Pierre Omidyar began working on a basic buyer-to-buyer auction website in 1995, branding it Auction Web and originally used it to sell off his unwanted personal belongings after spending much of his 20s hopping between various software development jobs.
However, once he saw the potential demand for seemingly insignificant items, the site began to flourish. The volume of transactions on the site started to grow out of control over the following few years, prompting Omidyar to incorporate his initiative and rename it eBay.
In 1998, the firm went public, making Omidyar a millionaire overnight; his net worth is believed to be over £8 billion as of 2018. Even though Omidyar has now started several other businesses, eBay is still extremely profitable and successful. He’s also a well-known philanthropist, founding the Omidyar Group, a diverse collection of companies, organisations, and initiatives, each guided by its approach, but all united by a common desire to catalyse social impact.
To show our appreciation for Omidyar’s revolutionary work, we bring you his top 5 quotes about becoming successful in business and life.
“If you give people the opportunity to do the right thing, you’ll rarely be disappointed.”
“As a philanthropist, I try to help people take ownership. Everything I’ve done is rooted in the notion that every human being is born equally capable. What people lack is equal opportunity.”
“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.”
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
“Long-term sustainable change happens if people discover their own power.”
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Thanks,
Robbie Duncanson and the Pendleton team!
