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Today, Omidyar remains the biggest shareholder in the company,
with a fortune estimated at 6 billion dollars. He was ranked by
Fortune Magazine as one of the 40 richest people under 40 in the
world. Success has not spoiled Omidyar. Together with his wife Pam,
Pierre Omidyar is quoted in the Chronicle of Philanthropy as one
of the youngest and most generous philanthropists in the world.
He recently addressed his alma mater Tufts University
at their 2002 graduation ceremony where he urged the students to
“prepare for the unexpected.” As a role model not only to young
entrepreneurs out there, but especially our new generation of Iranian
graduates, we have included here the text of his inspirational keynote
address:
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.
By the way, for any undergrads here, if you can find a biology professor
after the ceremony and recite the definition of an enzyme Pam inflicted
on you a moment ago - that will fulfill your general science requirement.
But the fact is, you don't have to have taken a single biology class
- I didn't, by the way -- to know what Pam means.
We've got to act on the world. We've got to add our energy to the
forces for change - to create the world of change Pam talked about.
I know you've got other things on your mind right now - not just
figuring out how to jam the last box of stuff into your parents'
minivan - but moving on to the next adventure, whether it's the
world of work, or graduate studies… …Or some other scheme that allows
you - for a while longer at least -- to avoid either one.
Which is why I came prepared today to share with you a simple concept
that's served me well since my time at Tufts: When you don't know
what to expect… …Prepare for the unexpected.
Contrary to what you might think - "preparing for the unexpected"
involves a little bit more than being radically open to whatever
the universe sends your way, while you lean back into the lawn-chair
of life. 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.
To a large degree, life - like a software program
-- is a linear thing. We all face the temptation to freeze-frame
the past, and project it into the future. As Pam said, the future
doesn't always follow a straight line. So as a software engineer,
you learn to strive for a certain flexibility in design: You learn
to avoid being locked in to a single solution - to build a platform
that can be used for a number of purposes.
As a result, to the outside observer, a well-written program might
look a little bit wasteful… Cluttered when it should be clean… With
dots that defy connection... …Kind of like an education in the liberal
arts. You know what I mean: When you design your course of study,
you build in some lines of code the purpose of which is not immediately
evident - a course in poetry to go with a course in physics, Aristotle's
Ethics along with algorithms… …And then, later, life takes a non-linear
turn, and you draw on a different part of the platform for the new
perspective you need.
So take the tools Tufts has given you, and prepare for the unexpected.
I can tell you, without the ability to prepare for the unexpected…
…There wouldn't be an eBay today. The key is recognizing that no
matter how convinced you are in the power of your own ideas… …Sometimes,
ideas have ideas of their own.
That's certainly true in terms of system design. Almost every industry
analyst and business reporter I talk to observes that eBay's strength
is that its system is self-sustaining -- able to adapt to user needs,
without any heavy intervention from a central authority of some
sort.
So people often say to me - "when you built the system, you
must have known that making it self-sustainable was the only way
eBay could grow to serve 40 million users a day." Well… nope.
I made the system self-sustaining for one reason: Back when I launched
eBay on Labor Day 1995, eBay wasn't my business - it was my hobby.
I had to build a system that was self-sustaining… …Because I had
a real job to go to every morning.
I was working as a software engineer from 10 to 7, and I wanted
to have a life on the weekends. So I built a system that could keep
working - catching complaints and capturing feedback -- even when
Pam and I were out mountain-biking, and the only one home was our
cat.
If I had had a blank check from a big VC, and a big staff running
around - things might have gone much worse. I would have probably
put together a very complex, elaborate system - something that justified
all the investment. But because I had to operate on a tight budget
- tight in terms of money and tight in terms of time - necessity
focused me on simplicity: So I built a system simple enough to sustain
itself.
By building a simple system, with just a few guiding principles,
eBay was open to organic growth - it could achieve a certain degree
of self-organization. So I guess what I'm trying to tell you is:
Whatever future you're building… Don't try to program everything.
5 Year Plans never worked for the Soviet Union - in fact, if anything,
central planning contributed to its fall. Chances are, central planning
won't work any better for any of us.
Build a platform - prepare for the unexpected...
…And you'll know you're successful when the platform you've built
serves you in unexpected ways. That's certainly true of the lessons
I've learned in the process of building eBay. Because in the deepest
sense, eBay wasn't a hobby. And it wasn't a business. It was - and
is - a community: An organic, evolving, self-organizing web of individual
relationships, formed around shared interests.
And just as Pam in her life has taken different
paths to work on an issue of enduring interest - I've come to see,
in terms of my life, that community is the enduring interest in
mine. From the earliest days at eBay, I posted five core values
on the site - not because they came from some business plan, but
because they were values I've lived my life by - values I hoped
would help govern the community.
These are the five values I saw as essential: We believe people
are basically good. We believe everyone has something to contribute.
We believe that an honest, open environment can bring out the best
in people. We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual.
We encourage you to treat others the way that you want to be treated.
I'll be honest: My motive in posting those core
values was utopian - but at the same time utilitarian. After all,
if people are basically good and treat others the way they want
to be treated - then the system works better for everyone. But what
gratifies me most is just how much those values have been embraced
by the people who've embraced eBay - and how those values have become
a platform for an evolving, adaptive community.
Which leads me to the last lesson I want to share today from my
eBay experience. When you're looking at the way a collection of
isolated individuals coalesces into a community…
When you're trying to understand what makes a network
work - what I've learned is that it comes down to this: Can the
system embrace diversity? And not just accept diversity - but embrace
diversity - as the value of difference.
To understand that what today seems odd, unnecessary, off-beat --
maybe even outrageous - may prove integral to solving tomorrow's
problems. It's a matter of finding the connections that make community
- not just forging them, but finding them, because I think they
already exist -- and encouraging each individual to think from self
to society to service.
And that's the challenge for all of us: Can we create the proper
balance between private pursuits and public service? Can we find
the connection, can we build a spirit of community - an ethic of
citizenship -- that shapes every social unit from the neighborhood
to the nation-state? I believe we can - and I know we must.
Whether you look at today's headlines - or back in history - it's
equally clear that no civilization can exist without community at
its core. Brian O'Connell, distinguished professor emeritus here
at Tufts, quotes British historian Edward Gibbon on the end of Athenian
Democracy: "When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to
society but for society to give to them… …When the freedom they
wished for most was freedom from responsibility… …Then Athens ceased
to be free."
I have absolutely no doubt that what was true for Athens in its
day will be true for America in ours… …Unless the enzymes among
us get busy -- right now.
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