How To Win At The Sport Of Business

How To Win At The Sport Of Business is Mark Cuban’s account of how he changed his mindset and attitude over the years to go from broke to billionaire and help you embrace the habits of a successful businessman (or woman).

After being fired from his last job selling software, installing it and fixing up computers, Mark Cuban founded his own company, MicroSolutions, to do the same. It was 1983, so everything computer-related was new and complicated – people needed help.

Instead of fixating on his passion, Mark looked at the world with open eyes, and solved a problem that needed to be solved. Only after selling this company in 1990 (for $6 million, $2 million of which went to Mark’s bank account after taxes) did he look back into sports and then found a problem he could solve there: live streaming basketball matches.

In turn, when he sold that company nine years later, he then bought an entire NBA team, which he now also runs as a business.

The point is: Don’t obsess about turning your passion into your paycheck too early.

Mark could’ve spent the rest of his life trying to become an NBA player or coach, and not get anywhere. Instead, he asked: “World, what do you need right now?” and took care of that.

You can always come back later and re-visit old passions.

“The day you borrow money is the worst day of your life.” Those words always ring in my ears when I hear someone talk about venture capital and startup funding. They were said by Gary Vaynerchuk’s dad to him, and if you want to own your business, be in control, and prefer money over debt, then you should remember them too.

Venture investors are sometimes called vulture investors for a reason – when you sell a piece of your business to them, they take control of it, therefore taking control of you.

They not only get to tell you what to do, but worse, if you don’t deliver, you can even be pushed out of your own company (ahem, Steve Jobs).

Growing organically takes time. It’s not as fancy as going from $0 to $1 million in evaluation with a few investments, but it pays off in the long run. Learn to be okay with this slow, organic growth, as it’s much more stable and profitable.

You’ll also not have to justify your actions to anyone and no one can tell you what to do with your business.

Mark started MicroSolutions with his friend Scott. Broadcast.com was started with another friend of his, Todd Wagner. The first few people you hire will make or break your company. Therefore, you’d better hire people…