Here is a lovely and inspiring letter by the Zuckerbergs to their new daughter-Max-








Dear Max,
Your mother and I don't yet have the words to
describe the hope you give us for the future. Your
new life is full of promise, and we hope you will be
happy and healthy so you can explore it fully.
You've already given us a reason to reflect on the
world we hope you live in.
Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a
world better than ours today.
While headlines often focus on what's wrong, in
many ways the world is getting better. Health is
improving. Poverty is shrinking. Knowledge is
growing. People are connecting. Technological
progress in every field means your life should be
dramatically better than ours today.
We will do our part to make this happen, not only
because we love you, but also because we have a
moral responsibility to all children in the next
generation.
We believe all lives have equal value, and that
includes the many more people who will live in
future generations than live today. Our society has
an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of
all those coming into this world, not just those
already here.
But right now, we don't always collectively direct
our resources at the biggest opportunities and
problems your generation will face.
Consider disease. Today we spend about 50 times
more as a society treating people who are sick than
we invest in research so you won't get sick in the
first place.
Medicine has only been a real science for less than
100 years, and we've already seen complete cures
for some diseases and good progress for others. As
technology accelerates, we have a real shot at
preventing, curing or managing all or most of the
rest in the next 100 years.
Today, most people die from five things -- heart
disease, cancer, stroke, neurodegenerative and
infectious diseases -- and we can make faster
progress on these and other problems.
Once we recognize that your generation and your
children's generation may not have to suffer from
disease, we collectively have a responsibility to tilt
our investments a bit more towards the future to
make this reality. Your mother and I want to do
our part.
Curing disease will take time. Over short periods of
five or ten years, it may not seem like we're
making much of a difference. But over the long
term, seeds planted now will grow, and one day,
you or your children will see what we can only
imagine: a world without suffering from disease.
There are so many opportunities just like this. If
society focuses more of its energy on these great
challenges, we will leave your generation a much
better world.

• • •

Our hopes for your generation focus on two ideas:
advancing human potential and promoting
equality.
Advancing human potential is about pushing the
boundaries on how great a human life can be.
Can you learn and experience 100 times more than
we do today?
Can our generation cure disease so you live much
longer and healthier lives?
Can we connect the world so you have access to
every idea, person and opportunity?
Can we harness more clean energy so you can
invent things we can't conceive of today while
protecting the environment?
Can we cultivate entrepreneurship so you can build
any business and solve any challenge to grow peace
and prosperity?
Promoting equality is about making sure
everyone has access to these opportunities --
regardless of the nation, families or circumstances
they are born into.
Our society must do this not only for justice or
charity, but for the greatness of human progress.
Today we are robbed of the potential so many have
to offer. The only way to achieve our full potential
is to channel the talents, ideas and contributions of
every person in the world.
Can our generation eliminate poverty and hunger?
Can we provide everyone with basic healthcare?
Can we build inclusive and welcoming
communities?
Can we nurture peaceful and understanding
relationships between people of all nations?
Can we truly empower everyone -- women,
children, underrepresented minorities, immigrants
and the unconnected?
If our generation makes the right investments, the
answer to each of these questions can be yes -- and
hopefully within your lifetime.

• • •

This mission -- advancing human potential and
promoting equality -- will require a new approach
for all working towards these goals.
We must make long term investments over 25,
50 or even 100 years. The greatest challenges
require very long time horizons and cannot be
solved by short term thinking.
We must engage directly with the people we
serve. We can't empower people if we don't
understand the needs and desires of their
communities.
We must build technology to make change. Many
institutions invest money in these challenges, but
most progress comes from productivity gains
through innovation.
We must participate in policy and advocacy to
shape debates. Many institutions are unwilling to
do this, but progress must be supported by
movements to be sustainable.
We must back the strongest and most
independent leaders in each field. Partnering
with experts is more effective for the mission than
trying to lead efforts ourselves.
We must take risks today to learn lessons for
tomorrow. We're early in our learning and many
things we try won't work, but we'll listen and learn
and keep improving.

• • •

Our experience with personalized learning,
internet access, and community education and
health has shaped our philosophy.
Our generation grew up in classrooms where we
all learned the same things at the same pace
regardless of our interests or needs.
Your generation will set goals for what you want to
become -- like an engineer, health worker, writer or
community leader. You'll have technology that
understands how you learn best and where you
need to focus. You'll advance quickly in subjects
that interest you most, and get as much help as you
need in your most challenging areas. You'll explore
topics that aren't even offered in schools today.
Your teachers will also have better tools and data
to help you achieve your goals.
Even better, students around the world will be able
to use personalized learning tools over the
internet, even if they don't live near good schools.
Of course it will take more than technology to give
everyone a fair start in life, but personalized
learning can be one scalable way to give all
children a better education and more equal
opportunity.
We're starting to build this technology now, and
the results are already promising. Not only do
students perform better on tests, but they gain the
skills and confidence to learn anything they want.
And this journey is just beginning. The technology
and teaching will rapidly improve every year
you're in school.
Your mother and I have both taught students and
we've seen what it takes to make this work. It will
take working with the strongest leaders in
education to help schools around the world adopt
personalized learning. It will take engaging with
communities, which is why we're starting in our
San Francisco Bay Area community. It will take
building new technology and trying new ideas. And
it will take making mistakes and learning many
lessons before achieving these goals.
But once we understand the world we can create
for your generation, we have a responsibility as a
society to focus our investments on the future to
make this reality.
Together, we can do this. And when we do,
personalized learning will not only help students in
good schools, it will help provide more equal
opportunity to anyone with an internet connection.

• • •

Many of the greatest opportunities for your
generation will come from giving everyone access
to the internet.
People often think of the internet as just for
entertainment or communication. But for the
majority of people in the world, the internet can be
a lifeline.
It provides education if you don't live near a good
school. It provides health information on how to
avoid diseases or raise healthy children if you don't
live near a doctor. It provides financial services if
you don't live near a bank. It provides access to
jobs and opportunities if you don't live in a good
economy.

The internet is so important that for every 10
people who gain internet access, about one person
is lifted out of poverty and about one new job is
created.
Yet still more than half of the world's population --
more than 4 billion people -- don't have access to
the internet.
If our generation connects them, we can lift
hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. We
can also help hundreds of millions of children get
an education and save millions of lives by helping
people avoid disease.
This is another long term effort that can be
advanced by technology and partnership. It will
take inventing new technology to make the internet
more affordable and bring access to unconnected
areas. It will take partnering with governments,
non-profits and companies. It will take engaging
with communities to understand what they need.
Good people will have different views on the best
path forward, and we will try many efforts before
we succeed.
But together we can succeed and create a more
equal world.

• • •

Technology can't solve problems by itself. Building
a better world starts with building strong and
healthy communities.
Children have the best opportunities when they
can learn. And they learn best when they're
healthy.
Health starts early -- with loving family, good
nutrition and a safe, stable environment.
Children who face traumatic experiences early in
life often develop less healthy minds and bodies.
Studies show physical changes in brain
development leading to lower cognitive ability.
Your mother is a doctor and educator, and she has

seen this firsthand.


If you have an unhealthy childhood, it's difficult to
reach your full potential.
If you have to wonder whether you'll have food or
rent, or worry about abuse or crime, then it's
difficult to reach your full potential.
If you fear you'll go to prison rather than college
because of the color of your skin, or that your
family will be deported because of your legal
status, or that you may be a victim of violence
because of your religion, sexual orientation or
gender identity, then it's difficult to reach your full
potential.

We need institutions that understand these issues
are all connected. That's the philosophy of the new
type of school your mother is building.
By partnering with schools, health centers, parent
groups and local governments, and by ensuring all
children are well fed and cared for starting young,
we can start to treat these inequities as connected.
Only then can we collectively start to give everyone
an equal opportunity.
It will take many years to fully develop this model.
But it's another example of how advancing human
potential and promoting equality are tightly linked.
If we want either, we must first build inclusive and
healthy communities.

• • •

For your generation to live in a better world, there
is so much more our generation can do.
Today your mother and I are committing to spend
our lives doing our small part to help solve these
challenges. I will continue to serve as Facebook's
CEO for many, many years to come, but these
issues are too important to wait until you or we are
older to begin this work. By starting at a young age,
we hope to see compounding benefits throughout
our lives.
As you begin the next generation of the Chan
Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the
world to advance human potential and promote
equality for all children in the next generation. Our
initial areas of focus will be personalized learning,
curing disease, connecting people and building
strong communities.
We will give 99% of our Facebook shares --
currently about $45 billion -- during our lives to
advance this mission. We know this is a small
contribution compared to all the resources and
talents of those already working on these issues.
But we want to do what we can, working alongside
many others.
We'll share more details in the coming months
once we settle into our new family rhythm and
return from our maternity and paternity leaves.
We understand you'll have many questions about
why and how we're doing this.
As we become parents and enter this next chapter
of our lives, we want to share our deep
appreciation for everyone who makes this possible.
We can do this work only because we have a
strong global community behind us. Building
Facebook has created resources to improve the
world for the next generation. Every member of
the Facebook community is playing a part in this
work.
We can make progress towards these opportunities
only by standing on the shoulders of experts -- our
mentors, partners and many incredible people
whose contributions built these fields.
And we can only focus on serving this community
and this mission because we are surrounded by
loving family, supportive friends and amazing
colleagues. We hope you will have such deep and
inspiring relationships in your life too.
Max, we love you and feel a great responsibility to
leave the world a better place for you and all
children. We wish you a life filled with the same
love, hope and joy you give us. We can't wait to see
what you bring to this world.
Love,
Mom and Dad


https://m.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-letter-to-our-daughter/10153375081581634/?refid=28&_ft_=qid.6223547698055663595%3Amf_story_key.1078928329374357907

Wow! So inspiring indeed....wat a big dream n vision.
There's smx dat bothers me. This people aren't worried abt d coming of Christ or fear of being deterred by witches to achieving thr goals n vision in life, these are d things we fear most. Could it be dat our fears are not real but only a deterrent 2 wat we can become.