Technologists come at a problem from the point of view that the system is working a certain way, and if I engage in that system and actually change the rules of the system, I can make it work a different way. Pierre Omidyar More Quotes by Pierre Omidyar More Quotes From Pierre Omidyar I built a system simple enough to sustain itself. Pierre Omidyar built simple enough By building a simple system, with just a few guiding principles, eBay was open to organic growth. Pierre Omidyar ebay guiding-principles simple I started eBay as an experiment, as a side hobby basically, while I had my day job. Pierre Omidyar ebay hobbies jobs Microloans enable the poor to lift themselves out of poverty through entrepreneurship. Pierre Omidyar poverty entrepreneur poor What we say here every day is that our success is really based on our members' success, our community's success. We've created an infrastructure and laid some basic ground rules to create this marketplace. Pierre Omidyar infrastructure members community In order to access private capital, you have to provide competitive return on investment. In order to give competitive returns to investors, you've got to operate on a profitable basis and be thinking of yourself as a business. Pierre Omidyar thinking-of-you giving order In February of 1996, about six months after I created eBay, I started receiving a spate of complaints. Everyone was complaining about each other. I felt very much like I was a parent who had to adjudicate the brothers beating each other up. Pierre Omidyar ebay parent brother If you can get over this initial distrust that people have of strangers, you can do remarkable things. Pierre Omidyar distrust stranger people Don't let people who you may respect and who you believe know what they're talking about, don't let them tell you it can't be done because often they will tell you it can't be done, and it's just because they don't have the courage to try. Pierre Omidyar business talking believe eBay's business is based on enabling someone to do business with another person, and to do that, they first have to develop some measure of trust, either in the other person or the system. Pierre Omidyar ebay technology business We believe that business can be a tool for social good. Pierre Omidyar tools social believe I was raised with the notion that you can do pretty much do anything you want. I always kind of just went ahead and tried things. Pierre Omidyar notion kind want When I started eBay, it was a hobby, an experiment to see if people could use the Internet to be empowered through access to an efficient market. I actually wasn't thinking about it in terms of a social impact. It was really about helping people connect around a sphere of interest so they could do business. Pierre Omidyar business power thinking I never had it in mind that I would start a company one day and it would really be successful. I have just been motivated by working on interesting technology Pierre Omidyar technology successful interesting A lot of people don’t just go ahead and try things. They’ll have an idea and they’ll say — they’ll convince themselves or other people will convince them that it can’t be done. You know, one or the other. Actually I think that the first is even more dangerous and more serious. It’s convincing yourself that it can’t be done. Pierre Omidyar convincing-yourself people ideas We ought to be looking at business as a force for good. Pierre Omidyar ought force What makes eBay successful.. the real value and the real power at eBay is the community. It's the buyers and sellers coming together and forming a marketplace. Pierre Omidyar ebay real success In the same way that you're driven in your business to keep innovating - Facebook is a wonderful example of constant innovation - think about doing that in philanthropy. Pierre Omidyar innovation example thinking An honest, open environment can bring out the best in people. Pierre Omidyar environment honest people Give the individual the power to be a producer as well as a consumer. Pierre Omidyar individual producers giving
