Outside Facebook headquarters (Photo Courtesy: Getty Images)
(CBS) - Graffiti artist David Choe is hands-down one of the most
surprising success stories to come out of the Facebook initial public
offering Wednesday.
Choe was hired by then Facebook president Sean Parker to paint a
mural at Facebook's first office in Palo Alto in 2005. When the mural
was finished, Parker gave Choe the option of taking cash or stock
options. At the time, Facebook was only a year old and only open to
college and high school students. There was no "like" button, no revenue
from advertising and no hype of a $5 billion dollar IPO.
Instead of taking cash, Choe took a chance and opted for the stock
options. If you're not familiar with the Silicon Valley culture,
gambling on a dot com has either failed miserably or made millionaires
out of receptionists.
According to a Facebook employee, Choe was added on as an "adviser"
and received 0.1 to 0.25 percent of the company. After you do the math,
Choe's share could be worth $200 million. That's a mind-blowing figure,
if you also consider that Choe has been homeless since painting that
fateful mural.
In the aftermath of Facebook's filing and the value of his share of
the social network, Choe took to his blog to express his disbelief.
"Have you had the dream where you ARE this guy?!? And then some kind
of happy accident happens, and as you're in the middle of this glorious
car crash, you stop to realize, that there is actually no such thing as
an accident, and no chance encounters, and that everything has a direct
purpose?"
Choe embodies a true tale of an artist's transformation from
rags-to-riches in the most dramatic fashion. If Wednesday was a historic
day for Facebook, it was also a momentous occasion for the American
dream.
CBS News