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.

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

We ought to be looking at business as a force for good.

If you can get over this initial distrust that people have of strangers, you can do remarkable things.

When I started eBay, it was a hobby, an experiment to see if people could use the Internet to be empowered through access to an efficient market. I actually wasn't thinking about it in terms of a social impact. It was really about helping people connect around a sphere of interest so they could do business.

It is not really work if you are having fun.

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