Mark Zuckerberg's dad offered him a choice — college, or a McDonald's franchise

What would the internet look like today if Zuckerberg were never made himself known to the whole world? Well, we’ll never know. But we know that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg would had the opportunity to run a McDonald’s franchise upon his father’s offer, his sister, Randi Zuckerberg, told CNN Business in an interview.

“My dad, funny enough, right before each of us went to college, offered us the options of going to college or investing in a franchise and running it,” Randi said.

However, as we all know, Zuckerberg chose Harvard, then decided not to continue completing his computer science degree and dropped out in 2005.

Fast forward to 2022, he’s running one of the biggest online platforms, Facebook, with a net worth of $430 billion.

“I think they were like ‘Okay, you probably should have taken the McDonald’s franchise money if you wanted a business. But, okay, this might be a second good choice,’” Randi added.

It would have become a family firm if they all agreed to open up a McDonald's franchise; instead, Randi left her job to join Facebook after things started getting better for her brother.

“I think we’re very young and idealistic at that time that we’re creating these … I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, we have given a voice to everyone,’ and just waking up and feeling so excited about that,” said Randi on Facebook’s early livestream struggles. “It really wasn’t until years later, with a lot that I see going on in the world, that I woke up and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve given a voice to everyone.’”

What if Zuckerberg chose McDonald's?

According to CNBC, if Zuckerberg had chosen the McDonald's option, he could still have outstanding life standards. A 2016 CNBC and Franchise Business Review report revealed that the average profit of food and beverage franchises started at $90,388 per year.

Today, McDonald's provides food service across more than 100 countries with more than 38,000 franchises. To get one and to start a fully operational store, you should dish out between $1,013,000 to $2,185,000. And the amount of the return of the investment depends on many factors.