Mark Cuban’s Career Advice for Millennials and Gen Z
One of my favorite entrepreneurs and investors to follow is Mark Cuban. I like that he is very outspoken, blunt and to the point. He’s a no BS, straight-shooter and I identify with that strongly. Over the years of following Cuban, I have gained several valuable insights into investing and entrepreneurship that I’d like to highlight.
But first, if you’re not familiar with Cuban, he’s a serial entrepreneur whose defining moment came when he sold a first of it’s kind internet radio business called Broadcast.com to Yahoo for ~$6 Billion in the midst of the late ’90s tech bubble.
Cuban was rewarded with billions with of Yahoo stock from the transaction and infamously hedged his position with a Costless Collar option strategy, which I may make a post about in the future to discuss in more detail.
Aside from Broadcast.com he is known for his positions as owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and host of ABC’s Shark Tank.
In 2013 Cuban released a little sort of memoir called How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It, which I read for the first time earlier this year and have re-read several times now as I think the advice he gives is very sound and credible.
I don’t want to go into a full detailed book review here, but rather list 3 major takeaways I gained from Cuban after reading. These are the quotes that I’ve highlighted and keep in my notes so I can remember them as I go about my career and investing journey.
#1. The Greatest Obstacle to Destiny
The greatest obstacle to destiny is debt, both personal and financial. The more people you’re obligated to, the harder it is to focus on yourself and figure things out. I’m a big believer that getting married is about finding yourself first, which makes it a lot easier to find the right person. If you can’t stand on your own, it’s impossible to successfully be part of a couple.
I’m also a big believer that financial debt is the ultimate dream killer. Your first house, car, whatever you want might to buy, is going to be the primary reason you stop looking for what makes you the happiest. How crazy is it to settle for a house, car or X over what it is you would like to do on an hourly or daily basis?
Never settle. There’s no reason to rush.
#2. The One Thing You Can Control
In sports, the only thing a player can truly control is effort. The same applies to business. The only things an entrepreneur, salesperson or anyone in any position can control is their effort. I had to kick myself in the ass and re-commit to getting up early, staying up late and consuming everything I possibly could to get an edge. I had to commit to making the effort to be as productive as I possible could. It meant making sure that every hour of the day I could contact a customer was selling time. And when customer were sleeping, I was doing things to make more sales and to make my company better. And finally, I had to make sure I wasn’t lying to myself about how hard I was working. It would have been easy to judge effort by how many hours a day passed while I was at work. That’s the worst way to measure effort. Effort is measure by setting goals and getting results.
The one requirement for success in our business lives is effort. Either you make the commitment to get results or you don’t.
#3. The Importance of Sales Skills
There has yet to be a successful company that has survived with zero sales. So if selling is the most important job in a company, why do fewer and fewer people seem to be wanting the job? Why aren’t there many colleges offering majors in salesmanship, rather than sales and marketing? Just pure old-fashioned selling?
If you don’t have a job or don’t have the job you want, get a job in sales. Every single person on this planet can learn to be a great sales person. All you have to do is put in the effort and care about your company, your prospects, and customers.
This was a very enjoyable read for me as a guy in his late 20’s. I hope some of you in a similar position find this content as impact as I have. Below are a couple of my affiliate links for the book on Amazon. It’s under $8 as I’m writing this and ~120 pages, making it a high value/time ratio read or listen.
How to Win at the Sport of Business (Paperback)
How to Win at the Sport of Business (Audible)