I built a system simple enough to sustain itself.

Build a platform - prepare for the unexpected...you' ll know you're successful when the platform you've built serves you in unexpected ways.

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

When you look at the accomplishments of accomplished people and you say, “Boy, that must have been really hard,” ... that was probably easy. And conversely, when you look at something that looks easy, that was probably hard. And so you’re never going to know which is which until you actually go and do it.

I was raised with the notion that you can do pretty much do anything you want. I always kind of just went ahead and tried things.

We believe people are basically good. We believe everyone has something to contribute. We encourage you to treat others the way that you want to be treated.

I started eBay as an experiment, as a side hobby basically, while I had my day job.