Mark Cuban is a billionaire American businessman and investor. He owns Landmark Theatres, Magnolia Pictures, the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, and is one of the “shark” investors on the popular TV show “Shark Tank.”
Here are some words of wisdom from the successful Mark Cuban to lead you to success.
He speaks about persistence:
1. “Every no gets me closer to a yes.”
2. “It doesn’t matter how many times you have failed. You only have to be right once.”
3. “It’s not about money or connections. It’s the willingness to out work and out learn everyone. And if it fails, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time.”
4. “It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because all that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.”
He gives advice about customer service:
5. “It is so much easier to be nice, to be respectful, to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and try to understand how you might help them before they ask for help, than it is to try to mend a broken customer relationship.”
6. “Treat your customers like they own you – because they do.”
7. “What makes a good salesperson? Let me be clear that it’s not the person who can talk someone into anything. It’s not the hustler who is a smooth talker. The best salespeople are the ones who put themselves in their customer’s shoes and provide a solution that makes the customer happy.”
He talks about having a strong work ethic:
8. “Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you.”
9. “I worked hard and smarter than most people in the businesses I have been in.”
10. “In sports, the only thing a player can truly control is effort. The same applies to business. The only thing any entrepreneur, salesperson or anyone in any position can control is their effort.”
11. “What I’ve learned is that if you really want to be successful at something, you’ll find that you put the time in. You won’t just ask somebody if it’s a good idea, you’ll go figure out if it’s a good idea.”
12. “There are no shortcuts. You have to work hard, and try to put yourself in a position where if luck strikes, you can see the opportunity and take advantage of it.”
13. “I love to compete. To me, business is the ultimate sport. It’s always on. There is always someone trying to beat me.”
14. “I still work hard to know my business. I’m continuously looking for ways to improve all my companies, and I’m always selling. Always.”
15. “It’s not in the dreaming, it’s in the doing.”
16. “Relaxing is for the other guy. I may be sitting in front of the TV, but I’m not watching it unless I think there is something I can learn from it. I’m thinking about things I can use in my business and the TV is just there.”
17. “Companies don’t fail for a lack of cash or attitude. Companies fail for a lack or brains and effort.”
18. “What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? It takes willingness to learn, to be able to focus, to absorb information, and to always realize that business is a 24/7 job where someone is always out there to kick your ass.”
19. “One thing we can all control is effort. Put in the time to become an expert in whatever you’re doing. It will give you an advantage because most people don’t do this.”
He mentions doing what other people are scared of:
20. “Always wake up with a smile knowing that today you are going to have fun accomplishing what others are too afraid to do.”
He advises you to love what you do and to become obsessed with it:
21. “Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.”
22. “Sweat equity is the most valuable equity there is. Know your business and industry better than anyone else in the world. Love what you do or don’t do it.”
23. “Wherever I see people doing something the way it’s always been done, the way it’s ‘supposed’ to be done, following the same old trends, well, that’s just a big red flag to me to go look somewhere else.”
24. “If you’re prepared and you know what it takes, it’s not a risk. You just have to figure out how to get there. There is always a way to get there.”
25. “What I’ve learned is that if you really want to be successful at something, you’ll find that you put the time in. You won’t just ask somebody if it’s a good idea, you’ll go figure out if it’s a good idea.”
He values originality:
26. “I create offbeat advice; I don’t follow it. I rarely take third-party advice on my investments.”
27. “What I do know, at least what I think I have learned from my experiences in business, is that when there is a rush for everyone to do the same thing, it becomes more difficult to do. Not easier. Harder.”
28. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
29. “When you’ve got 10,000 people trying to do the same thing, why would you want to be number 10,001?”
He advises to push past fear:
30. “Don’t let fear be a roadblock.”
Featured photo credit: Mark Cuban/JD Lasica/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ via flickr.com
