Four years ago, Brian Acton was looking for a job.

His job at Yahoo, where he’d filled many engineering roles over 11 years, had come to an end.

He was networking with recruiters:

networking with recruiters, venture capitalists, playing ultimate frisbee — Brian Acton (@brianacton) May 20, 2009

He met with Twitter. Twitter said no:

Got denied by Twitter HQ. That's ok. Would have been a long commute. — Brian Acton (@brianacton) May 23, 2009

He met with Facebook . Facebook said no:

Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure. — Brian Acton (@brianacton) August 3, 2009

So he and Jan Koum, a colleague from Yahoo, set out to do their own thing.

Today, they sold that thing to Facebook for 19 billion dollars.

Life is crazy.