Lead Story
“I realized in
my thirties
that I couldn’t
wait until I was
sixty before
trying to make a
difference”
jeff skoll
The first president of eBay explains why he believes both social enterprise and
impact investing provide the best model to deal with global challenges.
By NEILL DUFFY
Q. You are clearly a man with a vision – WHAT MAKES YOU TICK?
My vision was something that started when I was a kid. I used
to read a lot, and by the time I was a young teenager, I started to
realize that the world of the future might be a pretty scary and
unsustainable place and even back then fears of new weapons,
wars and diseases were top of mind for me.
So my goal as a kid was to try and make a difference to the big
issues facing the world, which I thought I would do by being a
writer, writing stories that would get people interested in these
issues and react accordingly.
As I grew up and became more immersed in business, I started
to realize that I could not only make a contribution by writing
stories about people making a difference but that I could also
invest in people who were making a difference in the world,
hence the Skoll Foundation. I could do more than just write
stories, I could find writers, and help them tell their stories
through different types of media, hence Participant, my media
company. I also learned that it made good business sense to
invest in companies that were making a difference in the world,
hence Capricorn, my investment management arm.
Through all of this, my vision is for a peaceful, sustainable
world... a world of prosperity. All the organizations that I’ve
helped set up are working towards this aim.
Q. Is there a right time to start “giving back”?
As a kid growing up, our family never really had a lot of money,
we weren’t poor but philanthropy wasn’t really a concept that
featured in our daily lives.
But, things changed very quickly for me, thanks to eBay. From
the time I started eBay with Pierre Omidyar to the time we went
public was only two years. To be honest, we didn’t have much
time to think about “giving back” during those two years. So my
“giving back” only really started after eBay.
I do however believe that you don’t have to wait until you’ve
done well before you start doing good. People should consider
adopting a “doing good while doing well” theme into the way
they run their businesses right now. It’s OK to do both at the same
time and, in fact, it makes good business sense.
the quest for humanity 2.0
Events which made Skoll realize a single
person can make a difference.
As a boy, the novels of James
A. Michener make the world seem
a small and connected place.
At 14, his father gets cancer
and tells him his only concern is
not having done what he really
wanted with his life.
John Gardner, architect of the great
society programs under US President
Lyndon Johnson, advises Skoll to “Bet on
good people doing good things.”
connect / usa Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference: www.connectionmiami.com connect / CHINA social enterprise summit: www.social-enterprise.org.hk
18 \ Real Leaders