How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It

by Mark Cuban

Lesson #1: Always ask yourself how someone could preempt your products or service. How can they put you out of business? Is it price? Is it service? Is it ease of use? No product is perfect and if there are good competitors in your market, they will figure out how to abuse you. It’s always better if you are honest with yourself and anticipate where the problems will come from.

The only thing any entrepreneur, salesperson or anyone in any position can control is their effort.

It would have been easy to judge effort by how many hours a day passed while I was at work. That’s the worst way to measure effort. Effort is measured by setting goals and getting results.

Success is about making your life a special version of unique that fits who you are—not what other people want you to be.

“Treat your customers like they own you. Because they do.” “You have to re-earn your customers business every day.” And there’s one that came from Yahoo!, which I thought was brilliant. When asked what Yahoo! stood for, some folks there responded, “You Always Have Other Options.”