Guerin Blask/The Forbes Collection
Mark Cuban doesn’t just play an investor on TV, he really loves helping entrepreneurs. Since making his fortune selling his Broadcast.com Internet sports radio team for $5.7 billion in 1999, the tech titan and owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks has channeled much of his energy into teaching others to do the same. He has stakes in at least 400 startups, many from the decade plus he’s spent on the hit business show “Shark Tank,” and appears frequently on television, radio, podcasts and more to share the secrets of his success.
“I’ve been involved in so many businesses at one level or another,” Cuban says of his drive to push entrepreneurs. “I can show them things and guide them and hopefully help them be more successful… For an entrepreneur, that’s helping someone’s dreams come true.”
Cuban, who is on the cover of Forbes for his efforts to revolutionize health care with his new pharmaceutical company Cost Plus Drugs, reflected on his career during a recent interview and offered insight into the strategies that helped him succeed. Below are six key takeaways. (You can read the extended interview with Cuban here, as well as all the other coverage of the 2022 Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.)
1. ‘The only thing you can control in life is effort.’
A mantra that Cuban has followed since the beginning of his career: put in the work that others won’t do. For him, this means making time every day to learn, whether it’s reading books, watching TikToks, playing NFT games, or taking online courses (experimenting with different mediums is also important). He likes to stay on top of every new development in technology, sports, and healthcare, and credits the “effort” he puts into constant learning as how he maintains his “competitive edge.” “When I was the youngest person to walk in the door, people would fire me because of my age and I would outrank them at work,” says Cuban. “When I’m the oldest walking in the door, people will fire me because of my age and I can work harder than them.”
2. Keep your mind (and inbox) open.
Early in his career, Cuban wandered through bookstores looking for business ideas. Although he no longer hangs around his local Barnes & Noble, he still spends a lot of time looking for inspiration, which is yet another reason he emphasizes the importance of constant learning. (Cuban notes that he was not a fan of cryptocurrencies until he started reading about smart money contracts and digital assets online.) It’s also why he goes out of his way to read every email he receives, from businessmen, Mavericks fans and strangers alike. “You never know where your ideas will come from,” says Cuban.
3. Is this meeting really necessary?
Speaking of email, Cuban may be very accessible via his digital inbox, but it’s almost impossible to pin him down any other way. He says that he rarely accepts in-person meetings (only once a month) and complains about getting too many calls even though he only gets one or two a day. Aside from attending games, even his role with the Dallas Mavericks is done almost entirely remotely. This extreme take on minimalism may not be right for everyone, but it’s an efficiency hack that allows Cuban to juggle his many commitments, from Shark Tank to the Mavericks to his hundreds of other investments, while also being take the time to explore new ideas.
4. Take advantage of technology.
Cuban is as “optimistic about entrepreneurship” as ever, and one of the main reasons is the growing number of tools entrepreneurs have at their disposal. In particular, he points to artificial intelligence (AI), which he predicts will become the key mechanism for further disruption. Those who don’t keep up will certainly be left behind, says Cuban. “I think the biggest challenge that entrepreneurs can have is that there are two types of companies right now in the world, the ones that are great at AI and all the rest. And those companies that are great at AI have a huge advantage.”
5. Don’t forget to be nice.
Cuban describes his attitude early in his career as one of his biggest regrets. While launching Broadcast.com, the billionaire admits he became so focused on growing the company that he lost sight of how he presented himself to employees. “If I didn’t think you were using common sense then I would get angry and no one would want to be around me when I was angry.” It was only after he was approached by his co-founder of Broadcast.com, fellow billionaire Todd Wagner, who warned him that he was bullying people, that he realized he needed to change his tune. Since then, Cuban says he has made a concerted effort to be more patient and empathetic, and it has made a big difference. “Being nice will get you further,” he says.
6. ‘Life is kind of random.’
While hard work will get you a long way, Cuban also stresses that a lot of success in business comes down to luck. It’s something he’s experienced firsthand: Cuban sold Broadcast.com at the height of the dot-com bubble and then averted the market’s implosion through a clever trading stunt that involved the use of market collars to limit his advantage if stocks were up, but he limited his downside if stocks crashed (and crashed). Cuban jokes that after the experience he wanted to write a book called “Life is Half Random.” So to reach his height will of course take good sense and good timing, but also good luck.
Source: news.google.com