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I started eBay as an experiment, as a side hobby basically, while I had my day job.

Pierre Omidyar

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Pierre Omidyar
Age: 57
Born: 1967
Born: June 21
Computer Scientist
Economist
Entrepreneur
Manager
Philanthropist
Programmer
Paris
France
Pierre Morad Omidyar
Pierre M. Omidyar
Jobs
Hobby
Hobbies
Experiment
Experiments
Basically
Side
Started
Sides
Ebay

More quotes by Pierre Omidyar

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Be an enzyme - a catalyst for change. As a slogan, I don't know if that's ever going to be right up there with Ich Bin Ein Berliner, or “I Have A Dream,” but there's a lot of truth to it.
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Long-term sustainable change happens if people discover their own power.
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People were doing business with one another through the Internet already, through bulletin boards. But on the Web, we could make it interactive, we could create an auction, we could create a real marketplace. And that's really what triggered my imagination, if you will, and that's what I did.
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You’ll fail at some things, that’s a learning experience that you need so that you can take that on to the next experience... What you learn from those challenges and those failures are what will get you past the next ones... I was the pretty consistent bull and the cheerleader on eBay actually.
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We ought to be looking at business as a force for good.
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You’re able to accomplish anything you set out to accomplish.
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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
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I've got a passion for solving a problem that I think I can solve in a new way. And that maybe it helps that nobody has done it before as well.
Pierre Omidyar
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When you don't know what to expect, prepare for the unexpected.
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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.
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Everyone is born equally capable but lacks equal opportunity.
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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.
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You have to really believe in what you're doing, be passionate enough about it so that you will put in the hours and hard work that it takes to actually succeed there, and then you'll be successful.
Pierre Omidyar
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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
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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
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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
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You should pursue your passion. If you're passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.
Pierre Omidyar
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To truly prepare for the unexpected, you've got to position yourself to keep a couple of options open so when the door of opportunity opens, you're close enough to squeeze through.
Pierre Omidyar
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In 1991, I co-founded my first start-up, Ink Development, which made software for an early tablet computer.
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We believe that business can be a tool for social good.
Pierre Omidyar