There's no doubt Mark Cuban is well-known and respected in the world of business and entrepreneurship. He is widely known for his participation in the television show 'Shark Tank' and his ownership of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.
"It's not about money or connections. It's the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone."
- Mark Cuban
As a successful entrepreneur, businessman, television personality, investor, philanthropist, and writer, Cuban has demonstrated an understanding of the importance of hard work and strategy worth learning from.
Who is Mark Cuban?
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Mark Cuban is a notable American businessman and investor from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Not only does he own the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, and is an investor on the popular television show Shark Tank, he is also the co-owner of 2929 Entertainment, and chairman of AXS TV.
Cuban has also authored several books, including How to Win at the Sport of Business and Letters from a Self-Made Billionaire.
Cuban's was ranked #177 on the Forbes 400 list in 2020, and his net worth is estimated to be about $5.1 billion. He has achieved significant success in his career, having founded and sold several companies (including Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in 1999).
Mark Cuban's Background
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He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a working-class family. His father was a car upholsterer, and his mother worked various jobs. His maternal grandparents were Romanian Jewish immigrants, and he was raised Jewish.
Even from a young age, Cuban realized the power of entrepreneurship:
- At only twelve years old, he sold garbage bags to purchase an expensive pair of sneakers.
- As his skills progressed, he sold stamps and coins for additional income just a few years later.
- At sixteen, Cuban seized the opportunity of a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strike and transported newspapers from Cleveland to Pittsburgh for profit.
He chose to skip his senior year of high school and instead enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh. He ultimately transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington because it "had the least expensive tuition of all the business schools on the top 10 list". There, he graduated from the Kelley School of Business in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree in management.
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Professional Development
One of his earliest businesses was a popular bar in Indiana called Motley's Pub. He sold it in 1983 and used the money to start a computer consulting service, MicroSolutions, which he later sold in 1990 to CompuServe for $6 million.
In 1995, Mark and Todd Wagner created Audionet (later Broadcast.com), a web-based audio streaming platform. Incredibly, only four years later, the pair sold to Yahoo! for an astonishing $5.7 billion. This deal catapulted Cuban to billionaire status, and in the subsequent years, he ventured into multiple industries by acquiring various companies.
In January 2000, Mark Cuban acquired the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million. According to Forbes, Cuban's NBA team is now worth $3.3 billion. He and Wagner also cofounded 2929 Entertainment in 2003, which developed and produced various films. He also invested in multiple start-ups and began appearing on Shark Tank in 2011.
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