Mark Cuban is the disruptor of many businesses and that has served him well over the years. Critics say that a lot of his fortune comes from luck. However, could you really make that much money only with luck? Furthermore, let’s not forget that at age 27 Mark Cuban was broke. In 7 years he managed to go from nothing to being a millionaire. Not much later that status got upgraded to billionaire, or the BBC as Mark would call it: “the billionaire boys club.”
In today’s article we are going to look at how Mark Cuban made his money:
- Humble beginning and early successes & failures
- The road to the billionaires club
- A dream come true
- Mark Cuban’s success tips to become rich
Ready to dive into the shark tank of Mark Cuban's life?
P.S. Have you seen his house? Teaser: it’s in the article
P.P.S. Along with his best moments on Shark Tank
Humble Beginnings
As we told you in the introduction, Mark Cuban was broke at age 27 and yet he became a millionaire within 7 years. So what changed? The Cuban family has humble beginnings with his father working as an automobile upholsterer. Mark enrolled as a student at the University of Indiana where he would later graduate with a bachelor's degree in business. He was not like the other students who were mainly focusing on their education. Instead, Mark had all kinds of business ventures during his early years. He gave disco lessons but also had a bar.
Motley’s Pub
The bar went by the name ‘Motley’s Pub’ and was purchased by Mark Cuban in the summer before his senior year at the University of Indiana.
To finance this endeavor, Mark needed to find someone who would lend him $15,000. He found Evan Williams who was an engineer at General Motors and also happened to be on the same rugby team. In 1979, the deal was closed and Mark now owned his very own bar. Within months Motley’s became the best bar in town and it went very well for Mark.
Until something happened… A 16-year-old won a wet T-shirt contest and that got the bar into trouble. The campus bar was busted for serving underaged persons and was forced to shut down. It didn't take Mark long to get over this setback. As always with Mark Cuban, he is relentless in pursuing his dreams and doesn't let failure or setbacks stand in his way.
Mark later describes the incident as the best thing that ever happened to him. It led him onwards towards his next chapter and biggest success.
The Road To The Billionaire’s Club!
So was it all smooth sailing for Mark on his way to becoming a billionaire? Oh heck no! He had many failings and got fired on multiple occasions. But these failures were important lessons as it taught him that being an entrepreneur was his core-being.
MicroSolutions
After Mark got fired from his latest job, he decided to start his own company called MicroSolutions. With which he provided hardware, software, and training in computers. Skills he had developed during his time as an employee.
Nowadays this sounds like a stupid idea, but have you to remember that at that time Mark was one of the first businesses to jump into this space. Many people didn’t see the use of ‘ the internet’ as you could easily get along with just newspapers and telephone. The dot-com industry was just starting and therefore Mark was gaining a lot of momentum.
Mark invested a lot of time in learning and understanding the computer business. He would read manual after manual and be always looking for that competitive advantage. And now without success, I might add… After 7 years of hard work, Mark sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe for a staggering $6 million.
Retirement
After this huge deal, Mark decided to retire. He bought a lifetime pass on American Airlines and traveled around the entire world. He once said: "I wanted to go to as many countries as I could and get drunk with as many people as I could. And I was so good at it!" But as with most entrepreneurs, Mark Cuban became restless and had to do something with his skills and energy. In 1995, he came out of early retirement and decided to disrupt the radio business…
The Real Banger: Broadcast.com
Together with his college friend Todd Wagner they came up with the idea to listen to any sport on the world through the internet. They set up shop in Mark’s bedroom with only one computer and the right software. The business would be named Audionet.
Audionet was taking off like a rocket! They had to buy more and more servers to host all the different sporting events, but it was well worth the investment. With all this newfound success it was time to rename the brand into Broadcast.com. Broadcast.com kept growing and growing and soon it was time for Cuban and Wagner to make the company go public.
At the time of its IPO (initial public offering) the internet boom was on its full strength and on July 17th it was game time. The price was set at $18 a share but that wouldn’t be even close to the price people would pay later that day… Broadcast.com was enormously popular and that showed. At closing time the price was set a mind-blowing $62.75 per share. It set the record, at that time, for the highest percentage increase in one day.
This created wealth beyond anyone’s believes for Mark Cuban, and this is also the part where many of the critics say it’s pure luck that he became rich. Because it was the perfect combination of the internet boom and launching your IPO. But little did they know about what would happen next…
Yahoo’s Offer
When asked by a close friend what Mark's plan was he responded: "I am going to the BBC dude, the billionaire's boys club." To reach this ludicrous goal they needed to come up with a huge deal. That's why Cuban and Wagner went to the office of Yahoo. They told Yahoo that they had what Yahoo needed and that it would take them an enormous amount of money and time to do the same thing. They could either choose for the long route or buy Broadcast.com from Cuban and Wagner. In 1999, Yahoo bought Broadcast.com for a remarkable $5.7 billion (yes billion with a b).
Mark Cuban was now part of the billionaire's boys club. He would spend his newly acquired fortune on a breathtaking house and a $40 million jet. Later on, he would finalize his longtime dream… More about that later.
Mark Cuban’s House
As promised! Here is Mark Cuban's house. It's quite a sight, right? Although Mark Cuban doesn’t invest in real estate, he actually owns a couple of homes. One of them is a vacation home located in Laguna Beach, California. He bought the home for $19 million in 2018. It’s part of an exclusive community that makes use of hotel facilities like housekeeping.
Although the Laguna Beach house is very luxurious, it isn’t the main residence of Mark and his family. No, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks lives (of course) in Dallas, Texas. It’s time to take a look at this property as it was one of his largest expenses at the time! He bought the home right after the success of Broadcast.com.
In 1999, Mark purchased this French-style mansion in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. The 24,000-square-foot mansion cost him $13 million and it’s the house the Cubans still live in today. With the house came 10 bedrooms, a tennis yard, private pool, wet bars, and an entire spa. Yes, a spa… You read that right.
Mark is very fond of his home and loves showing it off. And let's be fair, wouldn't you if you had this gorgeous palace?
Owning the Dallas Mavericks – A dream Come True
In the year 2000, Mark finally realized his ultimate dream, buying ‘his’ Dallas Mavericks. But in that time the Mavericks had one of the worst possible win/loss records of the entire NBA. This was something Mark couldn’t accept and it was time to change the Mavericks, forever.
He changed everything. From building a clubhouse with DVD cinemas, a team jet with legroom for NBA players, and standing next to the coach on the playfield. Mark Cuban was changing the entire game of owning a sports team.
He was going to make the Mavericks win! His comments on the sideline were less positive. He would often criticize the referee and that is something that’s prohibited by NBA rules. This resulted in Mark paying a staggering $500.000 in fines.
In 2011, it was time to get rewarded for all the preparation and hard work to make the Dallas Mavericks champions of the NBA. After turning the entire sports industry upside down and investing millions of dollars into the Mavericks, it was finally their moment. The Mavericks became champions of the NBA and Mark Cuban had turned them into real winners. The supporters were so grateful that they shouted: "thank you, Mark." That never happened before.
Mark Cuban’s Net Worth Is Insane…
Critics will say that Mark Cuban’s wealth is lucky, but I don’t think that is the case. Yes, he couldn’t have timed the IPO better and the offer of Yahoo was insanely overvalued. However, if Mark didn’t go through all his failures and kept getting up and starting the next business, then there wouldn’t have been the opportunity to become lucky. It's often debated that hard work and success will attract luck. So in a certain way, Mark Cuban has created his own luck.
He started many businesses and sold them from MicroSolutions to Broadcast.com. Invested in countless others through Shark Tank. He invested in startups like Grouphug (solar panels), Coconut Girl (healthy deserts), and the Ice Shaker. Plus he runs a successful sports team with his own Dallas Mavericks. The wealth of Mark Cuban is ever increasing. But how much does he own at this moment?
Mark Cuban’s net worth is $4.2 billion. Making him the 414th richest billionaire on the billionaires 2020 list of Forbes.
6 Success Habits To Become Rich
If you are looking to increase your own wealth then you might be wise to listen to the words of Mark Cuban. Now he has many valuable lessons to teach us and quite frankly too much for me to put in one article. Luckily for us, Evan Carmichael made a video about Mark Cuban where he shows 6 success habits of Mark. Let's start with a summary and afterward dive in a little bit deeper.
- Be nice
- Take risks
- Outwork everyone
- Be brutally honest with yourself
- Be prepared to win
- Try out different things
Be nice: this was a habit that took time with Mark. He was always the guy that would push his team to go deeper and work harder. Now that is in essence very good but you need to keep in mind that not everyone is capable of this. If you use empathy right then it will serve you greatly. It will get you more out of your employees, get more deals, and also give you a healthier mindset.
Take risks: now this one didn't take too long before Mark figured it out. He was taking a risk by the gallon when he was younger. Trying out all kinds of businesses before he finally found his path in MicroSolutions and later on in Broadcast.com. Finding your passion and purpose takes time and effort. The same goes for financial success.
Outwork everyone: probably one of the hardest habits to master. We all have dreams or needs that we want to be fulfilled. However, most people don't want to put in the effort to make these dreams a reality. It's very difficult to be consistent but in the end, you have to find something that will keep you going. If your work is important enough then you will keep going until you achieve your goals.
Be brutally honest with yourself: know your business better than anybody. As an entrepreneur, you need to be constantly improving yourself and acquiring more knowledge. The competition will get a hold of your latest features and copy them. Always be working towards the next step in your business. Ask yourself this: where can I improve next?
Be prepared to win: taking a risk is less scary when you come prepared, and there are a lot of things in life you can prepare for. Look carefully at your dream and ask yourself what you need to make it happen. Prepare yourself to take that journey. Do you want to start your own business? Learn finance to keep it healthy and growing. Preparation will help you win.
Try out different things: you can try out different things. Whether that is in life or business, allow yourself to fail. Through failure, you will learn the lessons that will bring you closer to your success. You only have to be right one time! It will serve you your entire life.
Best Mark Cuban Shark Tank Moments
We are going to end this article with the best Mark Cuban moments on Shark Tank as a tribute to this legendary entrepreneur. He is famous on Shark Tank for giving people a short amount of time to consider his deal. Afterward, the deal is gone and not renegotiable any longer! Let's take a look, shall we?
Follow the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMITubk2ajQ&ab_channel=ABChttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMITubk2ajQ&ab_channel=ABC