Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is an American businessman and investor. He is the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures, and is the chairman of the HDTV cable network AXS TV. He is also a "shark" investor on the television series, Shark Tank. In 2011, Cuban wrote an e-book, How to Win at the Sport of Business, in which he chronicles his life experiences in business and sports...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth31 July 1958
CityPittsburgh, PA
CountryUnited States of America
One problem people have is that they lie to themselves. You may think you are more talented then the next guy. Which is exactly what the next guy thinks as well. Rarely is talent enough. You have to find ways to make yourself stand out. You do so by playing to your strengths and making people aware of those strengths. Always remember that no matter how many times you get shot down, you will get smarter, better and you only have to be right once to be successful.
Most people think money is the key to reducing risk. Prepartion is.
The reason I do Shark Tank isn't to try take make more money of the deals, even though every deal I want to make money off of and even more so I want the entrepreneurs to be very successful and make money, but Shark Tank sends a message to everybody that the American Dream is alive and well.
Business is the marketplace of ideas.
When you first start working for me, directly for me, I micromanage until I trust you.
I'm a big believer that you always reiterate, you always learn, you always realize your business is evolving.
I can turn an idea into a business before you know it's going to be important. My first step will blow by you.
You always have to know what business you are in. Everybody thought we were in the basketball business. It's an NBA-team; we are not in the basketball business. We are in the business of creating experiences and memories.
We don't sell wins or losses. The one thing you can't control in sports is which games you are going to win or which games you are going to lose. But what I could control was the experience the fans have.
I had been in the technology business for so long, I had seen the PC-bubble come and burst, I had seen the local area and wide area networking-bubble come and burst, it was no shock that the internet-bubble was going to burst.
Those back-to-back experiences confirmed what I already knew: That I was a shitty-ass employee and I'd better start my own business.
I retired at twenty-nine, bought a life-time pass on American Airlines and my only goal in life was to party like a mad man and get drunk with as many people as possible. And I was happy right there. But when we started the streaming business, I knew it could be something big.
You learn in life that a lot of things are the result of effort, but some things, in terms of scale, are random.
Everyday I look in the mirror and make sure I don't pinch myself so I don't wake up. I don't take it for granted. All the time I say: 'Why me?'