Best Advice 7 Tech Idols Ever Received

The most successful people in every industry, including technology have received a piece of precious advice, at some point in their life from someone, which turned the course of their life and made them what they are today.

 
Richard Parsons, Former chairman of Citigroup considers the advice from Steve Ross, former CEO of Time Warner as his life changing one: "Just remember, it's a small business and a long life. You are going to see all these people again."

 
Business Insider compiled a list of such best tips the executives ever received and shared over the years. Here are some of the lessons received by the tech icons like Bill Gates to new world tech stars like Ben Silberman of Pinterest.

 

Marissa Mayer, VP,Google

 
“My friend Andre said to me, ‘you know, Marissa, you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself to pick the right choice, and I have got to be honest: That is not what I see here. I see a bunch of good choices, and there is the one that you pick and make great’. I think that is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten.”

 
-From an interview with Social Times

 

Eric Schmidt, Google -->

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google

“Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids."

-From the book “The Best Advice I Ever Got” by Katie Couric.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook -->

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

When Sandberg was thinking she would not accept an offer to be Google’s general manager, Eric Schmidt told her, “Stop being an idiot; all that matters is growth.” She says that is the best advice she ever got.

Larry Page, Google -->

Larry Page, Co-founder, Google

"In graduate school at Stanford University, I had about ten different ideas of things I wanted to do, and one of them was to look at the link structure of the web. My advisor, Terry Winograd, picked that one out and said, 'Well, that one seems like a really good idea.' So I give him credit for that."

-From an interview with CNN Money

Bill Gates, Microsoft -->

Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft

"Warren Buffett has taught me a lot of things, but he got me thinking very early on that at some point I'd have the opportunity and responsibility to give the wealth back. And so, literally decades before the foundation got started I was reading about philanthropists from the past … what they'd done and how it worked."

Ben Silberman, Pinterest -->

Ben Silberman, Co-founder, Pinterest

"Don't take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give - with a few exceptions - generalize whatever they did. ...Every company carves its own path, and (founders) are under pressure to make their startups look like the last successful company everyone remembers."

Richard Branson, Virgin Group -->

Richard Branson, founder and chairman, Virgin Group

 
"My mother always taught me never to look back in regret but to move on to the next thing. The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me. I have fun running ALL the Virgin businesses — so a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve."

 
-Taken from an interview with The Good Entrepreneur.

Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

 
Berkshire Hathaway director Thomas Murphy once told “the legendary investor”:

 
"Never forget Warren, you can tell a guy to go to hell tomorrow - you don't give up the right. So just keep your mouth shut today, and see if you feel the same way tomorrow."

 
-From an interview with Yahoo

Meet The Secret Weapon Facebook Poached From Microsoft

 Facebook is going through rough times. But the company’s recent moves indicate that the social networking giant is all set to resurrect itself in the near future all thanks to Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions. A firebrand business woman she was with Microsoft when Facebook got a whiff of her talent in marketing. In an interview with The Huffington Post she talks about her responsibilities at Facebook and why the social networking site is a success. Read on to know her better.

 
1. Carolyn- Facebook’s Latest Weapon

 
Carolyn is the VP Global Marketing so she is directly responsible for the revenues that come in through ads. Her job requires her to make friends with the top 1500 marketing companies in the world. She handles over 20 teams all across the world.

 
Another crucial part of her role at Facebook is to negotiate between two power camps that don’t normally see eye to eye. Madison Avenue suites and Fortune 500 CEO’S are not yet convinced about social media being the next big thing. Her job is to keep these biggies convinced with Facebook’s growing presence on the web.

2. Carolyn- A Strong Employee

 
Carolyn has a very impressive employment history which led her to work for one of the biggest companies the tech world has seen. Armed with an MBA from Harvard Business School she has worked as an analyst at Accenture, a manager, Business Development at Walt Disney Imagineering.

 
She was the VP at Primedia and then served as the COO, EVP MTVN ad sales as Viacom. She catapulted mtvU into Viacom’s fastest growing business and its ad business tripled. She was then hired by Microsoft Corporation as the CVP, Global Ad Sales & Strategy.

 
Less than a year at the job she received a call from Sheryl Sandberg to come on board with Facebook. “My heart jumped when the phone call came,” Everson said. “I feel like this kind of opportunity comes along once in a lifetime.” Shortly after that she joined Facebook.

3. Carolyn- The Believer In Facebook

 
Carolyn believes that the online version of people is really the offline version of them. She also is surprised that human behavior has not changed at all. People are passionate about causes and Facebook gives them a platform to show that they care.

 
She says that people share things on Facebook for ‘basic human truth’. Facebook helps make lives easier for users. According to her the social networking site works because “it's taking your offline self and putting it in an online environment. It's the first time we've had that on the Internet. It's the only place that has your true, authentic identity.”

4. Carolyn- The Yummy Mommy

 
Carolyn is mother to 9 year old twins, Taylor and Kenned. Her life revolves around her kids and she never misses any ‘firsts’ with her kids. Be it first play or the first hockey games she is always there. Her family also accompanies her on business trips because she thinks it’s important for them to know that they are a part of her work life.

 
Everson the powerhouse says, “Don't sweat the small stuff. My twins were born at 27 weeks and had a 30% chance of survival. When you go through something like that, you try to have a healthy perspective on life." At 40 she looks amazing and she surely is a ‘yummy mommy’.
5. Carolyn- The Woman At Work

 
She does not believe in a gender divide. According to her people at work are a team and not just men and women working together. Everyone has just as much right as everyone else to have a voice, to think about career progression, to go home and be there for their family, including men.

 
Her advice for women at work is to decide what is important. “If being at a doctor’s appointment is important to you, then go. If seeing your kids in the morning is critical, then just come in late. Don’t be intimated about making decisions.”

 
It is this confidence and strong headed attitude that keeps her on top. Carolyn is a miracle worker so let us wait and watch how she steers Facebook around.

Craziest Facts about Facebook that You Would Want to Know

Amidst so many things said and heard, Business insider has collected some crazy facts about Facebook that have made the company a treat for the readers.

 
Let’s take a look at 26 such facts that kept the giant social network in the news.

 


 
1. Facebooks Worth would be more than eBay, Yahoo, Groupon, LinkedIn, Netflix, IAC, AOL, Zynga and Pandora combined, when

it goes public

 

.

 
2. Eduardo Saverin, the Brazilian co founder of Facebook has renounced his US citizenship and is now investing billions in startups at Singapore.

 


 
3. Of all the incredible talents that Zuckerberg is bestowed with, his greatest and what seems to be his favorite is Firing People.

 


 

4. About 60 percent of the voting power at Facebook is controlled by Zuckerberg.

5. The big shot media company Viacom had offered to acquire Facebook, but was rejected by Mark Zuckerberg.

 

6. After agreeing to an acquisition offer from Yahoo while it was led by Terry Semel, Facebook staepped down from the deal when there were talks of lowering the offer price.

 


 

 

7. The Microsoft CEO, steve Ballmer had offered to buy Facebook. Steve has invested $240 million in Facebook till date.


 
8. Facebook interviewed Yahoo executive Ellen Siminoff, Apple veteran Bud Colligan, and former OpenTable CEO Jeff Jordan for the position of COO which is now held by Sheryl Sandberg.


9. Steve jobs had to cancel the presentation that he had offered Facebook for the iphone application in 2008. Jobs, who had expected Zuckerberg to do the presentation was disappointed by the audition of the engineer who was selected by the Facebook CEO.

 


10. Maintaining his reputation of having a a bad fashion sense, Zuckerberg wore a hoodie to the meeting with wall street investors.

 


 

11. In 2005, Mark Zuckerberg took CEO lessons to improve his managerial skills.

 

12. Mark Zuckerberg is said to be a big time Glee fan.