I’m not a career politician. I spent 30 years in business. I can tell you that people in California have had it with career politicians: they are done.
Do what you love and success will follow. Passion is the fuel behind a successful career.
Most of us can’t even begin to imagine.
I think maybe it is about time for a governor who has created jobs, who’s managed a budget, who’s led and inspired large organizations, who listens well, and who can drive an agenda.
What’s sort of interesting about the whole public relations disaster that is the Net, in some ways, is that the fundamentals are really good.
When a small business grows like eBay did, it has a multiplier effect. It creates other small businesses that supply it with intellectual capital, goods and services.
Silicon Valley is 130 miles from Sacramento, but it might as well be a million miles away given how it operates.
Sometimes it’s a little bit like being a politician. We have work to do in understanding our users sentiments.
Look at growth, look at how much time people spend on the Net and look at the variety of things that they are doing. It’s all really good, so I am actually encouraged by the fundamentals that underlie usage growth on the Net...
People ask me, how is managing in the New Economy different from managing in the Old Economy? Actually, it’s a lot the same. It’s about the financial discipline of the bottom line, understanding your customers, segmenting your customers by their needs, and building a world-class management team.
In my judgment, we have to avoid, at all costs, tax increases. That would be the worst possible thing to do and will make a bad economy even worse. Beyond that, targeted tax relief should be expanded upon.
One good thing about California is we have quite a broad-based economy. We provide more fruits and vegetables and produce to the United States than any other state. So we have actually the single largest agricultural sector in the country.
Regulation is strangling businesses of all sizes in California, and we’ve got to streamline regulation so it’s easy, not hard, to do business.
And I want to be able to – you know, make Republicans and Democrats famous for keeping jobs in California.
I want to spend 100 percent of my time focused on what I think I can make the biggest difference on as the governor of California.
If we don’t rededicate ourselves to education with the same attitude Americans have applied to going to the moon and fighting wars, the results will be profound. We will gradually lose our successful workforce.
Because what happens is, as the economy suffers, tax revenues go down. But unlike businesses, where at least your variable costs go down, in government your variable costs go up: unemployment insurance, workmen’s compensation, health care benefits, welfare, you name it.
For me, the international expansion of eBay was the best idea. We are now in 35 countries, and have a huge global network. The second best one was the acquisition of PayPal – the wallet on eBay.
Well, California used to be in the dream-making business, and unfortunately what’s happened I think we’re now in the dream-breaking business.
I think we can be the very best place to start a business, to grow a business, to invent a new technology, to change the world, to change the country. But we’ve got a lot of work to deliver a new California to the people of California.