Jeff Skoll: Doing Good Business

Jeff Skoll achieved notoriety as the first president and second full-time employee of the internet auction company, eBay. He became a man with a mission after getting a wakeup call at the age of 14 when his father discovered he had cancer. His father's main regret was that he had not done everything he wanted to with his life.

Using Entrepreneurialism to Support a Dream

While a student, Skoll found it disturbing that most of his friends prioritized getting high paying jobs after graduation, regardless of those jobs being in alignment with a higher sense of purpose or not. He firmly believed that he could not put off living his dreams.

His was to be a writer, which led him to entrepreneurialism as a means to support his need to share the stories he was compelled to write, inspiring people to get involved in taking on the issues that mattered.

Along the way the he tried out a few businesses that did not take off in the way he expected.

"But I kept my eye firmly on the path that I had set for myself, and when my friend Pierre Omidyar approached me with his idea for eBay, I was very sure of what to do. With my newly minted Stanford degree in hand, I said ', what a stupid idea!' Fortunately, I soon realized that was onto something and we then left our jobs to pursue eBay as a fulltime company."

Skoll's involvement in eBay gave him the resources to launch his story-telling venture on a grandiose scale. He formed Participant Media and began to produce films that stimulate social change. The first three to hit the big screen were Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck and .

The entrepreneur has gained global recognition as an exceedingly generous philanthropist and established the Skoll Foundation - a foundation for social change through business ventures. His philosophy is optimistic, supporting the notion that a dismal future only exists in the minds of those that indulge in gloomy thinking, and that everyone alive has the ability to bring about improvements in the global situation.

"Not everyone can be Gandhi, but each of us has the power to make sure our own lives count - and it's those millions of lives that will ultimately build a better world."

Make Your Life Count

Skoll's bit of advice to entrepreneurs is something he says he was given by one of his teachers early on. That is to write your own epitaph - the words you would like to have said about you when you leave this world. Then work backwards so that your life's work adds up to what you wrote. As an aside, the businessman enjoys his wealth as much as he enjoys giving it away. He is the proud owner of the Tesla Roadster, an electric sports car with a 250 mile range. He is also an investor in Tesla Motors.