Lessons Learned from Pierre and Pam Omidyar

Pam and Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, gave the commencement address at Tufts University last May:
Note their clearly articulated, positive statements of their values:

· 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.


Note that they are free from “perverse incentives.” These goals are highly scalable…the more people adapt them, the greater the “cascading” effect. Note their emphasis on simple initial conditions, self-organization, reciprocity, community, connections, evolution, scalability, and adaptation. I think that these are hugely important issues and largely untapped concepts to be discussed and promoted in the context of global humanitarian uplift.

Some comments from Pierre and Pam in which I’ve highlighted interesting stuff:

Pierre Omidyar:

“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….

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. But, I'm stealing Pam's lines - so maybe that's my signal to sit down, and give her the last word.

Pam Omidyar:

There's only one thing I want to add, but it's a big thing… ….Something Pierre didn't say about the platform he built. It's important to do what you love - and to love what you do. Love is the energy that makes the enzyme work - the passion that provides purpose… …That gives every cell in the system -- every citizen in society - a role to play, a function to perform. What's true for organisms is true for organizations. And perhaps it's truest of all for the complex system we call Society.