Am I worth less than Mark Zuckerberg?

I studied computer science

I thought I could change the world when I left school

(perhaps naively assuming I needed to stick around until I finished school)

I started my first venture when I was 23

(albeit with a slightly less ambitious goal than to connect the world)

So why am I not worth $19.1B (or even $15.5B)?

Mom?

This must have been my big-man train of thought when I blurted out “I’m no Mark Zuckerburg, but…” to my wife as we were shopping for maternity clothes.

This weekend’s mission was to find a pair of white linen pants (or a red poly-cotton blend dress, whichever came first...), and winning would mean taking home a piece we could dress up or dress down and fit into all throughout the last two and a half months of our pregnancy!

I’m sure navigating the largest tech IPO in history wasn’t easy for Mark, but that must have been quite linear and predictable compared to our shopping adventure!

Before I could finish the sentence, and possibly become self-aware, she pulled me close, kissed me on the cheek and proclaimed “you are my Mark Zuckerburg”!

I felt loved. I felt like a man. Possibly worth more than Mark Zuckerberg.

Five incredibly perceptive and well-timed words from her, that’s all it took.

If one lady in my life has that kind of power, how is this going to work when I have two??

73 days to go.