Billionaire Mark Cuban Gives his Two Cents
Cuban was in Nashville to speak at the annual GrowCo conference, hosted by Inc. Magazine; a conference ostensibly designed for successful and established tech-sorts to advise young and hungry entrepreneurs.
As quoted in The Tennessean, Cuban — after warning more sensitive audience members that he’d be going “full Mark Cuban” and that his language might become salty — sounded off on a number of timely topics.
Here’s what they excerpted:
On whether he takes his success for granted: Every day, I look in the mirror and I just make sure I don’t pinch myself so I don’t wake up.
On his success after selling tech company MicroSolutions: I literally retired at 29 with a lifetime pass on American Airlines, and my goal was to party with as many people as possible.
On becoming an entrepreneur after getting fired from two jobs: Those back-to-back experiences confirmed what I already knew — that I was a (bad) employee.
On the fact that his purchase of a G5 airplane was the largest known online purchase: It was $41 million for an airplane. I can tell you without hesitation, it is really good to be able to do that.
On owning the Mavericks: Everybody thinks that we are in the basketball business. It’s an NBA game; we’re not in the basketball business. We’re in the business of creating unique experiences.
On his relationship with former NBA Commissioner David Stern: We get along great. And the few things we didn’t agree on, he had the authority to fine me on.
On whether or not he will vote to oust Clippers owner Donald Sterling: You’ll find out. I know how I’m going to vote, but I’m not ready to comment on it.
On how to keep bigotry out of the NBA: You don’t. There’s no law against stupid.
On stupidity in general: I’m the one guy who says don’t force the stupid people to be quiet — I want to know who the morons are.
On bigotry in general: I know I’m prejudiced and I know I’m bigoted in a lot of different ways. If I see a black kid in a hoodie on my side of the street, I’ll move to the other side of the street. If I see a white guy with a shaved head and tattoos, I’ll move back to the other side of the street. None of us have pure thoughts; we all live in glass houses.
On how to fix the national economy: Until you fix the student loan bubble, we don’t have a chance. Everything else is shifting lawn chairs on the deck of the Titanic.
On the TV show “Shark Tank”: “Shark Tank” sends a message to everybody that the American dream is alive.
On the companies he’s funded on “Shark Tank”: They’re all my babies.
On why he still works: I love to compete. Somebody out there is competing with me and I want to kick your (butt).
A visit to Cuban’s PeekYou profile will provide an opportunity to not only follow up on the fallout from this appearance, but to explore his large and far flung digital presence; which consists of, social pages, web pages, articles, interviews, photos, videos, essays, and much more.
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