I was at a conference yesterday scouting some potential speakers for the CAAMP, 2012 Mortgage Forum.  Our co-partners, The Art of, hosted a conference yesterday and I wanted to get a firsthand look to see if there was a fit.  There were a number of speakers who would bring value to the upcoming CAAMP conference, and we’ll start announcing the speakers we start locking them up contractually.  I listened to one speaker today and all I could say was, “you got to be kidding, all that before you’re 30?”

I’m referring to Randi Zuckerberg.  Yes, that Zuckerberg.  After graduating from Harvard, her brother Mark called her and said he needed her to come to California.  He explained that he and his buddies were working on this thing called Facebook, and they needed someone to do their digital advertising for them.  Seeing how she graduated with a marketing degree from Harvard, and that she was a blood relation, and oh yeah, would work for free, she took a leave of absence from her job in New York to help her brother out in California.  This was going to be a summer gig, and she would move back to New York when she was done.  She never moved back.  I was stuck by her life’s experience prior to the age of 30, and it was a direct result of her affiliation with Facebook.  She covered the earthquake in Haiti for Facebook.  She conducted an interview live on Facebook with President Obama; she covered the 2010 US Congressional Elections, and the Arab uprising for Facebook.  These experiences are what some journalists could only dream of experiencing in a lifetime.  Yet here’s a woman that’s been able to condense all that in span of less than 10 years.  She left Facebook recently to start a family, and she’s launching a new social media company within six months.

I wonder if she’s bored.  And if she is, how the hell does she top what she’s already experienced.  Is her new social media company going to help end the dispute in the Middle East?  Maybe she can convince Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to go on twitter, and see how many followers he could get.  But I suspect the only thing he would tweet is “death to the great Satan, America”, on the hour, every hour.  So I’m not sure how many followers he would get; definitely less than Justin Bieber.  Maybe she can convince Ahmadinejad to get his own Facebook page, and invite President Obama to be his friend.  I don’t know what Randi Zuckerberg plans on doing with her new social media company; she made no mention of it.  Who knows how successful she’ll be without brother Mark.  However, given the Facebook IPO, I suspect she has a very fluffy cushion to fall on if her new venture doesn’t work.

It really is impressive to listen to successful people, and to hear about the life experience their work has provided them.  It’s also a reminder about the stories we tell, and how relevant are they?  When you’re asked “what’s new?”, and you answer “same old, same old”, that just doesn’t cut it anymore.  Especially when you consider that the person asking the question has the world at their keyboard.

Until next time,

Cheers.