Pierre M. Omidyar Quotes & Sayings

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

You're able to accomplish anything you set out to accomplish. — Pierre Omidyar

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

You can invest in companies, you can help grow companies, you can be a venture capitalist - and be a philanthropist at the same time. — Pierre Omidyar

I developed an interest in supporting independent journalists in a way that leverages their work to the greatest extent possible, all in support of the public interest. — Pierre Omidyar

When you look at the accomplishments of accomplished people and you say, 'Boy, that must have been really hard,' ... that was probably hard. 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. — Pierre Omidyar

I'm a technologist by origin and by training, but I'm focused on philanthropy. — Pierre Omidyar

I had the notion that, OK, so now we have all of this wealth, we could buy not only one expensive car, we could buy all of them. As soon as you realize that you could buy all of them, then none of them are particularly interesting or satisfying. — Pierre Omidyar

When you have mass surveillance, it's impossible to meet the intent of the First Amendment because reporters can't talk to sources because sources are afraid to talk. — Pierre Omidyar

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. — Pierre Omidyar

In terms of my belief that one individual can make a difference - that belief comes from my parents. — Pierre Omidyar

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

What I'm really focused on is connecting people around shared interests, so together they can make good stuff happen. I'm more focused on helping people discover their power as individuals, but through those connections with one another. — Pierre Omidyar

I had always been interested in markets - specifically, the theory that in financial markets, goods will trade at a fair value only when everyone has access to the same information. — Pierre Omidyar

Microfinance initiatives are very high-touch models. The loan officer meets with local groups of borrowers every week, they share tips and techniques. There's a lot of training and learning that goes on, which adds to the cost of the model. — Pierre Omidyar

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

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

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. — Pierre Omidyar

A well-functioning microfinance bank can actually be a profitable business as well. So it became a perfect proof point that, through business, you can provide an experience that leads to individual self-empowerment. — Pierre Omidyar

I do like to fly under the radar. When I walk around town, the only people I want to recognise me and call me by my name are the folks at Starbucks. — Pierre Omidyar

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

Incidentally, Modi also attracted immense interest from overseas groups led by industrialists as big as French-Iranian billionaire Pierre Morad Omidyar, who founded eBay. He is rumoured to have funded Modi's elections. Jayant Sinha, a former Omidyar Network partner, is now a junior minister in the Modi government. — Ullekh NP

A lot of people don't just go ahead and try things. — Pierre Omidyar

Advertisers don't want to put their ads next to the investigative story; it's extremely difficult to do that. And very few people today actually read those serious news stories on the Web now. — Pierre Omidyar

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. — Pierre Omidyar

Everyone is born equally capable but lacks equal opportunity. — Pierre Omidyar

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

Give the individual the power to be a producer as well as a consumer. — Pierre Omidyar

We believe that business can be a tool for social good. — Pierre Omidyar

One of the things I tend to do is open myself up to a variety of voices. I try to expose myself to the kind of culture shock that occurs when you talk to people who speak a different language. — Pierre Omidyar

In the early days of eBay, I articulated for the very first time this belief that people are basically good. — Pierre Omidyar

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. — Pierre Omidyar

By building a simple system, with just a few guiding principles, eBay was open to organic growth. — Pierre Omidyar

When you don't know what to expect, prepare for the unexpected. — Pierre Omidyar