“Work as if someone, somewhere, works 24 hours a day in the hope of beating you up”. Life lessons and business rules of billionaire Mark Cuban

• Photo: businessfm.kz

 

The success story of Mark Cuban, American billionaire and the president of HDNet and HDTV cable network and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, began with hate.

Hatred of the CEOs, led by whom Cuban was “lucky” to work and who cut all his initiatives at the root, was the driving force that led him to the pinnacle of success.

But even at this peak, Mark Cuban never allowed himself to rest on his laurels. He works and generously rewards those who work with him. By the way, there is a ban on the phrase “CEO” in his companies, because of the negative experience during his youth, and Mark Cuban calls himself only the president of the company.

 

TOO INITIATIVE EMPLOYEE

 

“For all the good, against all the bad,” Mark Cuban’s business philosophy is extremely simple. He rose from the bottom, worked hard and a lot, but all the time Mark was full of creative ideas and humor. People who are close to his philosophy become not only his best employees, but also friends.

Mark Cuban was happy to get a job at a bank branch in Pittsburgh immediately after graduation. He was engaged in the transfer of data from paper documents to a computer, and in his free time he harassed the management of all sorts of creative ideas for improving the business. Mark seethed with ideas, collected clippings of useful business advice, stormed management e-mails, and made unscheduled creative meetings after work.

Many of the ideas of an overly proactive employee were approved by the management, and some were even implemented, which the young bank employee enthusiastically talked about at the meetings of the “Recruits’ Club”, which was organized by him. Cuban invited the bank’s management to his club in order to meet with yellow-faced employees.

Despite the democracy and friendly attitude, the management got tired of the initiative upstart employee at some point. The final straw was the release of a newsletter about incidents at the company.

Billionaire Mark Cuban personally, with humor and strong words, spoke about this case on the pages of Forbes magazine. “What are you imagining?” shouted the CEO. He said that I would never be able to get around him or get higher. And even if I try to do it, he will crush me. I realized that it was time to get out.

 

TOO ACTIVE “SELLER”

Mark was always interested in computers. At the time, when Cuban sent his resume to Your Business Software, he was working as an ordinary bartender, albeit in a popular club. But the employers were bribed by the fact that the young man bought his own computer and independently programmed in his free time from the whiskey spill.

Needless to say, he immediately got the job. Mark Cuban sold software for computers and individuals, knew his product better than any other vendor, and began to build a hefty customer base.

One day he received an order for $ 15,000 and, enthusiastic, reported it to his supervisor. History is silent as to why he did not like this deal. But the fact remains – the overly active “salesman” was immediately fired.

That fateful deal eventually took place. The client did not demand his money back, and Mark Cuban managed to organize his own company in a matter of days. At MicroSolutions, he finally realized all his skills: consulting, selling, encouraging, motivating.

From that moment on, Cuban came up with the main rule of business: development and pleasure. He will implement it in his HDNet and HDTV cable network companies and will never deal with people who do not share his position.

“When I see people doing something the way it has always been done, the way it is“ supposed ”to do, they follow the same well-trodden path, without even trying to turn aside – well, for me it is a sure sign that they shouldn’t be dealt with,” he would later say.

“Work should be enjoyable,” says Mark Cuban. He is full of advice for those who are just now organizing their own business, developing a new business, or want to breathe a second life into an established business. “Work as if someone, somewhere, works 24 hours a day in the hope of beating you up” is one of his rules.

Another rule applies to people who work with you on the same team. “Monitor the workload and achievements of your people and reward them. At my first company, MicroSolutions, when we had record monthly sales or when someone did something special, I used to go and hand out checks for $ 100 to employees,” the billionaire once said.

Money and profit, by the way, have never been the main goals of the President Mark Cuban. And his rule of hiring employees is very simple: “Pick up people who, in your opinion, will love this job”.