Dear Lucca,
You left for Dog Island with Mom a couple weeks ago. Me and Stella have been home getting stuff done around the house. We miss you.
I’ve been meaning to send you a few things for a while now but I’ve had trouble making the time to sit down and talk to you. I will try to be better about writing you more often. Of course, it will be years before you can even begin to read this and many more years until you truly understand it all. Still, there is so much I want to share with you so I plan on sending you these brief notes from time to time. As you may have noticed by now, communication is not your Dad’s strong point. But luckily, putting my thoughts on paper comes easier.
I first read this letter six months ago and have thought a lot about it since then. Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook. You may or may not use Facebook by the time you read this, but suffice it to say that the creation and development of Facebook (in a college dorm room) has had an incredible impact on the world.
This excerpt reminded me of how I felt when you were born three years ago:
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.
It is inspiring to see such a young man with such commendable far-reaching aspirations. I hope that you will push your Mom and Dad to make this world a better place as well. We certainly don’t have the resources of the Zuckerberg’s but that doesn’t mean we can put forth our best effort. As should you.
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.
Your Mom and Dad have worked very hard so that you can have everything that you need. Many people aren’t that lucky. It is our responsibility to help those less fortunate than us.
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.
You will have incredible resources at your fingertips during your lifetime. You will have access to all of the information in the world. I expect you to make the most of them. If you do, your potential is unlimited.
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.
I miss you son. Counting the days until you come home.
Love,
Dad
Source: A letter to our daughter