I'm gonna give you Mark Cuban rule number one and whenever you forget this rule, you're already out of business. There's Nothing, you can't accomplish in life with the right amount of work The challenge is you know, are you willing to do the work? You don't have to look the part? I mean, I certainly never have right you don't have to sound the part You just have to find a way to put your customers in a position to succeed and good things happen Need motivation what a talk 10 we believe nation. What's that believe nation? It's Evan My one word is believe and I believe in you I believe you have Michael Jordan level talent at something and I want you to find it embrace it and use it to make a Difference so let's get your motivation to attend and get you believing in you grab a snack and chew in today's lessons from a man Who went from selling garbage bags door-to-door and being a bartender to now being a billionaire entrepreneur? and owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks He's Mark Cuban. And here's my take on his top 50 rules for success Also, if you want to know what Mark Cuban and other successful entrepreneurs have to say about building unstoppable confidence Check out my 250 for confident series where every day for the next 254 days I will send you a video for free that is short every morning to help you build your confidence Check out the link in the description below The passion I've always had for business and being an entrepreneur the trend that transfers into the Mavs I've always been passionate some people thought you know It's a it's more OCD than anything else which I think is a great trait for an entrepreneur When I you know, I mentioned the stamp business I would stay up till 3:00 4:00 in the morning even though I had to get up and go to school and read Lin stamped news and Scott's stamp journals and have them all memorized and and use that to give myself an edge Okay, let's kick it off with rule number one now is the time You know person I think every time is a perfect time to start a business There's no bad times if you do the work if you do the preparation You'll know when it's time and it doesn't mean that it won't be a little bit scary. But you know, it's you'll know and You don't have to quit the daytime job If you don't feel that all that comfortable and you can give it a run at night But whatever works for you now with the internet you've got all the choices in the world and you can just go out there do your own thing and and You know set up a business part time rule number two be passionate the passion I've always had for business and being an entrepreneur the trend that transfers into the Mavs I've always been passionate some people thought you know It's a it's more OCD than anything else which I think is a great trait for an entrepreneur When I you know, I mentioned the stamp business I would stay up til 3:00 4:00 in the morning even though I had to get up and go to school and read Lin stamped news and Scots stamp journals and have them all memorized and and use that to give myself an edge Even when I was in college I'd be in live in the library reading business books and just looking for business biographies and just reading all I could about business When I had Micro solutions and you know, I started with no money, you know, I pull all-nighters In front of borrowed computers teaching myself software and how to program rule number three don't make excuses Just to go after it. I mean the thing about being an entrepreneur is this it's just all to you You know a lot of people like to make excuses. I don't have connections. I don't have money I don't have this but you know if you find something that you like to do or love to do Be great at it and see if you can turn it into a business and worst case You're gonna have fun doing what it is you love to do in best case you can turn it into a business I I'm just big gun excuses. I just think if you really Everybody has an opportunity to go for it. They just kind of do it rule number four learn from history One of the things that companies do or startups do they come up with an idea? They'll google it and if they don't see it in the first two pages They think its original you've got to go back right because over the past 15 years There's so many different businesses that have tried and failed You have to go back and find those and learn from those So you've got to understand all the implications and you have to learn from history and so the best advice I can give you on a video before talking to you or emailing with you is that you've got to find out the history of people who have tried your idea because there's a 99.99999% chance that your idea has been tried before That's not a good reason not to start it because you might be able to outperform them But you better learn from the history of your idea. Um Because you know what they say about people who don't learn from history Rule number five enjoy competing. I've always just really enjoyed just the competition of business I think you know in in the sports business. I'll talk to our players And it'll be like what you guys can people forty eight minutes and you practice a couple hours and you work on your game independently a couple hours but the ultimate sport is business because you have to compete with everybody and you Have to do it 24 by 7 by 365 days a year forever And there's always somebody out there trying to kick your butt There's always somebody who looks at your business and says I can do that better. I have a better idea and You're you have to compete with that person and all the while you have to make your customers. Happy your employees happy it's it's the competitive side of me that in any entrepreneur that I think that that Has to drive you and and I think that carries over into the Mavericks I want to win and I want to compete rule number six know your business Ninety nine percent of small businesses you can start with next to no capital It's more about effort, you know, small businesses don't fail for lack of capital. They fail for lack of brains they fail for lack of Most people just aren't willing to put in the time to work smart. I mean they they They go for it in a lot of cases but they just don't recognize how much works involved and and and if you do the preparation if you know if you start a business you better know your your industry and your company better than anyone in the whole wide world because you're competing and To think that whoever it is you're competing with is just gonna let you come in and take their business Obviously that's naive and I think most people don't recognize that if you're going to compete with me and one of my businesses you better Realize that I'm working 24 hours a day to kick your ass rule number seven be rude early honest with yourself One of the big things that all startups do is they lie to themselves Over and over and over mines faster mines cheaper. Mine's better mines this mines that No, it's not and the reason it's not is because whoever it is you're competing with it's not like they're ignoring you It's not like oh my goodness. This guy just started on Shopify in the startup competition. He's doing a million dollars this year What was me? I might as well close up the doors What are they doing? I'm gonna copy what they're doing and now you've got to stay ahead and so, you know, you've got to be very careful as an entrepreneur to be brutally honest with yourself and those are some of the things that you'll hear from me as a mentor that you Know know what you know know what you don't know but you've got to know your business better than anybody rule number eight Know your strengths and weaknesses. I think the most important is knowing your strengths and weaknesses and Knowing what you enjoy doing, you know, if you look at it as a job you've already lost it it's not going to be your passion and you're going to count the hours if you look at it as something you love to do and Then you know what your strengths are Then you can leverage those strengths in your business and in helping others and once you recognize your weaknesses Then you can work with people that complement you I mean every one of my businesses. I've had a partner who's very anal Martin Woodall Todd Wagner, I mean incredibly anal people perfectionist because I'm a slob You know, I'm a big-picture think about what the corner house technology going to change things how can I change you know this industry and You know making sure that there's somebody there to make to dot the i's cross the t's and keep me in the bass lines Elm and you know recognizing my weaknesses is just as important as recognizing my strengths in my core competencies and and You know having a passion to do rule number nine be unique. You've got to be differentiated and unique You've got to know what your core competency is and be great at it. I think what people fail to Realize is that there's there's got to be a defining Feature of your company and you've got to be the best in the world of that Whatever industry you're in if you're if you don't know more about it than anybody else in the world Wherever those other people are that know more go kick your asses rule number ten be yourself. I had a job out of college working for a bank for a short period of time Mellon Bank and I um decided to well first It might have been ink magazine. This is way back when but there was an article about using changing something in how you deduct social how you save Social Security from employees paychecks and Literally hadn't been working there for three weeks. And so I sent it to the CEO of Mellon Bank Hey, I thought you might be interested this literally some guy He never heard of and I got an OPEC said thank you. Nothing and okay You look my whole job my whole motive in taking a job working for somebody was to help them become more profitable That's the way I always looked at it and then I started a rookies Club where I reached out to some Executives and all the people who had started at the same time at Mellon Bank we don't go out and get a drink and we'd get this executive start and I didn't like run it through my boss or anything and so my boss at the time Calls me in and said you're doing this is I said, yeah, I think he's gonna say great It's just her screaming at me and Rieman me. How could you do this you go everything through me you work for me yeah, so I knew I wasn't destined there and then I And I went down to ended up down in Dallas and got a job working for a company called your business software and We were we sold software and and I didn't know anything about software I took one computer class at Indiana and kind of cheated to pass but not that I condone that but And so I had a customer and I thought might stay up all night teach reading I think you know computers were new and technology was new This technology was new so no we had a head start on me because it was changing So rapidly like it is today that if I just put in the time I can learn as much as anybody else and So I taught myself I'd stay up late reading software manuals Taught myself different little simple programming languages and kept on getting bigger and bigger and better and better but it was at a retail store and one of my responsibilities was to come in sweep the floor wipe down the windows and open the store and I had a customer who wanted me to come out there and close the deal and it was a fifteen thousand dollar deal Fifteen hundred dollar commission to me told my boss He said no You need to be there to open the store and I made the executive decision that I was gonna go get the check because you know I was living six guys in a three-bedroom apartment sleeping on the floor And this check meant I could like not use the same holiday in towels with holes in them that I'd stolen you know mom But anyway, so I went and picked up the check Thank you. When I came back and gave the check to my boss all would be forgiven and you know, the sales cures all fired me Fired me and so those back-to-back experiences Confirmed what I already knew that that I was a shitty-ass employee and then I better start my own Rule number 11 just go for it Sometimes being young and trying things are so naive and you don't know any better All you do is learn and if you fail It doesn't matter And so whether I was nine ten twelve sixteen 21, the failures were irrelevant and you know Whether you're you know, nine twelve sixteen twenty one twenty two twenty four, you know, I'm sleeping on the couch You know, I have a car with a hole in the floorboard You know, I'm living like a bum and like a student and so what did I have to loose? And so I think that influenced me as much as anything so it you know, my dad was like go for it, you know Don't why not? What do you got to lose? You know, you have to sleep on a different couch So I think that that was motivation rule number 12 find something you love the type of person you are that you know Kind of points to the things you're good at are you 12? You're not gonna know are you 16 you're not gonna know if you're 18, maybe if you have a special talent Yeah, right, you know you can throw a baseball 100 miles an hour you can sing and your voice is incredible You know, you're you know a concert pianist. You're a chess grandmaster If you have a specific skill set or talent that just immediately propels you to top. Yeah, you want to follow that? Yeah, but I remember having a list I still have it when I graduated from college I was getting ready to graduate and all the different industries that I thought I might want to Partake in when you find something. You're good at. Yeah, go for it. I was never really into technology when I was a kid Yeah, but then as I got a job that used it I found out I was good at it And once I found out I was good at it. Then it became a lot more fun Yeah, you know when you're good at something that's almost always fun. Yeah Yeah, and once it was fun, and I combined that with you know, my business skills then I saw okay I know how to make money at this stuff because I know how to sell Now I know tech that gives me something I love to do. And so you know what? I tell people the key is find something you love to do and be great at it Yeah, because once you do that, it's all gravy rule number 13 be a shark. What if I offered you? 1.25 million dollars to sell the whole company Marc. You're saying screw the other sharks. Yep. I like what you guys are doing I want you to come back to me with a percentage. I don't want you to even talk to these guys You're asking him to take that option with you right now And have more us you're not a very nice guy thought about B being wonderful. No. No, I have that title thing It's about making a business decision. Right? Hi. I'm Mark Cuban. I'm a bully look at me. What's that about? What like I said guys you gotta pay to play just attention in this room. I can feel it. It's offensive You got a shot here. Right? Don't let these guys drag you down. Are you really interested in this? I like the idea you really think cooking bacon bedside is a good idea. I loved your passion. I loved your knowledge I'm waiting for the bike. Yeah, there's a but coming. You've got a 24-second shot clock $750,000. I've never seen grade like that. That's unbelievable. Great. You broke up with your potential partner without even looking at them You're a savage. I'm just a lean mean shark machine, baby I say yes to whatever you're Connor is you have to tell me that you will say yes immediately and we have a deal $100,000. Wait a minute for 20% equity done done and done. Do you like that Barbara? I don't like it one bit That's a compliment to you Barbara I screwed you, but it's a compliment to you This isn't the Rose Garden. It's the shark tank and you know what? Sometimes you got to take the bite and sometimes you're the Chum rule number 14 try out different things you just have to try different things and Even even if 99% of them fail. You only have to be right one time You don't have to figure it all out in advance You can be wrong. You could pick the wrong career. You can pick the wrong job. You can pick the wrong spouse You can pick the wrong, whatever but you get it right one time You're set, but if you don't try and if you don't go out there and try all those different things you'll never get that one time and so It's not a question of okay how much different stuff do I do or how many different things should you try try them all? Try them all till you find the one you like and then it's like it gets really easy because even what's up? You're on a mission. You're loving what you do, you know and then then it gets easy and so that's just the approach I've always tried to instill in people who work for me and myself rule number 15 work hard I knew I was wired to be excited about business how or why I don't know but you know And there's certain guys they have the genetics to jump out of the gym, right remember certain guys You know that, you know when they golf they have the muscle memory and and the discipline, you know dirt The Biscay may not be the most talented guy in the NBA but his discipline and his focus to do what's necessary to be successful He's willing to do and combine it with being seven feet tall and being skilled, you know, it makes him an amazing basketball player So it's understanding what your skill set is finding the right place to use those skills and then going for it You know, will that make you 250 grand? It depends if you pick the right industry but whatever industry you pick if you outwork everybody if You try to be a little smarter than everybody if you try to be a better Salesperson and everybody if you try to be better prepared than everybody You've got your best chance because if you don't do it and somebody else does You I I have the same work like someone's trying to take it all away from you you know work you actually work like someone's spending 24 hours working 24 hours to take it all away from you and That's kind of the way I look at it. I remember Asking my dad - I want a new basketball shoes because I was a basketball junkie back then He's like, well your shoes work If you hunt a new pair of tennis shoes, you have to go out there and get a job and I'm like dad I'm 12 years old and it just so happens He was playing poker with his buddies and one of his buddies just like well, I got a job for you I've got these garbage bags that we distribute you can sell the door-to-door I'm like, okay And it was when I was selling them and realized he that I'd like to sell and that I could sell and that I recognized that selling was was about Providing the service and creating value for people that I knew that I would literally back then I knew that I could always succeed I mean, I remember I was 16 I think when I started a stamp company and started going to stamp shows and trade shows and just working a little bit harder than other people and and Trading up from one stamp to the next I remember one time I started with a quarter and bought a stamp and left with $50 thinking Hey, if I could do this I could do anything and and it's not that everything worked I failed a lot But I never ever felt like I I wouldn't be able to work hard enough to succeed Rule number 16 follow your efforts also always say it's not about passion. Everybody's got passion for something Yeah, right. Don't follow your passions follow your efforts because people say, you know, I was passionate to play baseball I was passionate to play basketball doesn't mean out all the sudden. I was going to be good enough Yeah but I found myself spending being really curious about business being really curious about technology and that Curiosity is really what drove me and I think particularly if you're young today Curiosity is great Always learning and trying to find new things and being curious about new things because that's what leads you to that path trying to figure Out in advance. Yeah, that's hard because you don't know what you don't know rule number 17 put yourself in their shoes Be prepared Understand put yourselves in the shoes of the people or the businesses That you're working with the message that I just got on cyberdust is a perfect example if he would have put himself in my shoes It would be obvious that Cyberdust is important to me. I'm trying to push everybody to message using it I've volunteered and Dave mentioned that hey I'm going to be answering questions long after this is over From you people from everybody sending me messages So cyberdust is obviously important to me And so if you're able to do something that reflects something that's important to me or whoever it is that you're working we're trying to get a job where they're trying to get an internship with we're trying to get an investment from if you can put Yourself in their shoes and put yourself in context of what's important to them Your chances of being successful Increase 99 percent as a thousand-fold right and one other point I'll leave with you right if you're working for somebody The best way to be successful is by reducing the stress of those around you It's not about you. It's always about me, but that's a different place, but it's not about you it's about the people around you if you're Reducing the stress of the people around you. Those are the people those people start to gravitate towards you They want to work with you Because you may go into work easier more pleasant you help them accomplish their goals You help put them in a position to succeed by reducing their stress rule number 18. Go beyond dreams, you know shark tank I do the show not because they're great investments But I do the show because it sends the message to to kids 8 to 80 that the American Dream is alive and well You know You can watch the show and and come to realize that somebody out of Iowa or you know the middle of nowhere in Texas can start a company and you know Turn it into something special and I think you know so many families watch the show together. That is just You know in particularly in this day and age when so many people are saying what's wrong with this and what's wrong with them What's wrong with America? It just really reinforces that you know somebody with an idea who's willing to you know go beyond just an idea to a company face and really work something special can happen and and you know, just Reinforcing that is really important to me rule number nineteen look at the opportunities What makes a work is like everybody's got ideas, right? Most people just think I'll it's my idea and I don't have this right the people that get it done They don't look at the obstacles They look at the opportunities, you know instead of coming up say I wish I had a connection which I have money Wish I had this like this. Let's do with the surfboard man You went out got it found a used surfboard and he started putting it all together, and it was just his time, you know And then he took it built one Figured it out build another one and then it's the same thing with some of the other one pretty much all the other Companies where you know rather than finding the excuses why they can't do it They find the reasons to make it work and then they just butt to bust their ass and good things happen rule number 20 Play League of Legends team kuben going forward three And there's still more fight to have been hot shot dodging back out I still drop the big good fight for Team kuben an ace actually Yep, and that may be do you think they can close it out right now? I mean they've got a lot of death timers mm tardies on the nexus original's on the nexus 2 And some impressive support from these guys for cyber smile as well I was fun to raise some money for charity Cuban clearly delighted with his victory Rule number 21 outwork everyone. Most people do a lot of talking and most people don't put in the effort. There's Nothing, you can't accomplish in life with the right amount of work The challenge is you know Are you willing to do the work and the reality is most people aren't? But that's the opportunity right is I mean, it's like people, you know at school. Most people are lazy, right? They they just they barely get through it and and so that creates opportunity I tell my kids that a if they want something they're gonna have to earn it Yeah, and B if they don't work hard enough to earn it. I'm gonna sell them off as medical experiments That's the line in our house you Need money, okay. We'll shut you off as a medical experiment we can get you money that way Give blood dad. I'm seven. I don't care Rule number 22 go through the hurdles Steve Jobs said it best everything's a remix, you know if you look at what Apple did they stole a lot from Xerox, they stole a lot from different places and you know the early days of Of the PC industry software industry there wasn't a lot of regulation and and it was just ready fire aim you just went went went went when you know now there's there's different types of regulation my biggest myth as An investor was because I paid too close attention to disruption artemiy to regulation So I had this guy send me an email. I first iodide finances last company company called red swoosh we did peer-to-peer file-sharing and he sent me an email saying we're gonna disrupt the cab industry and I'm like That's a really good idea. And it's like yeah, we're gonna call it uber cab and we're gonna go around and just Use an app so that people can hail a cab That's why I called an uber cab So you don't have to go through the the intermedia of the taxi, and I'm like, this is great But you're gonna have to fight all the taxi associations and all the transportation organizations in each city in every state, you know, you just you're you know And then I started talking about his evaluation and I never heard back from him The rest is history. He's still a jerk, but we're still friends. So You have you know, and the point is when you're trying to disrupt something like Travis was doing right You know and try it's gotten him in a little bit of trouble particularly recently, but you know Sometimes you've got to be ready fire aim and just bust through doors and figure, you know You'll deal with the constant you'll deal with the regulation or regulatory issues. Later and so, you know, he's obviously Disrupted transportation and he's trying to do a whole lot more than that and he gets all the credit because where I saw regulation He ignored it. And so if you really believe and you really have something that you know You think is going to happen and disrupt the world? You know bring it to me. I won't make the same mistake twice and then and Then just go and you know and bust through those doors and figure out how to get through the hurdles rule number 23 Follow your effort people. You're such a risk-taker. Like I hate risk me I'm terrified and literally it is terrifying, you know taking that first step For me it was easier because I got fired but you know, it is really it's about preparation, you know If what we all go through this process and tell me what you think chase I mean where you've got the idea right and you get that feeling in your stomach and you get all excited Oh my god, then you talk to friend and the Franco. Oh, wow. That's pretty cool. I never heard of anything like that I buy that right and then you talk to some other people and then you do the Google search, right? Anybody else has anybody else doing this? You try 50 different ways. No one's out there well The first thing I'll tell you is just because you don't see it on Google doesn't mean 100 companies Haven't gone out of business doing the same thing, right? It may not be out. There's a saint in basketball You're open for a reason which means you can't shoot so they're not guarding you're right It hasn't been done for a reason because every company who's tried. It has gone out of business So the one thing I would tell you is be careful But once you get past that that stage then what I always tell people is one Is it something you love to do? Right that is so true because it's gonna get hard like really hard It's gonna get hard and if you don't love what you're doing, then it's like that when shit gets hard That's when you're gonna like, oh man, I'm gonna fall in the towel right right because you don't know right and you don't have a sense for it and I'm a real believer that each and every one of Us has something we're good at right and you've got to figure out is this something you're good at, you know? I've always been good at selling I found out I Wasn't into computers when I was a kid Then I found out when I start to start to teach myself out of code It was like I like this right and I literally I would sit there writing software and I think okay I've been working two hours. I better get something to eat and it's been 24 hours You know, it's just like what the fuck you know 24 hours. I mean I okay Tell me you're clued in it's not just what you care about it's not just passion because you should let the circles overlapping passion and Aptitude right? You weren't good at something just because you love basketball doesn't mean I'm gonna be any good at it, right? Yeah, sure for I mean you can have fun at it But if you're trying to make a business a life a living things, yeah, I always say don't follow your passion follow your effort That's right So you might think you're passionate about playing basketball playing the guitar drawing design Whatever but where you spend your time is your better indicator because that's typically what you're good at and nobody ever quits anything They're good at for sure You know it when you're good at something you tend to want to give back rule number 24 Create memorable experiences when people think about going to sporting events now use this as an example You don't remember the jump shots after a while. You don't remember the home runs. You don't remember the touchdowns You don't remember the score you remember the experience? Yeah, you know remember who took us You're our first game with our mom or dad We remember how we felt when we won that game, you know going to a sporting event it's one of the few places where you're allowed to stand up and scream at the top of your lungs and you're Encouraged to scream as loud as you want and someone hits a game-winning jumper You're hugging people and high-fiving people you've never seen in your life and you'll never see again And you're walking out of the arena, you know Singing and chanting and screaming and if you lose that game You're bummed out and you know the entire city or the entire school can be bummed out So when we sell when we seldom average, we don't sell basketball we sell unique Experiences and so you've got to understand in your business exactly. What the Differentiation is and what the compelling aspect of that business is but you know think about what you do as a consumer What is it that makes you make the choices that you make why do you buy a certain thing? Why do you shop a certain place? Why do you go to a certain website? Those are the keys rule number 25 don't care about the opinions of others Most people really are concerned about what people think about them It holds them back you never ever ever ever have it's not a part of who you are Is that your DNA or where did that come from? I don't know. I just never gave a Yeah, it's just once you get success in something I mean even when look I failed many times and You learn from those failures that it doesn't hurt as bad as you thought You know that you can bounce back and then once you taste some success you realize it doesn't matter how many times you failed Right. You only have to be one right one time Then everyone's always an overnight success or you know, this came easy to them You know you just you just got to keep on grinding and and keep on trying new things and you know Once you start feeling the success You realize look it doesn't matter what the other people think other than my customers other than my you know My partners other than my employees I care what they think but you know from the outside looking in I was always just so focused that I just never I mean I got distracted from time I don't want to say never distracted. But you know, I just didn't want anybody else I don't want to think that how people saw me was a reflection of the job I was doing you know if my customers were happy if my stakeholders were happy I was happy rule number 26 be passionate. You're not like the regular Guy who owns a team who just, you know sits on the sidelines and his family. Could you be involved to the other team? Oh, yeah, if you try to get them assigned with you don't Sign when I'm like Mark Cuban is on time with this. Oh, yeah. Yeah Love it look, you know I've been a basketball junkie my entire life since I've been five years old and um, I just get into it, you know, we all have something right where you're just like I Astro right just super passionate, right? And that it's always been basketball for me. I mean during a game I'm out of control right those 48 minutes any other time I'm like this rule number 27 do the work some people just They get on the show and they think you know, I don't have to work anymore I don't have to work as hard or if I get an investor, it'll be easier and it never works that way or They just They stop paying attention to detail. Yeah, right I've had a couple companies where it's like, all right, you know, I'll hire people to do all the work It's your company. It's your baby You've got to do you you know, if you're not gonna do the work who is and I've always felt You know in terms of leadership That my job is to put everybody around me in a position to succeed And if I'm walking around the arena here, I'm picking up junk on the ground. I'm you know Helping customers. I'm trying to you know convey to everybody that there's not a job that you would do that I wouldn't do myself and a lot of entrepreneurs that fail they lose they lose track of that They think you know, I'm the boss I mean, I I had a job one time and I was a horrible employee where you know The the president the company spent more time telling me how I should dress then trying to help me close sales Yeah You know So you've got to do the work and that's key rule number 28 be innovative again in 95 a buddy of mine Can me go you know this internet thing is starting to take off? There's no way to listen to sports on the internet and you got to figure it out You're the tech geek you got to figure it out. So I'm like, okay Figure out a way to put audio on the internet. And so that's what we did And so we started a company called audio net started hooking up the technology started going to all these different radio stations Teams and saying okay, you know You can't let anything outside of Dallas anything outside of Pittsburgh or anything outside of wherever you can't hear it Or see it right now we want to be able to listen like radio around the world and they're like cool and so they gave me the rights to their stuff and We went started with the radio station in Dallas hooked up an eight hour VCR Had a server set up in my bedroom and we connected it to the internet figure it all out And now I would just go online to different places and say look if you're interested in Dallas Sports Download this go to this website called audio net within a month We had thousands of people downloading in a day. And this was like in 1995 and it just got bigger No, one had ever heard of streaming then went from on-demand to live to Concerts to games to everything to video and then we went public and during the big internet boom And it was the biggest IPO in the history of the stock market and then Yahoo! Bought us for 5.7 billion And then it up but that was like was that like during the XM satellite see like all of that satellite all before that? Before that before they were doing XM. This was like The idea of being able to listen to audio or people are like, what do you do again? Like the internet you audio and video they had no clue and people were like that. No one needs that I got a radio I got a TV, right and I'm like no You know this whole audio thing Wow before they had Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We used to work with with labels I remember I was talking to Jimmy Iovine and He goes and we're trying to get music to put online and he didn't really know what standards right and so he goes mark Forget about that for a second I want you to listen to this talk to this dude Marshall and listen to this song and he puts on I am You know and then I'm Slim Shady. Yes, let's say right and it gets this guy Marshall and he goes calm Eminem Wow and so that's how we started working with them to get on the you know streaming on the internet with them and We know the rest of the history on streaming rule number 29 read books I used to love to walk through bookstores when there were bookstores everywhere And if there's something that caught my eye And I thought it can give me one idea to spend thirty dollars to give one idea that could help propel me make my businesses better It was a bargain the only investment guide you'll ever need by Andrew Tobias used to get me all fired up I read hours every day because all it takes is one little thing to propel you to the next level anything that you think is interesting that relates to business read it, you know, I I tried to find books about entrepreneurs when I was young. I tried to find books about businesses all my friends Thought I was crazy. You know, why are you reading this? Why are you reading that and it's because I enjoyed it. So, you know regardless of you don't have to read the right books If you read the things that that are interesting to you Then you'll find things that you like to do and Once you find something you like to do the goal is can you be good at it and if you can be good at it? then the next goal is can you be great at it and You know great things happen when you're great at something rule number 30 be a shark One shark is out dave has two offers on the table for his early education software platform brightwheel However, things have become heated in the tank after Dave suggested sharks go in on an offer together You tell me. What do you think you need from the rest of the line here? Are you serious? Are you really that clueless? no, I'm just I'm Seriously, are you really that clearly haven't heard you speak up mark I'm listening, right? So somebody else wants to shut up right now they should because I'm taking the Opera I just want to know if we're gonna team up with anyone or you need to take you know opera so you're not even listening To your thing. I want in with Chris. Chris is gonna add a ton of value I don't know if anyone else wants to join then do you ending questions? Yes. What else do you need from? somebody else and is anybody here nominating themselves as bringing some of the table the Nominate myself. I'm listening right so I don't need to convince Chris of anything I have no problem with Chris and the value he brings the other companies he has Right when he assigns his name to it. It holds a lot of street cred in his little part of the world Once you get outside of that little bubble called Silicon Valley, it doesn't mean as far as I know He what if you want to create a brand value so that somebody who's working in, Texas Pittsburgh made Florida and wants to have an extra level of confidence to say you know what this was validated by somebody that we trust Something we know has a track record your job gets easier rule number 31 pay off your credit cards if you want to be rich The first thing you should do is pay off your credit cards If you have a payday loan you have a loan pay it off because that's the boat anchor that's gonna hold you back There mercilessly no mercy Right. There's no upside to look I get I get how difficult it is I mean I've been there where I've come home and the lights are out and I've had to go down to the utility company and Explain why this new account that I just opened up and this check is going to clear even though the last five have it right? or when you know you look at your phone, and it's a bill collector and Look it's not always easy. But at the same time going and try you've got it There's there's just no way to get over that hump by taking a payday loan or a high interest rate loan or a Prepaid credit card with a high interest rate It's really tempting and you think to yourself Well if I just do this I know I can work my way through to pay it off and get to the next level And as someone who's had their Sears there their visa their MasterCard all cut up in front of them, right? It's just it's it's the biggest boat anchor that you could ever ask for when it comes to your life or starting a business Rule number 32 be nice nice is way undervalued You know particularly in this day and age, you know, if you turn on the news everything seems like it's gonna get blown up, right? being nice Just makes life so much easier and look I learned the hard way I had to have my partner Todd came to me one day and he goes I like to curse he goes I Don't care about cursing but you curse too much not everybody is as accepting as cursing as you are calm the down And I took that the heart not so much the cursing part but But I just I it became apparent to me that the nicer I got The more effective people around me got the more productive. They got the more sales We had I was undervaluing nice You know I started my my first company after I got fired from a job and I was 24 just turned 24 My first real company if you will and I was always go go go go go all consumed right live it. Eat it Sleep it breathe it and I knew people couldn't keep up or work as hard as many hours as me But I wanted them to and we were successful and we didn't have much turnover but I could have done a better job if I were nicer and broadcast calm I got a little bit nicer right as things but then once I got to the Mavs and and some of these other companies and Todd reminded me, you know, and and Really told me, you know, just nice nice works And so when you find yourself going to work when you're finding yourself dealing with customers when you're finding yourself making decisions We all get that Ah jatai, right that feeling in their stomach that tenseness that stress at various points at times that we all have to go through But sometimes you just need to calm the down, right? Take a deep breath and be nice because you'll find out that people will do much more But if you reduce the stress to people and you're nice, you're gonna have such a huge advantage No matter what. Your technology is no matter how it compares. Even if it's a download for an app people Were still have to deal with you your culture will come through being nice Being being supportive reducing stress that all comes through even in an app rule number 33 be prepared Third is be prepared people. Oh, you're such a risk taker I don't take risks right when you walk into the room If you don't know more about your business your industry your company your customer then everybody else in the world You're lying to yourself that you're you don't know. She's right because someone like me is gonna just kick your Seriously, right if you walk in and there's somebody else who knows your business or your industry better than you why would they buy from? you The one thing in business you can control your efforts your effort Rule number 34 grind. I'm not mr. Mentor. I'm not the one who says let's sit down Tell me how it's going. Oh I'm gonna tell you exactly how I am get off your ass and get out there and sell something. That's right. I Mean I've never been the okay. I need a mentor You know a lot of people look for mentors thinking they're gonna tell me the shortcut. Ah, Mark, you be my mentor, you know the way and they think I'm gonna go Convey some magics. Here's the dust go go go. It doesn't work. That way. I Still grind. I love the grind if you're competing on one of my businesses I'm gonna kick your ass because I'm gonna I'll grind you right that's what being an entrepreneur that an entrepreneur is You've got to get out there and do the work. So when it comes to how do you learn right? Because that's the question. How do I learn this stuff? Everybody everybody has got to go through that process Right. I read our I'm in the tech business. I'm a media business the entertainment business I've got to try to prepare myself for all the Shark Tank businesses. I read three hours plus a day Right what everybody else is getting a suntan or? Even when I'm getting a suntan I've got I'm online or I've got books I'm reading all I can rule number 35 put your customers in a position to succeed. You have to execute everybody's got ideas, you know, that's that's the easy part but Customer what sale customer? Customer happy yes or no sale Customer customer happy yes or no right sale because everything just feeds that right Everything else is noise And if you and part of that though So there is a part beat of that, right? Because one tenant of good business is always listened to your customers, right? You always want to listen, but you don't always want to do what they tell you, right? Because the customers job is to just is to make their company successful Right and when they tell you what they need and what they tell you what they want They're typically thinking about the right here and now they're not thinking about your potential competitors They're not take thinking about the future of your organization So you have to also innovate you have to differentiate so you have to have be over out here innovating differentiating understanding You know how you fit within your industry and how you can get ahead but then you have to turn that into sales Customers customer happiness, and so if you can execute on those things things typically work out Well, it's not well my office is pretty my office always looks like crap, right? I mean our offices now. We we have these bare desks everywhere. I'm not it, you know, you don't have to look the part I mean, I certainly never have right you don't have to sound apart You just have to find a way to put your customers in a position to succeed and good things happen Rule number 36 find your path. You can remember back to you know, when you were kind of my age. Uh-huh Did you think you would have all this? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I ya know I Had no idea I grew up in Pittsburgh. Um, my dad did upholstery on cars So if you got a rip in your car seat you took it to him My mom had odd jobs from selling real estate to making baskets And you know, I was just a normal kid, but I was always into business from as long as I could remember I was selling something or working on something trying to make money and I just it just Got me excited to be a business person and it just took off from there rule number 37 find the competitive edge I was never the one to like chase the sector. Oh, this is hot Because you have to ask yourself. Who are you competing with and whatever you do, you have to ask yourself. What's your edge? Right. What is the one thing that gives you a competitive edge if you don't have an answer? You can't start that company you're gonna lose right I said before if you're trying to compete with me You better low know a whole lot more than I do about whatever business were in because otherwise I'm gonna kick your ass Right, so you have to ask yourself. What is your competitive advantage? And With that competitive advantage. What's the best way for me to get customers who are willing to write me a check? might one of my skill sets has always been I've been able to walk into any type of business and Understand their company, you know understand how they make money I understand how they compete so I can walk into a shoe store I can walk into a hospital or whatever and say alright, here's my technology Here's how it gives you an advantage and I try to do the same thing on Shark Tank You hear us? Say it all the time. What is your competitive advantage? Just saying it's my passion Do you ever walk into 7-eleven and say wow I'm shopping here at 7-eleven because they're really passionate No Right and when when you go and you make drew think about your own buying decisions, what makes you decide to buy? Now you might want to support veteran-owned business. So I always when it's a toss-up. Yes Right, but at some point you have to grow beyond the community and you have to be able to say like you can walk into Any situation and know without any doubt in your mind This is why you are the best product or service and you are the best company provide that product or service period in a story if You can't do that You have to ask yourself who is doing it? What are they doing? That gives them that edge what allows them to compete or help their customers better than you can because that's what it's all about We all as consumers make buying decisions and We the people who are buying our stuff is product or service use the same thought process for those buying decisions So always put yourself in your potential customers shoes What is it that I have that makes it a no-brainer for them to buy for me if? It's um nice. I'm passionate You're in trouble, right? There's got to be something because even if you can get some customers, how are you going to grow it? How are you going to sustain it? And what's going to keep the next person from coming in and doing the same thing? Because look with success comes additional challenges The more you succeed the more people say damn Okay, that's an opportunity. I think I can do that better and so success isn't look where I'm at success is Go-go-go-go Right. I mean people say wow, you've done this I'm still going, right To me business is the ultimate sport and there's nobody on the face of the earth. That's more competitive than I am I've said that to Magic Johnson Michael Jordan Larry Bird. You name it right any athlete any businessperson? It is the ultimate sport and we're competing all the time What is it that gives you an edge that allows you to compete? How do you sustain that and how do you find more people that say yes to buy that that is going to be the key To your business and how do you sell it? Rule number? 38 always be a student. I focus on things that are AI driven artificial intelligence driven whether it's machine learning deep learning learning neural networks Medical applications, but within ai ai is a buzz word that everybody's using right now, you know every in and to that point You know We as all guys we go back and it's like 1995 we talk about the Internet and I would say to people back in 1995 Look, if you don't understand the Internet, you're not gonna be able to do business And now that's just blocking the tackling that seems obvious back then it wasn't right I can even take you further back to my first company You know What we did was a company called micro solutions and we did local area networks on wide area networks and I used to walk into Companies and say you're gonna have to hook these pcs together at some point That'll make you more productive more effective You know give you a competitive advantage and people are like now I just carry this floppy from this PC to that PC Yeah, okay but Today, we're at the same type of inflection point with artificial intelligence You don't have to be an expert and be able to put together your own neural network, you know You don't have to know what weights and biases are but but you have to have more than just a cursory understanding just like you have to know the difference between You know different types of websites and you have to understand ecommerce If you're in the e-commerce, you have to have a cursory understanding of how apps work You're gonna have to have at least if not more cursory understanding of artificial intelligence because it will change everything we do and if the internet was 10x in terms of change to business artificial intelligence will be 100x or more if you go to my house right next to my bed, there's a book Machine learning for dummies. If you go into my bathroom, there's deep neural networks for dummies right if you go There's a something for dummies in every room of my house, you know They could go to ways I know but I'm just telling you put the time I mean I've taken you know, I can't even tell you how many hours now I spend every week if not daily Working like I'll go into Amazon AWS and go through their machine learning tutorials Don't think to yourself I'm not technical enough or I'm not gonna get this or I don't get into this or it's too much Try it get as far as you can because it's like doing a basic website and a little bit of HTML Just having done that you feel smarter and you feel a little bit more confident about this You know, I don't want to be an alarmist But I'm trying to scare the hell out of you because it's important rule number 39 Disrupt industries one of the big challenges for everybody having a unique idea and then taking us through the fruition There's always hard right? It's never easy. There's always people are going to question you and Being able to take that first step and fight through all the naysayers you know the it it it's a process but once you start to get traction whether it's uber whoever maybe you know and you're taking steps that nobody else has that's when you really have to fight and You know now particularly where we don't have an administration. That's particularly tech literate I think there's going to be new challenges and so the companies that are emerging today Maybe some of them are here at South by Southwest You know, maybe it's gonna be a little bit more difficult But still there's there's no less need and it's no less important You know It's as the world changes and I think it's going to change more over the next ten years technologically than has the past thirty We're gonna need people to disrupt and make our make the world better rule number forty create energy So trying to build a team trying to win games that's in this bucket trying to create the best fan experience That's a completely different bucket. You know, I don't want people using Wi-Fi at our games I don't want that's called look now when you're look I want you know What makes going to a game unique versus sitting on the couch is the energy you feel when you walk into the case study is? The Duke University student section everybody up jumping for two hours. Yeah, they're not the target audience for this I'm not doing they're not doing it right because getting away from your device and going getting out of the house and doing something unique When you walk into a Mavs game, I want you to feel the energy, right? I don't want you to even think about going I want you to shoot. I forgot to check on the babysitter, right? Oh shit I forgot to check my email, you know We spend more probably as much as all the other teams and all Professional sports combined to do original videos that we put up on the jumbotron We upgraded our big screen in the middle of the arena So at the time it was the largest indoor screen anywhere in the world Just so we could do better entertainment rule number 41. Learn how to sell I'm gonna give you Mark Cuban rule number one And whenever you forget this rule you're already out of business in every business sales cures all Has anybody ever heard of a business that had zero sales sales? That was successful Doesn't happen Yet a lot of people start their business thinking I have a great idea. I'm gonna do this. This is amazing I'm gonna go raise money I just sold this idea and then it comes back and it's like, okay You got to sell that product or you got to sell that service? That's the first and main key to a successful business when you're getting ready to start. You have to answer that question Rule number 42 just do it. The second thing is don't ask for help. I Think one of the things that is challenging the companies right now is they want to mentor they want a tutor Right get out there ready fire and go when I go to talk and colleges in particular It's like we you help me you help me. Will you help me help your self, right And I think that's where we get caught up So just do this do it rule number 43 My personal favorite reduce stress be turn entrepreneurs about being a problem solver, right? You're you know, what a selling selling is not convincing selling is helping You know as tech entrepreneurs here if you're going to a customer whether it's consumer or you're a b2b, you know Either you're making your customers life easier, either you're reducing your stress or you're making it harder and you're increasing their stress I mean over the years I think some of the things I've come to learn triggers like dealing with some of these Shark Tank companies is One of the greatest skill sets that an entrepreneur employee Salesperson can have is reducing stress if you find that when you go to work Stress increases the minute you walk in the door You've got a problem. If you have an employee and the minute they walk in the door You have a problem and they have a problem And what I found is the best Companies the best employees that I have the best investments that I have are there people who reduce stress? Because those are the people we don't want to give up. You know, they may not they don't make the most noise They don't always get the biggest paychecks then always close the biggest deals, but when there's problems that need to be solved They're already working on them before You're even aware of them. Those are the people that we love and those are the things, you know reducing stress if you set in your mind, it goes as an entrepreneur for your company 1 keeping your You know selling and keeping your customers very happy to stay ahead of the curve with your competitors and 3 Reducing stress of everybody around you all your stakeholders. You're gonna be successful Because if you think about all your personal experiences, would you rather do business with somebody who creates stress? Or do you want to do business with the person who reduces stress? It's easy answer but you'd be amazed at how many people don't follow through in that rule number 44 Follow your effort. And I'm gonna tell you something that a lot of people 99 percent of people disagree with me on Right. Everybody says follow your passions. I Say that's bullshit, right? I say follow your efforts It's amazing how we're all passionate about things. We are all passionate about something helping veterans Helping this organization helping this group. That's great But no matter what it all Nets out to. Where do you put your time? because when people put in their time you get better at things and when you get better at something and get good at something then You have a chance to be great at something and you know what? I've learned nobody ever quits anything They're great at and once you get great at it's amazing how passionate you become about it Follow your efforts Right because it's not in the Dreaming It's in the doing rule number 45 be driven another quick story. So I didn't have money for a car and My x19 with a hole in the floorboard had died And so I literally the way I got my car was I saw a car that was stranded on the side of the road This old Camaro and I forget exactly how but I figured out Which Bank? had had Put the money up for it for somebody to buy and I called the bank and I said would you? Let me pick up the payments on this You know only I need you to lower the payments down a little bit and they said yes, so I had this you know nineteen eighty-something on Trans Am that I was able to use but the point being that you just have to do things you never think you're going to have to do in order to Survive and get through it you Know those first couple months. I remember thinking to myself. I'm in business in two months Now, you know, I remember getting to the point where I had $15,000 in sales, probably six months into the company and I'm still living in the show and thinking okay I can do this I can do this and along the way it was. It was lots of trial and error, you know There were things that were new to me things that were terrifying to me things That would just I would break out into a sweat But I always remember going into my customers and just trying to be brutally honest and say to them if I can help you Right if I can bring value if I can make your company more competitive More profitable will you work with me and you don't have to put money? I'll do the work to prove it and if I get it done, then we'll meet you know, we'll figure it all out you know or they agree to a price and then they'll pay it at that point and One by one. I just kept on making customers happy and lost some you know for every one I lost picked up three and I got I was so nervous about the whole thing that You know, I just I couldn't imagine slowing down, you know, and so people talk about, you know life family balance I had none. I mean, I literally remember dating some girl This is truth And it was like we'd been dating a couple years and like it mark your so when do your work? I mean, I want to pick a fence. I want a house I want kids You know I mean you it's me or your job and I was like or me in your mirror your company and I was like What's your name again? I'm like if you don't know me well enough by now Two years that I've driven this, I mean there was no balance rule number 46 be prepared to win There's part of you that either wants to create a business or you off obviously already have created a business The hardest part is taking that first step Right, there's always downline. Like I was talking about earlier that you have to take a step pass But the thing people always say, well, you know, you're not afraid to start a business why aren't you it's terrifying or you know you I just it scares me to do it and My my attitude has always been if you're prepared. It's not a risk Right Bobby Knight who was the coach at, Indiana? University used to say everybody's got the will to win but it's only those with the will to prepare That do win and the same applies to business We've all seen her friends go out there and just wing it, you know, it's my passion We're all passionate about something. I'm passionate about basketball doesn't make me an NBA player right? It's not just about passion It's not just about saying I'm doing it. It's not even about incorporating. It's not about the idea It's about are you prepared? And are you willing to do the work rule number? 47 know what your product is? When I started with the NBA, they thought their product was basketball and this applies to entrepreneurs Very much. So you got to know what your product is Micro solutions. My product was profitability Using technology to generate profitability at broadcast comm it was our ability to make the world smaller Even though we broadcast radio stations those were proof of concept so that corporations could do You know We Intel would pay us hundreds of thousands even millions of dollars so that they could broadcast stream Their product introductions in five languages around the world things they weren't able to do prior to that. So we made the world smaller With the Mavs we didn't sell basketball. We sold fun We sold experience this and I and I would go to the NBA owners meetings and I'd say, okay What was the score your last game who you know? Do you remember this jump shot from your last game and like no then I'd say, okay Do you remember the first game you went to with your mom or your dad? Do you remember the first game? You took your son your daughter your niece or your nephew to? That game you went to with a girlfriend or your wife or your buddies? Oh, yeah that's what we sell we sell experiences and those experiences have to be Affordable and those experiences have to be made special and so, you know I brought in music because what I learned early on was When a parent brought their 10 year old or eight year old that eight year old is looking like this you know whenever there's not action going on and so I had to keep them engaged and All these things were completely foreign to the NBA and they just thought I was an idiot But you know as I've learned over the years that every time someone thinks I'm an idiot I'm good rule number 48 learn from your mistakes. You talked about having better leadership style Your leadership was challenged recently Sports Illustrated came out with the article about the Dallas Mavericks You know, you said you were surprised you were ashamed you hired a third party investigator in this day and age Is it okay for CEOs to say, you know, I'm I'm so high up or owners. I'm so high up. I'm so far removed I didn't really know what was going on. You know, what happens in the news room. I Have no idea right I mean, but seriously, I mean, you know, every company grows the scale and it's difficult for someone to know What's going on? And in my case? I wasn't the CEO. I had a CEO that I let run and unfortunately He was one of the people that that has been questioned, but at this point time we have investigators We'll let them investigate we brought in people that were completely independent and so once the investigation is over We'll learn and we'll see what happens. Um, I'm not making excuses I'm glad that people spoke out on you know You don't hear me saying to anybody don't speak out when in fact Once I found out I stood in front of all our employees and said say what you need to say Talk to you need who you need to talk to? If you want to talk to the press go talk to the press because I've whatever happened I want it all out now. I want to learn from it But have you learned that it wasn't just about treating people equally that you can you can treat them equally But don't necessarily treat them the same women might have a different perspective Of a situation than a man would and to think that well, this is how I think a man will handle it so this must be how a woman's going to handle the wrong on my part and it was It was a tough lesson to learn but I've learned it are you gonna bring those ideas To your other companies as well like more women at the table I was just gonna say I went through and had somebody at because I was curious I didn't know how many businesses currently invested in that or women-owned founded or operated and out of the hundred Act of 46 were owned and operated or founded by women, which I thought was not bad and so we created a round table that were allowing them to communicate and hopefully we'll learn from that communicate with all of us and share ideas And so hopefully the different perspectives will will make us all better business people rule number 49 find your path My dad did a pole story on cars So if you got a rip in your car seat you would take it to where he worked My mom did work odd jobs From wherever and we you know, we had we lived in a okay neighborhood but we weren't poor by long sigh but we were truly middle-class and I Over and over my dad didn't go to college My mom didn't go to college and so they would be done to me You're going to college and they used to make me work at odd jobs so that I would learn the value of work and and you know one I'd go where my dad worked doing it with cars and He'd make me sweep the hole and this place was nasty make me sweep all the time, you know Try to get me a job in a mill, but couldn't give me a job in a mill my mom wanted me to lay carpet because she was worried about me if I didn't have a trade and so she got a friend of hers to try to get me to teach me how to lay carpet and if you ever go there's this little office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, if you trip over the carpet, that's where I learned how to lay carpet And I was going through these things I'm like, this is just not me and and I always had that that individual spirit to say, okay You know, I can come up with things that can make me money I mean when I was nine, I would sell baseball cards when I was 12. I Told my dad. I wanted a pair of basketball shoes and it just so happens He was playing poker with his buddies who are all probably two rip-roaring drunk at the time and I just didn't realize it But I was like dad I want a new pair of tennis shoes, you know, the the new beta bullets were coming out or whatever. They were a New converse and he's like you see those shoes on your feet They work just fine when you have a job. You can go buy whatever you want. I'm like dad. I'm 12 I don't have a job and one of his buddies stood out It was got stripped, but he said hey I got I got a job for you He had these boxes of garbage bags and he's like I've got these boxes of garbage bags I don't know what to do is want you sell them I'm like cool, you know What do they cost me and they literally were a box of a hundred these blue? Garbage bags that he was some to me for three bucks and then I would I went door-to-door it was like hi my Name is Mark Do you use garbage bags? And I learned I could sell is just like okay six bucks, you know, I'll drop them off whenever you need them Just call me and I made some money bought my shoes and you know And that just gave me confidence and it took off from there and rule number 50 the last home before a very special bonus clip is have fun Are you ready to help us get the country really hooked on our smoked fish dip? Is good the ones that have made me the most money have always been the craziest don't quit your day job Did I get a volunteer to come up and we both That's a little bit too weird for me You do this Don't make into a pillow fight with me destroy your Now I've got a really special bonus clip from Mark Cuban on how to make it happen that I think you're really gonna enjoy but before that it's time for the Three point landing questions time to move from watching another video To actually taking action in your life and in your business So answer these three questions on your own talk about them with a friend or leave your replies in the comments below Here we go. Question. Number one. What do you need to just go out and do question number two? What is the memorable experience that you want to create for your customers and question number three? What is the biggest mistake that you've made that you have learned from? Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you I hope we continue to believe in yourself and whatever. You're one where it is much love I'll see you soon and enjoy the bonus clip Working in your business software it actually went really good for a while because I I didn't have a tech background and so it gave me the opportunity to teach myself and I found out that I like tech you know which was shocking to me and so I would sit in there and use the computers and teach myself all the software from way back when the word stars the word perfect the you know, the peachtree software is for those of us that go way back when and One day and and mind you i'm sleep. I'm living in a three-bedroom apartment with six guys six 23 24 year old guys However, nasty you think it is. It was worse. I Didn't have a closet I didn't have a drawer I had a pile And I wear contacts, I wear contacts oh, but I wear my classes at night and I didn't have any money So I broke my glasses that I would pick them up and they'd tear apart One piece here one piece there. Oh, it was an adventure but um but so one day I'm living in this hill and I Get the opportunity to close a big deal and it was going to be $1500 Commission to me Yes, sir. Let's go and I call my boss a guy named Michael Hugh Mickey And I said Michael I've got this deal and part of my job responsibilities were sweeping the floor it was a retail store sweeping the floor making sure the windows were clean and opening up and I've got you know one of my fellow employees all set to do all that I call him up and said Michael it's a $15,000 sale I but I need to go pick it up before before work. I won't be there to open things up. He goes No, I need you to open up the store I'm like
I gotta conferred and I make the executive decision that I'm gonna go pick up the check and I'm gonna hand them the check and he's going to forget all about it and we're all gonna be friends and I'll make my commission fired me For disobeying him I haven't seen him since but I Was probably the best thing that could have happened yeah right now but in any event, um But it made me realize that I need to work to myself again. You know that I'm an entrepreneur at heart and so I just don't you know, it's not this is what it is and And so I couldn't take the $1,500 Commission it was his company was his sale and And so I found another customer that I had been talking to a prospect a company called architectural lighting and Here I am sleeping in the stall with no job and desperate, um But I convinced this this company architectural lighting There was a piece of software that I wanted to sell them for five hundred bucks And I told them it cost me 250 and that I would make it work and train them on it and support them if they would loan me the 250 to buy the software upfront and if it didn't work for whatever reason I'd walk their dogs clean their cars you know scrub their toilets, whatever it took to pay them back and Fortunately, it worked and that led to another customers led to another customer. That was a company called micro solutions Over the next seven years. I didn't take a vacation taught myself out a program taught myself You know more about technology that of networking than I thought I would ever know and we grew to you know, give or take 36 million in sales 80 employees And I sold it back, you know 1990 I guess time flies for six million dollars but for you know, a twenty nine thirty year old kid that Was real money. And and so um then there's big money and not that it's not now it really is but it's just But it to get from the time of getting fired - getting to 80 employees in 36 millions in sales. Literally not one vacation Altruistic world domination honey Empire right? I'm grateful Why I'm here, I think because I am so open I wanted to think I see it's a bloody brief life All of you have the potential for enormous success if you want to know what garyvee DJ khalid oprah, and others know about Empire building that most people miss check out the link in the description for a free bonus video
