Nearly everyone else wanted to sell, but I didn’t. I wanted to see if we could connect more people. It tore our company apart, fraying relationships until, within a year or so, every single person on the management team was gone. That was my hardest time leading Facebook.

I believed in what we were doing, but I felt alone. And worse, it was my fault. It taught me that it’s not enough to have purpose yourself. You have to create a sense of purpose for others. And I hadn’t explained what I hoped to build. That sense of purpose creates motivation and meaning for people beyond just surviving or making money. It attracts other people who are interested in the right things. People here build products because they want to do something meaningful and play an important part in how people use Facebook. The company has to be successful for us to keep going, but the real motivation is creating positive social change in the world. I think that’s true for most good businesses. Building something like Facebook and running a community like ours requires some inspiration. A lot of our leadership team is wired that way. Our compass as a company is all about making our services available to the most people possible so we can give everyone around the world a voice.

People often ask me for advice about starting a company, and I always tell them their goal should never be starting a company. Focus on the change you want to make, find people who share your same purpose, and eventually you may have an opportunity to build something that helps create purpose for others and has a positive impact on the world.