Mark Zuckerberg Gave Me a Tour of Facebook!

It’s true! And here’s the picture to prove it. The summer before my Freshman year of high school, I was fortunate enough to be taken around the Facebook headquarters by none other than Mark Zuckerberg himself. It’s still one of the most mind-boggling things that has ever happened to me, and it taught me a great deal about what I want to do, and who I want to be in the world. Most importantly, I learned a great lesson about success. Here’s the full story.

Our photo with Mark Zuckerberg, taken right after our tour! Ariel still has her Google sticker on.

My cousins lived down in Palo Alto, California. Knowing how invested I was into technology, they invited my brother and I to come visit them. They had set up tours of various companies through connections they had. We were able to explore E-Trade, Dreamworks, and even the Google campus.

Our tour of Google was earlier in the morning, and was absolutely incredible. I couldn’t even fathom the creative genius I was surrounded by at every turn. Everyone seemed so happy to be working on such incredible projects. It was clear each of them knew they were making a difference in the world, and that it was all a team effort.

Dallas and I in front of a sign on the Google campus.

Google was the last tour we had lined up, but we thought it would be fun to stop by the Facebook building to see if they offered any type of tour, even though we had no connections there. After driving to what we thought was the Facebook headquarters, we learned they had just switched buildings- and that I had posted “I’m updating my status outside of the actual Facebook building!” while in the parking lot of a vacant building. Oops.

Once we made it to the new building, my cousin stayed in the car with her 6-month-old, while Dallas and I went inside. A kind man and who appeared to be his friend held the door for us at the entrance. We thought that was a kind gesture. Once inside we inquired of the secretary if they offered any sort of tours of the facilities. She told us, “No, but here’s someone you might want to meet.” She then gestured to the gentleman who had held the door for us, Mark Zuckerberg.

I had no idea who he was.

Keep in mind that this was before The Social Network had released (the trailer had just aired not even a full week prior to this day), and while “Mark Zuckerberg” was still a big name, it wasn’t commonly spoken in most households yet.

He walked over to Dallas and me and said, “Hey guys. My name is Mark. How are you?” We spoke for a minute or two while I continued to bite my tongue in order to stop myself from asking, “So what do you do here?” Thankfully I never said such words.

“I’m running late for a meeting, but I could show you around for a bit.”

We then did the unthinkable and asked the world’s youngest billionaire to wait while we got our cousin and nephew from the car. We jolted out of the building to get them, and Mark was still waiting patiently in the lobby when we returned.

For the next ten minutes, Mark took us behind the closed security doors of the Facebook headquarters. We saw the open spaces where they worked, the conference rooms, and even where they’d get their snacks. Everything was out in the open, and I just soaked it all in. We talked of our trip, what we had done so far, things they were working on, and questions I had about Facebook, and then we even spoke for a few minutes about programming and what languages I was most comfortable in.

He walked us back to the lobby and told me to keep at it. Saying that it would always be hard to continue forward, but to always keep creating. We posed for a picture, and then he, along with his friend from earlier, scanned their security badges and continued on to the meeting they were now extremely late for.

That meeting was with ABC News. They were interviewing him because that day they had reached 500 million users.

After Mark left, the secretary who originally introduced us told us we needed to go buy a lottery ticket. We were still shocked and puzzled by what had happened. She followed that up by saying, “I’ve never seen him take someone from the public behind those doors before.” At this point, we were all kicking ourselves. Surely he must’ve been incredibly important. And there was no doubt in our minds… he knew we didn’t know who he was!

But I’m fairly certain that’s the only reason he took the time out of his day to interact with us.