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Omidyar says he tried to imbue eBay with a "founding culture" based on the moral principles he absorbed in childhood. "My mother always taught me to treat other people the way I want to be treated and to have respect for other people," he says. "Those are just good basic values to have in a crowded world." As it happened, there were also good business reasons to carry the Golden Rule into cyberspace. Unlike traditional e-tailers, who can control the consumer's experience, eBay is almost completely dependent on how users interact. "We really have to encourage our customers to treat each other well," Omidyar says. "You can't tell people to do that. You have to encourage them to adopt a certain set of values."
Omidyar seems to realize that given his anticorporate values, it's more than a little ironic that he's one of the richest human beings on the planet. And clearly he's uncomfortable with his wealth. "What one person needs, and what one family needs and all of their future generations need is a tiny, tiny fraction of this total number," he says of his net worth. "That means we have an awesome responsibility to see that the wealth is put to good use." In addition to eBay's foundation, Omidyar and his wife are developing one of their own. He says he wants it to advance the same values as eBay: "Empowering people and helping them be the best they can be."
--A.C.