Since a young age, Mark Cuban has been a promising businessman. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cuban grew up in a Jewish working-class family. His father was a car upholsterer and his mother in his words was someone with ‘a different job or different career goal every other week.’ Aged 12 Cuban went door to door selling garbage bags to pay for expensive shoes. At age 16, Cuban took advantage of a local newspaper strike by running newspapers from Cleveland to Pittsburgh.
Cuban excelled at school. He took psychology classes at the University of Pittsburgh during his junior year of high school and skipped his senior year to enroll full time at the college. After a year, Cuban transferred to Indiana University to study Business Administration. While at the University, Cuban held a number of jobs including a bartender and dance instructor. The endeavor paid off and he was soon hosting large lavish parties at the Bloomington National Guard Armory.
Cuban’s move to Dallas landed him a job as a salesperson at a PC retailer. He greatly expanded his knowledge in computing by spending his nights reading all the manuals. Cuban was fired within a year when instead of opening the store, he met with a client about a new business idea.
With support from his customers at the PC retailers and his newly obtained computing knowledge, Cuban started the company MicroSolutions - a reseller of local area network and connectivity products. The company was an early advocate of technologies such as Carbon Copy and Lotus Notes. In 1990, Cuban sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe for US$6 million. He made approximately US$2 million on the deal after taxes.
With the US$2 million from the sell and US$1 million in savings, Cuban decided to take a break and buy a lifetime pass with American Airlines. The unlimited pass allowed him to travel first class to any destination and that he did. It wasn’t just a life of party during this time, he was also active on the stock market and with the selling of a small hedge fund, Cuban had turned his US$3 into $20 million.
His frivolous retirement antics lasted 5 years before he and a fellow Indiana alumnus, Todd Wagner, had an idea to stream college games via the internet so they could listen to basketball games “to cure the homesick fan.” Audionet was born with a single server and ISDN line but was not without its critics. Renamed Broadcast.com, the firm went public in 1998 making stock market history. Broadcast.com’s IPO was, at that time, the largest one-day rise of a new offering in the history of the market. A year later, Wagner and Cuban sold out to Yahoo! for nearly US$6 billion.
Cuban made history again in 1999 when the Guinness Book of Records credited him with the ‘largest single e-commerce transaction’ after he paid US$40 million for his Gulfstream V jet.
Thankfully, Cuban didn’t board the plane to an early retirement. In 2000, Cuban purchased a majority stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks for US$285 million. At this time, the Mavericks were a risky franchise to meddle with. With his Midas touch and trademark enthusiasm, Cuban revamped the culture of the team. Cuban sat with the fans, provided a new stadium and brought about a new and positive ownership approach. He was also the first owner to harness the power of digital. Cuban launched his own blog which was a mix of tech insights and (at times controversial) thoughts on NBA basketball. The blogs became a big hit and received thousands of emails a day.
His vested interest paid off. The team replaced their losing streak with a record for wins. In 2006 the team made it to the NBA finals but unfortunately lost to the Miami Heat. Five years later, the Mavericks gained the MBA championship title.
Cuban’s unfiltered opinions and party lifestyle has not seen him without controversy. It is reported that he has amassed US$2 million in NBA fines from his provocative comments about the league and referees. Cuban’s response: “Who lives their lives worried about what someone else thinks?”
In a nationally publicised incident, Cuban criticised the leagues Manager of Officials by saying that “he wouldn’t be able to manage a Dairy Queen.” In response to this offensive comment, Dairy Queen invited Cuban to manage a Dairy Queen for a day. Not one to pass up on a challenge and show great humility, Cuban ran the Coppell, Texas branch for the day.
In 2004, Cuban was charged with insider trading with regards to an Internet search engine website. Four years later, the case was dismissed but then reinstated the following year. During this time, Cuban joined the series Shark Tank as a lucrative investor to budding entrepreneurs. The trial was momentarily put on hold and in 2013 Cuban was officially cleared of all charges.
Cuban has made very little suggestion to retire. Cuban founded the television network HDNet with business partner Philip Garvin. Like Broadcast.com, he found an area of personal interest and pursued it with grit and determination.
Cuban continues to keep on top of technology trends and successfully invest in businesses. All the while he has found time to perform on Dancing with the Stars, produce movies, make guest appearance in hit television shows and spend time on his Dallas ranch with his wife and three children.
“Over the last 20 years, I’ve always been about what’s new, what’s next and how I am getting there first.” “It’s a sprint and I have to keep running on 150 miles per hours. It’s an adventure.”