There are a million ways to make a million dollars. And today, we’re looking at how Mark Cuban got rich.
For those of you who live under a rock, Mark Cuban is a VERY rich American serial entrepreneur, investor, and one of the main sharks on Shark Tank. He also owns the Dallas Mavericks, for good measure.
As of now, his estimated net worth sits at around 6.5 billion USD.
We’ve collected the most important lessons from his journey for you to draw from, so without further ado, here’s how to get rich, according to Mark Cuban.
Don’t worry if you don’t feel like reading, you can enjoy the video below or watch it on YouTube:
1
Live below your means
In one of his blog posts, Cuban said: “Your biggest enemies are your bills. The cheaper you can live, the greater your options. “
He spent a lot of his early teenage years with five other roommates in a one-bedroom flat. But that allowed him to focus on his number one goal.
Mark Cuban became a millionaire when he sold his first company, MicroSolutions, for 6 million USD, from which he got 2.
Up until that point, he still lived like a student, as he likes to call it. He never splurged; he didn’t buy expensive cars or a bigger house, even when the company kept growing.
And this is the first important lesson. If you truly want to become rich and in control of your own destiny, you can’t afford to act rich until you do so.
It will just delay your progress, or sabotage, all together.
So many people jump straight into upgrading their appearance when they start making a bit more money.
Zara gets replaced with Gucci, even if it’s just a t-shirt. The watch gets more expensive. The car gets an upgrade. The local restaurant doesn’t cut it anymore and the list goes on.
This is called lifestyle inflation.
If you keep spending money the same way you earn it, you’ll never accumulate enough to make a significant jump toward becoming rich.
Pay the bills with a job
Mark Cuban’s first “job” was to sell garbage bags in his neighborhood.
He bought them for $3 and sold them for $6 by going door to door and telling people they could call them anytime they needed garbage bags.
He considers it the first subscription-based garbage bag business.
And he used the cash for pocket money and to invest in the stock market.
The point is, your first business endeavor will almost certainly never be the one that makes you rich.
You’re not going to build anything on your first try.
You don’t have the experience or the resources needed to make it happen.
Take care of your bills first, with either a job or a small, simple business that gets the job done. You can’t afford to build a big business if you can’t pay for food.
3
Pay for your life with equity
This is common advice among millionaires and billionaires.
Mark Cuban’s net worth skyrocketed to 300 million USD when his second business went public. That was the first time he said “Ok, I’m set for life now”.
Here’s the reality: You will never, ever be rich by having a job.
It’s just not happening. There is no job out there that pays millions of dollars on a yearly basis.
But, Alux, what about superstar athletes like Messi?
His agreement with Inter Miami is worth $150 Million over two and a half year period.
That’s a job that pays millions, right? No.
That’s an investment in ticket prices, merchandise, PR, and branding. Have you heard of Inter Miami until now? Because we haven’t.
The point is that you need to be part of something that goes up in value. And that means owning a business, or at least part of one.
The salary of a CEO is peanuts compared to the company’s stock price.
And if you know how that works, check out our article on why CEOs are paid 300 times more than average workers.
4
Play with your team
Mark Cuban was rich and a long-time fan of the Mavericks. And he also knew he could do a better job of turning the team around.
That’s why he bought it for 285 million USD.
And one of the first things he did was set up his office alongside the sales team. He picked up the phone and started calling.
The point is, if you’re serious about building wealth, you will eventually have a team around you.
And if you want that team to do great things, they must work with you, not for you. Remember when Mark sold that first company for 6 million dollars and got 2?
Well, his employees got 1 million as well.
You won’t get far by bossing around people and telling them to do things you’ll never do yourself, just because.
This is extremely important, as we can confirm from experience.
It’s impossible to do everything on your own. You need great teammates with you.
5
Value over passion
Mark Cuban is in the camp that doesn’t agree with the saying: “Follow your passion to see where it leads you”.
In a 2018 interview with Amazon Insights For Entrepreneurs, he said: “A lot of people talk about passion, but that’s really not what you need to focus on.
You really need to evaluate and say, “Ok, where am I putting in my time?”
The point is that your passion is rarely financially viable. Sure, it would be a dream to make millions out of passion with knitted sweaters.
But that’s probably not going to happen.
Look at what you’re actually good at instead of what you enjoy doing in your free time.
For every person who makes a ton of money out of their passion, there are millions who go broke because of it. Be smart about it.
6
When it’s time to make the jump, go for it.
In an interview with CNBC, Cuban said: “There’s no person on this planet who hasn’t had that “Oh my god, I got this idea” moment.
But very few actually make the jump and go for it. And that’s because the monthly paycheck is a very strong addiction.
It’s very hard to leave the comfort of a reliable income, whatever that may be, in order to pursue something greater.
Many people stop at “getting a job to pay the bills” but never go beyond that. It takes some guts and confidence in yourself to sacrifice your monthly paycheck for the unknown.
But ultimately, that’s what you have to do in order to make it.
7
Find what you’re good at and make the effort to become great
Cuban believes everyone in the world is good at something, but the first hard part is to find it, and the second hard part is to actually become great.
Whether that’s business, sports, music, drawing, or writing, everyone has an innate inclination toward something that makes them better than those who don’t have it.
Those who say, “Oh, I’m not good at anything.” have not tried enough things to figure out, or they were put in a context where they couldn’t try too many things.
And it’s hard to figure that out.
Some they know from childhood, and others figure it out in their late 30s when the pressure is higher. But it’s something you have to do.
And then the second part is to actually become great at it.
Talent is not enough, and work always beats talent, and talent doesn’t work hard enough.
In fact, what you’re good at gives you a starting point, and then you must fine-tune your ability until your skill becomes undeniable.
For Mark Cuban, the skill that got him rich was selling.
Ever since he was a kid, he bought and sold baseball cards, stamps, garbage bags, and whatever he could find. And that constant skill honing eventually made him great at selling, which in turn led to him entering the technology business.
So find what you’re good at, and then make an effort to get great at it.
It will pay dividends for the rest of your life.
8
Build a base of knowledge on your adjacent interests
Or, in other words, do your homework on things that might be useful to you.
A great example is how Cuban started educating himself on AI more than five years ago.
He understood that this technology could impact a lot of his businesses, and he took the time to get educated.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance from 2019, Cuban said he had already started to read books like AI For Dummies, take Python classes, and talk to people, just so he could understand the space.
He didn’t do it in order to build the next big AI company, but to be able to ask questions and actually understand the answers when the time came. So why is this important?
It’s hard to see opportunities when you’re not even looking. And looking is a big part of what made Mark Cuban rich in the first place.
The thing that could propel you to the next level might just be around the corner.
But if you don’t know about it and don’t educate yourself, you will miss it. And here’s how you start.
Take your business, or whatever you are good at, and look at 10 different industries or topics that are related to it.
Expand your universe of knowledge, and your opportunities will expand with it.
9
The biggest investment you could ever make
Mark Cuban suggests that if you have 25k, 50k, or 100k, there is one big investment that you can make. And that’s paying off any kind of debt.
Because that’s a guaranteed return.
Interest on debt is chipping away the money you didn’t even make yet. The smartest decision you could ever make with a larger sum of money is to instantly get rid of debt.
And that’s the last thing most people do when they get a hold of a bag.
10
Have your money ready
Lastly, one of the most important pieces of advice Mark Cuban gave when it comes to getting rich is to have cash available.
You’re not saving for retirement. You’re saving for the moment you need cash.
When a great opportunity comes, and you are aware of it, if you don’t have disposable cash, it’s pointless.
This type of knowledge is what’s going to make the difference between an opportunity wasted and a home run. That’s what proper guidance can do for you.
In fact, that’s one of the main focuses of the Alux app. It’s the GPS that will show you the shortest path to success, avoiding all the traps that slowed down so many before you.
What you read in our articles will show you where you need to go and the Alux app will show you how to get there, using a step-by-step approach.
Download the Alux app and upgrade your game!
And to close this off with a few words of wisdom: If you want to become rich and make your first million dollars, you should listen to what Mark Cuban has to say! Read this as many times as you need to assimilate everything. See you next time!
