Pursue Your Passion - Pierre Omidyar (founder of eBay)
“I started eBay as an experiment, as a side hobby basically, while I had my day job,” recalls Pierre Omidyar. An unexpected success, that side hobby has today become the world’s largest personal online trading community.
The website hosts nearly four million auctions every day, with almost half a million new items being added for sale every 24 hours. Omidyar’s personal net worth is estimated to be roughly $10 billion.
“When you look at the accomplishments of accomplished people and you say, ‘Boy, that must have been really hard,’…that was probably hard,” says Omidyar.
“And conversely, when you look at something that looks easy, that was probably hard. And so you’re never going to know which is which until you actually go out and do it.”
Whether Omidyar’s accomplishments look easy or not, they are undoubtedly significant, having not only revolutionized the way people do business, but making a multi-billion dollar fortune along the way.
How did he do it?
Evan Carmichael“I was just pursuing what I enjoyed doing. I mean, I was pursuing my passion. It is not really work if you are having fun…that was the case with me. I always wanted to be involved with computers. Like most software people, it is very much passion more than anything else. The ability to create software that could have a benefit or an impact on people that used it was what was driving me.
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.
Whatever future you’re building, don’t try to program everything. Five Year Plans never worked for the Soviet Union – in fact, if anything, central planning contributed to its fall. Chances are, central planning won’t work any better for any of us.
By building a simple system, with just a few guiding principles, eBay was open to organic growth – it could achieve a certain degree of self-organization. Build a platform – prepare for the unexpected…you’ll know you’re successful when the platform you’ve built serves you in unexpected ways. 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.
We believe people are basically good; we believe everyone has something to contribute; we believe that an honest, open environment can bring out the best in people; we recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual; we encourage you to treat others the way you want to be treated. I founded the company on the notion that people were basically good and that if you give them the benefit of the doubt you’re rarely disappointed.
So the only thing you can do is have a certain set of values that you encourage people to adopt and the only way your customers are going to adopt those values is if they see that you’re living those values as well. It’s all about treating each other the way you want to be treated yourself so that you can do business with one another.
We have to do it internally at eBay at the company as well, because if we don’t then eventually that seeps through, and customers will see that and that will harm our business. So our business is based on that. Nice guys, a responsible company that has its heart in the right place – that’s run by real human beings – it has to be successful, because if we weren’t that way, eBay would not be successful. eBay wouldn’t exist. It would not be possible.
You should pursue your passion. If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful. 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.“
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager
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16 Comments so far
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Another great testament that living in the present moment with pure enthusiasm will result in great results. Wealth is a mind set not a bench mark to reach towards; an internal quality to live by every day.
He’s told this story before and it’s a good one. He left out the part that his girlfriend was an avid Pez dispenser collector and she wanted to sell them…so he created Auction Web. Call me strange but I like to picture his then-girlfriend as the hottest pez collector on earth, say -
http://www.derober.com/2008/03/04/the-new-bond-girl-is-smoking/
[…] read more | digg story […]
at least acknowledge the majority of ebay sellers hate the prick but are forced into using it because it’s a monopoly. I mean JEEZ.. it’s JOURNALISM people.. you don’t have to ask many sellers to realize that…
Wow! I love this interview. Very inspirational. I forwarded it to my hard-working, passionate team….great stuff!
Best,
Brian Kurth
Founder, VocationVacations
The thing about successful entrepeneurs is that they’re great opportunists. They prepare well and seize onto good ideas when they first spot them and don’t become distracted. If he really did start AuctionWeb because of his girlfriend, that’s a really sweet tale.
[…] Source [Young Entrepreneur] […]
Pursue my passion? Awesome. I can’t wait to be the Emperor of the world.
I wonder out of all of the big web entrepreneurs, just how many of them worked on their projects while in full time work and then just decided to quit their day jobs and go for it with their projects, because i dont think you can do both.
I truly believe the secret to success is having fun. It’s nice to see that belief confirmed….
Dixon: I’ve read a book called “The Perfect Store” which said that the Pez dispenser story was made up so he’d get publicity from the newspapers. Sneaky, but it got the job done!
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog » Pursue Your Passion - Pierre Omidyar (founder of eBay)
“I started eBay as an experiment, as a side hobby basically, while I had my day job,” recalls Pierre Omidyar. An unexpected success, that side hobby has today become the world’s largest personal online trading community.
The website hosts nearly…
It’s a shame Omidyar’s original integrity and community vision don’t exist today at eBay. If they didn’t have the Microsoft-style lock on the market that they do, no one would want to put up with their “service.”
I don’t think another auction site could come along to dethrone eBay, but something else will have to. I can’t imagine twenty more years of eBay being the only option when you want to buy or sell stuff person-to-person online.
[…] So how do you find passion in your work? Start by looking at the things you enjoy doing in your free time. Ebay was started as a hobby by Pierre Omidyar in his free time after work: I was just pursuing what I enjoyed doing. I mean, I was pursuing my passion. It is not really work if you are having fun…that was the case with me. I always wanted to be involved with computers. Like most software people, it is very much passion more than anything else. The ability to create software that could have a benefit or an impact on people that used it was what was driving me. […]
[…] Pursue Your Passion - Pierre Omidyar (founder of eBay)28 Apr 2008 by Evan Carmichael “I started eBay as an experiment, as a side hobby basically, while I had my day job,” recalls Pierre Omidyar. An unexpected success, that side hobby has today become the world’s largest personal online trading community. …YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog - http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog […]
I had a vision while I was awake watching a show about ebay on msnbc or cnbc news station. The same journalist doing the interview with ebay was asking someone at ebay what happened? They were standing in front of one of the buildings at ebay that was empty and the grass was growing through the sidewalk. The vision was only for a split second. Most of my visions come true.