How Mark Cuban Became a Billionaire
Entrepreneur Mark Cuban started at an early age venturing into many diverse businesses. On ABC's "Shark Tank," Cuban said, "I had quit or been fired from three straight jobs."
While studying at Indiana University, he had engaged himself in a variety of businesses including managing a bar, starting chain letters, and even teaching dance lessons.
Cuban had never taken too much of an interest in technology until he found a job that changed the direction of his life.
"When I got one of my first jobs out of school using technology, it was like, wait, I love this. I've taught myself the program, I could go seven hours, eight hours without taking a break thinking it was 10 minutes because I was concentrating so hard and so excited and really loved it. And that's when I realized that I can be really, really good at technology."
This interest sparked the launch of Cubans own company— a systems integration computer company called MicroSolutions. In 1990, Cuban sold his company to CompuServe for $6 million.
"I'm a competitive person. Business is a much more competitive sport than any real sport. It's 24x7x365. I'm a business adrenaline junky." - Mark Cuban
Cuban then partnered with his friend Todd Wagner and launched AudioNet, an online streaming audio service later to be known as Broadcast.com. Cuban sensed a turn in the world with the development of the internet. They later sold the business to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999.
In 2000, Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million.
"Everybody said, 'You are an idiot because the Mavs suck and that was the largest price ever paid for any sports team ever.' I was like, 'I don't care,'" Cuban said according to CNBC.com.
"It was just a dream come true. Since then, we have never had a losing record."
Cuban helped bring an NBA championship to Dallas in 2011.
In 2007, Cuban published his first children's book titled 'Let's Go Mavs!' and also wrote an inspirational e-book titled 'How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It'
"Leaders don't look backwards to condemn what has already been done; they look forward to create a better future." -Mark Cuban
According to Forbes.com, Cuban is now worth $3.7 billion. He remains the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, owns stake in Landmark Theaters, Magnolia Pictures, and AXS TV, is an avid investor, and appears as a judge on the popular ABC show "Shark Tank."
Collaboratively written by Stephen Gerdik