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Love him or hate him, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg clearly seems to have cracked the code of what it takes to reach the ranks of the truly successful.

Perhaps part of what makes him so appealing to people is that he himself was an outsider. Through intense focus, hard work, and determination, he raised himself to become one of the richest and most powerful people in the world. His company is now poised to become the infrastructure of the planet.

While popularly depicted as a loner, the true secret to his success is the opposite of that. Zuckerberg is a team player, and his success lies in leveraging the community of people he surrounds himself with.

At Facebook, he created a “growth team.” which itself has grown from a handful to hundreds of people and designs tactics for various parts of the company. They have rigorous metrics they use to determine their success.

At home, Zuckerberg relies on his wife, Priscilla Chan, to keep him grounded. When they started dating, she reportedly insisted that they have a minimum of 100 minutes of alone time each week and a regular weekly date night. Fifteen years later, this ritual is still in place.

Recently, Zuckerberg strengthened his commitment to Community by releasing a mostly philosophical manifesto, explaining his desires for the future of Facebook — and the world. His own words show how much he believes in the power that people can bring to one another.

So, what can the everyday entrepreneur learn from Zuckerberg’s example?

Team up

Just like Zuckerberg found, we’re better together. One person by his- or herself cannot a world-changing company make. In his manifesto, Zuckerberg laments the lack of community organizations. His growth team is brainstorming ideas and improving on existing ones daily.

For help meeting new people, check out Meetup.com and, of course, Facebook Groups.

Date night

There is plenty of research to support that having regular date nights (whether with a romantic partner or with friends) is beneficial to managing stress and maintaining work-life balance. If CEO and father Mark Zuckerberg manages to find the time even during his busiest days at Facebook, you should see how important this truly is.

Need some help from your community to watch the kids, get a ride, or do your chores to make date night a reality? Check out a social sharing site like Enfavr to help lighten the load.

Like and share

To really understand the secret of Zuckerberg’s success, all you need to do is take a moment to think about how connected you are to the people you don’t see every day. The next time you like or share someone’s post, pause for a moment to connect with the person across the internet.

Imagine this: You’ve just had an amazing, much-needed vacation. You’re recharged, and ready to go back to work. You get to the airport andfind that your flight has been canceled–because the airline has gone out of business.

That’s the situation forpassengers of Wow Air, the Icelandic low-cost airline company that abruptly ceased operations on Thursday. The money those passengersspent on their tickets is likely gone, and they’ll now have to buy new tickets at higher prices to get home. And, any compensation they might eventually get won’t cover lost days at work–so that vacation couldbecome very costly indeed.

It’s adrasticillustration of what happens when a business stops running. Customers who have put their faith and money into a product or service have a reasonable expectation of delivery. In the age of Kickstarter, our patience for delivery dates has been extended somewhat, but your customers still believe you’ll make good on your promises.

When fitness watch company Pebble closed shop, its intellectual property was purchased by rival Fitbit. Pebblealso made the decision to open-source its development tools, which allowedcustomers to create an online ecosystem that supported the existing hardware.

Wow Air can’t do that. It’s been operating at a loss for years, and struggled to find a buyer to help it remain operational. A last-ditch offer by the board reportedly failed to go through.

As a business owner, you always need to have an exit strategy. You never know when it might stop working out. Here are three guidelines to help you prepare for that unpleasant possibility:

1. Take a breather.

Dealing with the loss of your business can be an emotional experience akin to grief. You’ll need to remain as calm as possible to deal with it all.

If you find yourself getting too overwhelmed, take a break and clear your head to get yourself back in check. I like tofocuson my heartbeat andcountto 100 beats. By the time I’m done, I’ve relaxed.

2. Be communicative.

Your initial instinct may be to hide away from everyone.That’s probably the worst thing you could do. As soon as you have made the decision that you’re indeed shutting down–with as much advance notice as possible–you should announce it.

A good message explains the timeline of what services are ceasing and when. It details who should contact for help during the transition. In short, it answers all the questions Wow Air customers probably have right now.

3. Have an “out.”

You probably have a million other things on your mind during a business liquidation.It’s easy to forget to ensure that you give your customers as much assistance as you can.

That includes calling your competitors before you make your announcement and ask for “transition rates” that you can provide in a FAQ, along with instructions on how to use their services. In the case of Wow Air, at least one airline has publicly given passengers “rescue fares” to get home inexpensively, with others likely to follow suit.