A biography for Pierre Omidyarhasn’t been written yet.
“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.”
“Long-term sustainable change happens if people discover their own power.”
“I have always been of the opinion that the right kind of journalism is a critical part of our democracy.”
“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.”
“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.”
“My parents made me believe I could do anything I wanted to do. They were really into empowering me.”
“Ebay's success as a company depends on the success of the community of sellers.”
“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.”
“A lot of people don't just go ahead and try things.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Everyone is born equally capable but lacks equal opportunity.”