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All Quotes by author - 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. "
Serious
Today
Story
" A lot of people don't just go ahead and try things. "
People
Just
Go
" 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. "
Opportunity
Help
Born
" 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. "
Perfect
Experience
Business
" Companies in Silicon Valley invest a lot in understanding their users and what drives user engagement. "
Valley
Understanding
Lot
" 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. "
Trust
Business
Someone
" Ebay's success as a company depends on the success of the community of sellers. "
Community
Company
Depends
" Everyone is born equally capable but lacks equal opportunity. "
Everyone
Capable
Born
" 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. "
Greatest
Work
Way
" 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. "
People
Me
Fly
" If you can get over this initial distrust that people have of strangers, you can do remarkable things. "
You
Things
Strangers
" If you give people the opportunity to do the right thing, you'll rarely be disappointed. "
People
Opportunity
Do The Right Thing
" 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. "
Financial
Always
Value
" 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. "
Wealth
Realize
Interesting
" I have always been of the opinion that the right kind of journalism is a critical part of our democracy. "
Journalism
Kind
Democracy
" I'm a technologist by origin and by training, but I'm focused on philanthropy. "
Training
Focused
Philanthropy
" In 1991, I co-founded my first start-up, Ink Development, which made software for an early tablet computer. "
Software
Early
First
" 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. "
Complaining
Up
Everyone
" 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. "
Yourself
Thinking
Got
" In terms of my belief that one individual can make a difference - that belief comes from my parents. "
Make
Parents
Make A Difference
" In the early days of eBay, I articulated for the very first time this belief that people are basically good. "
Early
People
Time
" 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. "
Innovation
You
Think
" Long-term sustainable change happens if people discover their own power. "
Own
Long-Term
Power
" 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. "
Training
Loan
Learning
" My dad was a physician. As a kid, I remember driving around with him on weekends so he could do his rounds at the hospital and talk to patients. We'd spend time in the car talking about what was going on with them, their stories. "
Time
Car
Driving
" My parents made me believe I could do anything I wanted to do. They were really into empowering me. "
Believe
Anything
Me
" News organisations that have been around a while have a lot of traditions and ways of doing things that may have served them for many years but perhaps make them less flexible in the digital era. As an entrepreneur, it just makes more sense to start something new. "
News
Start
Doing
" 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. "
Problem
Change
Rules
" 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. "
Together
Good
People
" 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. "
Community
Real
Together
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