Rejected By Twitter & Facebook, He Built WhatsApp And Sold It For $19 Billion
Highlighted by twitter user @ValaAfshar, he showed a couple of tweets from Acton from more than a decade ago, when he was going through a rough patch. The image shows tweets where he has tweeted talking about him getting rejected from Facebook as well as Twitter. However, in his tweets, one thing that has been constant is his outlook.
No matter how many times people have tried to glorify failure, it is something we all continue to fear, especially for people who have a lot at stake. And in the current market where jobs are barely available, for many, rejections are piling on one after another.
And if you were one of the many experiencing this today, I¡¯ve got a story that I stumbled upon, to truly inspire you. This is the story of Brain Acton -- one of the co-founders of WhatsApp -- one of the most popular texting apps in the world.
Twitter:@ValaAfshar
Highlighted by Twitter user @ValaAfshar, he showed a couple of tweets from Acton from more than a decade ago, when he was going through a rough patch. The image shows tweets where he has tweeted talking about him getting rejected from Facebook as well as Twitter. However, in his tweets, one thing that has been constant is his outlook.
For instance, in the tweet where he announced his rejection by Facebook, he says, ¡°Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure.¡± Till the end, his mindset was optimistic and was looking forward to newer challenges that life is ready to throw at him.
Reuters
And who would have thought that the man who got rejected from Facebook, Twitter would one day sell his very own company to the social media giant for a whopping $19 billion?
Acton teamed up with Jan Koum, one of his former colleagues at Yahoo to develop the texting app in the year 2009. What¡¯s surprising is that both of them applied for the Facebook job together, and got rejected together too.
Eventually, after a few years, WhatsApp became one of the most successful apps on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, getting 400 million active users each month in 2013. In February of 2014, Facebook stepped in and purchased the texting app for a whopping $19 billion.
Reuters
After exiting from WhatsApp he made another texting app that put greater emphasis on the privacy of users -- Signal -- that is used by many users even today.
So if you¡¯ve gotten rejected today, don¡¯t worry as tomorrow might have something more amazing in store for you.
