When you don't know what to expect, prepare for the unexpected.

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 building a simple system, with just a few guiding principles, eBay was open to organic growth.

It is not really work if you are having fun.

Don't let people who you may respect and who you believe know what they're talking about, don't let them tell you it can't be done because often they will tell you it can't be done, and it's just because they don't have the courage to try.

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.

In 1991, I co-founded my first start-up, Ink Development, which made software for an early tablet computer.