i've just finished reading a book titled "the perfect store: inside ebaY" last week.

as a former ebay active visitors (and bought some stuffs from it), i quite surprised that the book provides a good exposure on this unique company. i used to see ebay as a dotcom that survived the bubble burst in late 90s because of its good "business model"...most of the information, i got from businessweek or fortune magazine ( i once wrote a short paper on ebay here ). furthermore, the business headlines tend to put meg whitman (the CEO) on the spotlight, while pierre omidyar usually just mentioned as just a "founder" of ebay.

adam cohen, the author of the book, gives a quite detail description of ebay's history and it struck me what pierre omidyar's mean to ebay; he is the soul. his emphasis of empowering people is not just a slogan; his idealism on many things is the one that ebay unique. i found it is very rare to find a young entrepreneur who has that kind of idealism in our world today (tips: read the book or search in google to learn more about pierre).

eventhough ebay has transformed from a small company run by geeks and free-spirited people into a powerhouse packed with ivy league MBAs + big investors, at least there are some footprints of pierre's idea are still remained such as ebay's effort to help some villagers in south america to sell stuffs on its site.

so, for now i am convinced that business and idealism could walk hand in hand; business is not always about greed and money, it depends on us.

ps. i also want to make another point here. for me, success is not only about money; it's not just about getting $6,000/month while you are sleeping because of your "internet-marketing (??)" works for you. success does not just mean "retired rich and young".....i'd be glad to have a lot of money, but for me success is more about surviving and acomplishing our idealism

Update May 15, 2005
I put a review on "the perfect store: inside ebaY" here  

¶ 10:40 PM