Mark Zuckerberg famously started Facebook in his Harvard University dorm. But before he even went to college, Zuckerberg's father Edward offered his son an alternative — a future as a McDonald's franchise owner. "I think [my parents] were like 'Okay, you probably should have taken the McDonald's franchise money if you wanted a business. A 2016 report from CNBC and Franchise Business Review pegged the average profit of food and beverage franchises at $90,388 a year. It's unclear how much Zuckerberg's father would have had to invest for a McDonald's franchise in the early 2000s, but today, according to the McDonald's website, the total investment to begin operation of a traditional McDonald's franchise ranges from $1,013,000 to $2,185,000, and that "profitability depends on many factors."

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