time chasing his dreams. My parents always advice me not to watch TV and to find a passion that will get me somewhere in life. They always tell me that TV will always be there after I become successful and it is always best to work towards success now and to enjoy these little things after I have reached the apex. Therefore, this quote allowed me to think in retrospect of many words of wisdom that I grew up listening to and it really shows me the efforts geniuses put in becoming great.
I also like the subtle imagery the author put (if that is imagery) about Mark living, breathing, and eating the company. Ultimately, it shows that that is what he spent his entire time doing because he was dedicated.
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