Evan Carmichael Top Header about About About facebook Twitter YouTube Google+

Lesson #4: Learn to Expect the Unexpected

Pierre Omidyar Quote


Staff post about: Pierre Omidyar
Become an Author

Free PDF Download
Pierre Omidyar Quotes - By Pierre Omidyar

Name: Email:


“Whatever future you’re building, don’t try to program everything,” says Omidyar. “Five 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.”

When Omidyar first launched eBay, he needed to find a way to make it a self-sustaining system. It was after all just a side hobby, and most of his time had to be dedicated towards his actual paying job. Today, eBay is able to adapt to its user needs with relatively little intervention from the company itself. It was thus almost accidental that eBay was readily suited for rapid growth, but in preparing for the unexpected, Omidyar could come to expect success.

“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,” says Omidyar. “Build a platform – prepare for the unexpected…you’ll know you’re successful when the platform you’ve built serves you in unexpected ways.”

However, perhaps contrary to popular belief, Omidyar warns that preparing for the unexpected requires more than simply sitting back and accepting what life throws at you. “To truly prepare for the unexpected, you’ve got to position yourself to keep a couple of options open,” says Omidyar, “so when the door of opportunity opens, you’re close enough to squeeze through.”

In a fitting metaphor for the Internet guru, Omidyar compares life to a software program – something linear in nature. “We all face the temptation to freeze-frame the past, and project it into the future,” he says. However, 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.”

For the first three years of eBay’s existence, the company grew at a rate of 20 to 30 percent every single month, far above the average for any business’ start-up phase. Every time Omidyar and his team were doing projections for growth in order to budget accurately, they would say, “Well this can’t last…there’s no way you can grow this fast.” Despite their tremendous and unbelievable success, Omidyar was still forced to plan for the unexpected. Would their growth continue at the rate it had been? Would they soon reach a peak and level off? Just as he couldn’t anticipate his company’s rapid rate of growth up to that point, there was no way that he could predict the future. Instead, he had to be ready for anything.

Today, Omidyar believes that the Internet is making it even more necessary for entrepreneurs to be flexible. “The Internet is changing everything, and has changed the world in such a short period of time, and will continue to change things in very positive ways that we have yet to anticipate,” he says. “I’m very excited by the prospect of what we haven’t seen yet.”


Related Articles

  The Gravity of Failure
  Recovering From a Mistake
  Three Marketing Lessons from Realtors
  Entrepreneur – How Not To Have A Bad Employee?
  Losing The Deal - Yeah, It Does Happen To All Sales Professionals too!
  5 actions to give generously
  Cold Stone Creamery serves up a Triple Scoop of making Sales Effortless
  Proactive or Soothsayer?
  Business Lessons from a Porcupine
  Difference Between Success And Failure In Starting a Internet Home Based Business
  Entrepreneurial Success Is In All Women
  Who Is Your Proud Family?
  Why are People Never Taken to Task?
  Build Your Positive Expectation Muscle
  Getting Rich Is An Exact Science
  Never Ask This Question In An Unexpected Event
  Coping With The Unexpected - 6 Practical Tips
  Lead people through the crisis with courage:
  Now You Can Have a Great Biz Plan With Ease
  Leadership and Reaching the Boiling Point

Home > Famous-Entrepreneurs > Pierre Omidyar > Lesson 4 Learn to Expect the Unexpected >

Free PDF Download
Pierre Omidyar Quotes - By Pierre Omidyar

Name: Email:


Related Forum Posts

Quote of the Day - "Expect more than others think possible. Quote of the Day - "Expect more than others think possible.
Can you tell me about 80/20 Sales Rule? Can you tell me about 80/20 Sales Rule?
The 80/20 Rule The 80/20 Rule
Lisa Shepherd Story Lisa Shepherd Story
Re: What are your December goals? Re: What are your December goals?

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
Share for a Cause
Like this page? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Bottom Footer



Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.