And some adjusted their sails – episode two
C hange has always triumphed. So did the realists who adjusted their sails acknowledging change as the only constant in our world. While the pessimists who was whining and the optimist who expected things to revert back both perished. Continuing with my mini-series about the “Ones who didn’t lose”, this is the inspiring story about PayPal that was developed by Confinity Inc. in 1998. Their story of embracing change and redirecting the sails to stay relevant is another inspiring story. Jessica Livingston shared an interview with PayPal founder, Max Levchin, in her book “Founders at Work” where it was revealed that the company was initially envisioned as a cryptography company. Later on they developed a service that would allow the transfer of funds between two palm pilots. The vision was to enable the consumers to pay their bills and make purchases digitally via their PDAs and eventually eliminate the purpose for carrying a wallet. The transition wasn’t effortless, ...