Mark Cuban Explains Why Success Isn’t About How Much Money You Have
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Martin Dasko
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Carly Brashears
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In a recent podcast episode of The Path with Ryan Roslansky, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban explained that he doesn’t necessarily define success by a person’s wealth, and he shared some of the basic tenets everyone needs to have to be successful.
During the wide-ranging discussion, Cuban offered up plenty of insights on how to measure and achieve success.
Of course, he also has no shortage of advice on building wealth, such as his No. 1 wealth-building tip he recently revealed to GOBankingRates.
What’s Success About?
According to Cuban, success isn’t necessarily about how much money you have.
“Success is just setting a goal and being able to wake up every morning feeling really good about what you’ve accomplished,” Cuban said. “If you can wake up every morning smiling and excited about the day, you’re a success.”
Cuban grew up in Pittsburgh in a working-class family where he accepted from an early age that if you wanted to buy something, you had to earn it. So, he would find ways to earn his money by trying different side hustles. The original side hustle was selling baseball cards until the business ventures became more elaborate as a college student. Cuban reflected on how these ventures taught him a lot in hindsight because he was learning how to sell.
Unlike many entrepreneurs, Cuban is a proponent of attending college. He believes that it’s the ideal opportunity to learn how to learn and be responsible for yourself for the first time in your life. Since he didn’t have much financial support from his family, he had to get creative with his side hustles to pay for college. He gave disco lessons for $25/hour to teach girls how to line dance, got into party promotions, and then opened up a bar on campus by his senior year.
What Are the Basic Tenets Everyone Needs to Have to Be Successful?
When Roslansky asked Cuban for the best piece of career advice, the ‘Shark Tank’ star laid out three basic tenets that all employees or entrepreneurs need to have.
Tenet #1: Accept that you’re getting paid to learn
Wherever you’re working, it’s essential to remember that you’re getting paid to learn. Cuban encourages you to be infinitely curious and to always keep on learning. He believes that if you remain curious, you’ll keep moving up.
Tenet #2: Reduce the stress of people around you
You have to find ways to reduce the stress of those around you by being a problem solver because everyone wants someone around them who can eliminate stress instead of adding chaos. How you do this depends on the type of work you get into, but the goal is to always reduce stress instead of making things worse.
Tenet #3: Learn how to sell
Cuban encourages everyone to learn how to sell because he believes that it’s important to be able to do so if you want to make money for yourself or the company that you work for. Throughout the episode, Cuban shared various instances where he had to sell products or services as an entrepreneur.
Cuban quit his job at a bank after nine months because they didn’t appreciate his initiative. He headed down to Dallas, where his entrepreneurial journey took off. He started selling software independently until he found a client who needed new accounting software. He sold his first company for $2 million. After thinking he would retire, he ended up betting big on Broadcast.com in the mid-90s. That business was eventually sold to Yahoo in 1999. Since then, Cuban has gotten into several notable ventures, from purchasing the Dallas Mavericks to his role on the popular program ‘Shark Tank’.
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