Business Answers from Mark Cuban
— 2 min read
Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner, is known for giving people straight answers instead of comfortable ones. Here's a collection of his responses to real questions, on the topics that come up most often for anyone thinking about starting a business.
He opens with a few lines that set the tone for everything else: "It's not about money or connections. It's the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone." "Creating opportunities means looking where others are not." "It doesn't matter how many times you fail; you only have to be right once."
Someone asked what his best advice would be for leaving a full-time job to become a full-time entrepreneur. Save your money first, he says — don't just leave unless you actually know what you're doing. Be prepared, understand your business, and have at least six months of living expenses saved before you consider it. Only then are you maybe ready to start.
Asked whether billionaires create jobs, his answer is a flat no — entrepreneurs create jobs, not the wealth itself. Becoming a billionaire, in his view, requires luck as much as skill. And on whether billionaires should pay more in taxes, he doesn't hedge: yes, they should.
Given a hypothetical — six months to make as much money as possible, starting with only a phone and $500 — he says he'd find a sales job. With that little cash left, he'd throw himself into learning that industry better than anyone else at the company. Three months in, once he'd proven himself the best salesperson they'd ever had, he'd walk into his boss's office with an ultimatum: pay him what he's worth, or he'd start his own business selling the same thing.
Asked if the customer is always right, he says no — the customer is rarely right. That doesn't mean you stop keeping them happy, but the ideas have to come from the entrepreneur, not from customer requests.
On why most businesses fail, he lists it out plainly: sales first, because no business has ever succeeded without them. Then preparation. Then effort. And then brains — you have to actually be smart about it, put in the work to learn the details, and stay curious enough to keep learning.
Asked about the daily habits behind his success, he keeps it simple: read constantly, stay curious, and stay agile, because things change fast enough that yesterday's playbook won't always work. And ABS — always be selling.
On knowing when it's time to quit a business — walk away, sell, cut your losses — he's candid that the decision is usually made for you. You can't pay your bills, your employees, or your bank loan, and you close up shop because you have no other choice. The other version of that ending is someone offering you so much money that walking away becomes the obvious answer.
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