Speech
Good evening,
dear community of Harvard. My name is Eduardo Saverin. Probably some of you
know me because of Facebook, probably not. Maybe some of you know me because
I’m in a class with you. Well, it doesn´t matter, it is not why I am speaking
to you. I turn to you today because I want you to be conscious about an
important issue that can happen to anyone, and that happened to me.
Well,
before telling you my story, let me introduce myself. As I said before, my name
is Eduardo Saverin. I am a student of this university, but also I am the
co-founder of one of the most important social networks in the whole world:
Facebook. Because of this, I’m here in front of you.
Well, let
me tell you how Facebook started, and the real purpose of my speech, to tell
you to be careful about the ambition. I helped Mark, one of my best friends and
the founder of Facebook, with my money to found the social network, and also I
helped him with some algorithm issues. So, we accorded that I would have the
30% of the company, and Mark the resting 70%. Then the problem started. The
company reached a huge magnitude in a few time, so that was fantastic. The
problem was that my friend Mark started getting very ambitious, and he wanted
to make more and more money. Here is where the purpose of my speech starts,
dear students.
The
ambition of power and money can reach very high levels, don’t you think so?
Well, the problem is when this ambition reaches levels that exceed our values.
This is what I lived, and I tell you so don’t live the same. Always be careful,
people, always.
Mark and I
were happy because of the business growth. Everything was going fine, until
Mark fell in this level that the ambition of money was higher than the value of
friendship. From one day to another, he asked me to sign a paper. Can you
believe that this paper decreased my part of the company from a 30% to a 0.3%?
I would never believe this from my friend, so I signed the paper, trusting him.
As you can infer, I was wrong. He forgot that I was the one that helped him in
the starting of the company, he forgot that I was the one that contributed with
money, he forgot that I was his only friend! I remember I said him: “I was your
only friend – you had one friend”. But he forgot that, because now he could
have as many friends as he wanted, because he was important, popular. These are
not important things, students. You must not change a true friend for money,
because you are ambitious. Remember, dear community, that true friends are the ones that are in
all, independently from money, independently from the situation in which you
are involved, they are in all. Mark forgot that. He can make more friends,
obviously, but will they be true friends? Ask you this question before you fall
in the ambition, before considering betray a friend. When you have power,
surprisingly many people want to be your friend.
My friends,
I am telling you this thinking in the two possibilities: if you are the one
that falls in the problem of ambition or you are involved with someone that did
it. Always be careful. I was betrayed by my true friend. I would never believe
this before it really happen.
After this
entire situation, now I’m involved in a court case with the one I used to call
my friend. The ambition is not bad, but it must have limits. Never fall in
ambition, my friends, never. Before getting near to it, consider the things
that I said you today. I tell you this because you are intelligent people, and
you can create companies like the one that Mark and I founded. You can make
great things, people, but always establish limits, and don’t betray others,
especially if they are your friends. Don’t change your friends for power or
money, because these things are temporal, but friends are forever.
Thank you,
Harvard community.
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