Pursue Your Passion

Have you ever heard of Pierre Omidyar? Chances are you haven’t, but I am pretty sure that you have heard, bought or sold something using his company. Pierre is the founder of ebay, as well as the owner of paypal and skype.

Pierre is a French born Iranian computer programmer who started ebay to help his wife connect with other collectors of her hobby, trading and collecting Pez candy dispensers. They had moved to San Francisco and his wife discovered that there was no community or way to pursue her interest in trading the dispensers. Pez candy dispensers were highly pursued as collectors items and had a passionate but small community of collectors. Pierre created the first software in 1995 and hosted it in a small section of his personal web site.

Would you believe that the very first item traded was a broken laser pointer, that sold for $14.83. Surprised, Pierre called up the buyer to make sure he realized that the laser pointer was broken. To his surprise, the latter replied that he actually collected broken laser pointers. That is a very ebay story and was prophetic of things to come.

In 1998, Pierre became a billionaire when ebay went public, three years after founding. Today ebay host roughly four million completed auctions per day and 42 year old Pierre has a personal fortune of about $10 billion. All of this, a result of his passionate desire to help his wife with her hobby.

I wanted to share some of his wisdom on what it took for him to succeed:

“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.”

“Even after that, they come back and they say, ‘Okay, well, we know you’re doing your best. We’re with you.’ And so I’ve always had this unshakable faith that it’s going to endure.”

“I think failure of that magnitude, or a challenge of that magnitude, is really important and I’m glad that we faced it so early in our evolution.”

“I think those challenges are really critical and really important. What you learn from them is, of course, kind of what they say, ‘If it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger,’ and it’s true. And what you learn from those challenges and those failures are what will get you past the next ones.”

“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.”

“The Internet is changing everything, and has changed the world in such a short period of time, and will continue to change things in very positive ways that we have yet to anticipate. I’m very excited by the prospect of what we haven’t seen yet.”

“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.”        

In 2004, Pierre and his wife has now devoted their life to helping others, they started the Omidyar Network premised on the belief that everyone has the potential to make difference. It is a foundation designed to provide assistance and funding to individuals and organizations that are involved in efforts to improve the life of others.

Pierre said, “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.”

Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

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