00:00:12another edition of Melinda monsters I
00:00:13believe that the fastest and most
00:00:15effective way to grow a business is to
00:00:17model the strategies of people who have
00:00:19already done what you’re trying to do so
00:00:21today I’m going to look at how a young
00:00:23entrepreneur followed his passion for
00:00:24computers and in one weekend created the
00:00:27code for a new website that would go on
00:00:29to be one of the most popular websites
00:00:31in the world this is the story of ebay
00:00:34founder pierre omidyar and atop three
00:00:36lessons that you can learn from his
00:00:37success pierre omidyar is an American
00:00:42entrepreneur and philanthropist
00:00:43economist and the founder chairman of
00:00:45ebay growing up he became fascinated
00:00:48with computers and often skip gym class
00:00:50in school to play on their computers
00:00:52after graduating high school and
00:00:54university he went to work for an apple
00:00:56subsidiary to develop software for the
00:00:58Macintosh Omidyar soon felt the
00:01:01entrepreneur itch and wanted to start
00:01:03his own business when Omidyar was 28
00:01:06years old he stayed in front of his
00:01:08computer for the entire labor day long
00:01:10weekend and wrote the original code for
00:01:12ebay originally called auction web
00:01:15Omidyar wanted to change the name to
00:01:17echo bay and drive to Sacramento to
00:01:19register the name when he arrived he
00:01:22found echo bay was already registered so
00:01:24we decided to go with ebay on the spot
00:01:26instead of having to make a return trip
00:01:28today eBay has revenues of over 9
00:01:31billion dollars and Omidyar serves as
00:01:33its chairman he has an estimated net
00:01:36worth of 6.7 billion dollars making him
00:01:39the 50th richest person in the world and
00:01:41it all began with one long weekend
00:01:43writing code and launching a new website
00:01:47by following his passion and computers
00:01:50and by actually taking action on the
00:01:52idea that he had Pierre Omidyar was able
00:01:55to build one of the most successful
00:01:56companies in his industry to help you
00:01:59make your company more successful here
00:02:01are three a chronology you can learn
00:02:02from Pierre Omidyar action item number
00:02:07one just go for it you know what one
00:02:10thing every successful entrepreneur has
00:02:12in common they got started you may have
00:02:16great business ideas but if you never
00:02:18take action on them you have nobody but
00:02:20yourself to blame don’t be afraid to try
00:02:23something different and fail you will
00:02:25know failure keep trying and
00:02:27experimenting with little projects until
00:02:29you strike gold and can really run with
00:02:31your new business idea Omidyar had a lot
00:02:34of people who never thought his website
00:02:36would ever take off why would complete
00:02:38strangers be willing to buy and sell to
00:02:40each other online how would they trust
00:02:42each other to complete the deal holman
00:02:45dr believed that people were
00:02:46fundamentally good people and would be
00:02:49for the most part honorable he kept at
00:02:52it and intended to prove his critics
00:02:53wrong when we do I realized it was
00:02:56working when he started earning more
00:02:57money from ebay than from his day job
00:03:00according to Omidyar i started ebay as
00:03:03an experiment as a side hobby basically
00:03:06while i had my day job a lot of people
00:03:09don’t just go ahead and try things
00:03:11they’ll have an idea and they’ll say
00:03:13they’ll convince themselves or other
00:03:15people will convince them that it can’t
00:03:17be done I just kind of had this naive
00:03:20approach to well gee you know why not
00:03:23I’ll just go ahead and do it don’t let
00:03:27people who you may respect and who you
00:03:29believe know what they’re talking about
00:03:30don’t let them tell you it can’t be done
00:03:33because often they’ll tell you it can’t
00:03:36be done and it’s just because they don’t
00:03:38have the courage to try you’re able to
00:03:41accomplish anything you set out to
00:03:42accomplish
00:03:44action item number two follow your
00:03:47passion almost every famous entrepreneur
00:03:49gives similar advice do what you’re
00:03:52passionate about when you love what you
00:03:54do you’ll make a far better product or
00:03:56service and will have a much bigger
00:03:57impact on your target market don’t waste
00:04:00time trying out businesses that you’re
00:04:02not really interested in just because
00:04:04they can make you money focus your
00:04:06energy and talent on what you’re
00:04:08uniquely able to create and you’re on
00:04:11your way to building a successful
00:04:12business from the time he was a young
00:04:15boy Omidyar knew that his future
00:04:17lighting computers he didn’t know how or
00:04:20when but when the other boys were
00:04:22outside playing sports Oh media was busy
00:04:24teaching himself computer programming
00:04:26languages like basic if he didn’t follow
00:04:28his passion and tried to force
00:04:30themselves into other areas that didn’t
00:04:32interest him the world would never have
00:04:34come to known eBay according to Omidyar
00:04:37I always wanted to be involved with
00:04:39computers I was just pursuing what I
00:04:42enjoy doing I was pursuing my passion
00:04:45it’s not work really if you’re having
00:04:48fun that was the case with me you have
00:04:51to really believe in what you’re doing
00:04:53be passionate enough about it so you’ll
00:04:56put in the hours and the hard work that
00:04:57it takes to actually succeed there and
00:04:59then you’ll be successful action item
00:05:04number three be nice a lot of people
00:05:07think the business is cutthroat but it
00:05:09doesn’t have to be when I hire people
00:05:11one of the core values that we look for
00:05:13is is this person nice it’s amazing how
00:05:16much more productive you are and how
00:05:18much more fun you have when you enjoy
00:05:20working with the people around you your
00:05:22staff your customers and your suppliers
00:05:25Omidyar founded ebay with the belief
00:05:27that nice guys finish first he created a
00:05:30set of core values for the business
00:05:32based on honesty and building trusted
00:05:34relationships he also believed that if
00:05:37his company could live by those core
00:05:38values and they would attract customers
00:05:40who felt the same way to date his theory
00:05:43has proven to be correct there are only
00:05:4530 out of every million transactions
00:05:48that happened on ebay where people file
00:05:50a fraud complaint according to Adyar I
00:05:53founded the company on the notion that
00:05:55people were basically good
00:05:57and then if you give them the benefit of
00:05:58the doubt you’re really disappointed
00:06:00nice guys a responsible company that has
00:06:03its heart in the right place that’s run
00:06:06by real human beings it has to be
00:06:08successful because if we weren’t that
00:06:10way ebay wouldn’t be successful ebay
00:06:13wouldn’t exist it wouldn’t be possible
00:06:17so remember just go for it follow your
00:06:21passion and be nice to finish up this
00:06:24video I wanted to share one of my
00:06:25favorite true stories about Pierre
00:06:27Omidyar and some of his best quotes ebay
00:06:32was originally hosted on a website that
00:06:34amiga had created with information about
00:06:36the Ebola virus the site originally
00:06:39allowed buyers and sellers to connect
00:06:41for free but as the site grew he had to
00:06:43charge a small fee only dr hope that the
00:06:46transaction fees would eventually be
00:06:48enough to cover his website hosting
00:06:50costs
00:07:41thank you for joining me for another
00:07:43edition of modern masters if you guys
00:07:45liked the video please leave a comment
00:07:47below I love hearing your thoughts and
00:07:48feedback and it also really appreciate
00:07:50any thumbs up so you want to get to the
00:07:52video and stay tuned to the next episode
00:08:07you
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