When Dallas Mavericks owners and so-called billionaire bad boy Mark Cuban read my Dallas Morning News article about Jason McCully returning home with a closed-head brain injury and epilepsy from a mortar attack in Iraq, he wanted to help. His Fallen Patriot Fund made a very generous donation. (See controversial filmmaker Michael Moore's publishing of my DMN story here http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9428). Mark's brother, Brian Cuban, helped make it all happen, and he helped me connect with Mark to do a story for MyMidwest, the in-flight magazine of Midwest Airlines.
When Forbes ranked Mark Cuban as the 428th richest person in the world in 2006, his net worth was valued at $1.8 billion. He has a portfolio of dizzying diversity and a knack for being in the right place at the right time, with skills that remind me of the Kenny Rogers song, “The Gambler”—he knows when to hold ‘em, fold ‘em, walk away and when to run.
From advice on grad school to owning a basketball team, one single guiding principle seems to dominate Mark Cuban. Is it fun? When he bought the Mavericks, he put three ideas into motion -- and at the core of each was fun.
“I made people aware that we were going to change the culture from one of survival to success. We couldn't control our win/loss record, but we could be great at everything else. I increased our sales force and made it clear that we didn't sell basketball, we sold fun. That parents taking their kids, people on dates, business people didn't care about jumpshots, they cared about having a memorable time. I would always ask people to tell me about their first sports experience with family. Then I would ask for the score. No one remembered the score. They all remembered who they went with and the fun they had. So we immediately changed from selling the game, to selling fun,” he says.
He sat in the top row, to let everyone know that he thought every seat in the house was fun. “I put myself in the fans shoes. I am a fan. I wanted to make sure that I knew what fans were thinking, no matter where they were in the arena," he says. “I tried to make it fun for people to go to work and to make it clear my job was to put everyone, player or receptionist in a position to succeed. It may have been individualized coaching for players, even if I got torched in the media for having more coaches than players. It may have been having concerts for fans and employees after games. Whatever it took." (The team eventually achieved a fun milestone: in 2006, they made it to the NBA finals. Now, that was fun.)
Whether it's about reviving a sports franchise, investing in a technology or partnering in a bidet company, billionaire Mark Cuban's an idea guy. He gets ideas all the time. The key to making ideas work?
“I always ask myself if there is a better way. The challenge really isn't coming up with ideas. Its remembering that there are a lot of people smarter than me out there and I have to always do my homework and remember what I’m not very good at,” he says. “I do so much preparation and work with people that are very, very smart. I haven’t had any big failures ....yet."
For him, a naysayer is just a point of transition, a reminder to do his homework -- the old Southern saw of, “Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.”
“Most breakthroughs have a point where everyone tells you that you are wrong and you have to re access to make sure you are right and they wrong. No question that it’s easy to doubt yourself. Some people turn to confidence to get through. I try to do more preparation to make sure I'm right,” he says.
One final piece of advice to entrepreneurs?
“Stay ahead of the curve, and don't let ‘em bite you in the ass.”
Check out one of my two Cuban articles in MyMidwest:
http://mymidwestmagazine.com/2007/07/01/the-making-of-a-maverick/
Check out Mark Cuban's blog here:
http://www.blogmaverick.com/
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