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

by Mark Cuban

I read books about successful people. In fact, I read every book or magazine I could get my hands on. I would tell myself that one good idea would pay for the book and could make the difference between me making it or not.

In every job, I would justify it in my mind, whether I loved it or hated it, that I was getting paid to learn

I learned how to cold-call. I learned not to be afraid of going through the phone book and making calls.

and trusted me, not because I was the most knowledgeable about computers, but because they knew I would do whatever it took to get the job done.

I’d set meetings, ask to come to their offices since I couldn’t afford to take them to lunch.

I got back to the office, told Martin what happened at the bank, and then I realized what I had to do about all of this. I had to go back to work. What was done was done. Worrying about revenge, getting pissed at the bank and all those “I’m going to get even and kick your ass thoughts” were basically just a waste of energy. No one was going to cover my obligations but me. I had to get my ass back to work, and do so quickly. That’s exactly what I did.

Most people won’t put in the time to get a knowledge advantage. Sure, there were folks that worked hard at picking up every bit of information that they could, but we were few and far between. To this day, I feel like if I put in enough time consuming all the information available, particularly with the Internet making it so readily accessible, I can get an advantage in any technology business. Of course, my wife hates that I read more than three hours almost every day, but it gives me a level of comfort and confidence in my businesses.

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. I could take the time to read a fiction book, but I don’t. I would rather read websites, newspapers, magazines, looking for ideas and concepts that I can use. I spend time in bookstores because one idea from a book or magazine can make me money. I’m not going to go to dinner with you just to chat. I’m not going to give you a call to see how you are. Unless you want to talk business. Other guys play fantasy sports. I fire the synapses to get an edge. That’s what success is all about. It’s about the edge.

The edge is knowing that you can fail and learn from it, and just get back up and in the game.

The One Thing in Life You Can Control: Effort

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. I had to kick myself in the ass and recommit to getting up early, staying up late and consuming everything I possibly could to get an edge. I had to commit to making the effort to be as productive as I possibly could. It meant making sure that every hour of the day that I could contact a customer was selling time, and when customers were sleeping, I was doing things that prepared me to make more sales and to make my company better.

Effort is measured by setting goals and getting results. What did I need to do to close this account? What did I need to do to win this segment of business? What did I need to do to understand this technology or that business better than anyone? What did I need to do to find an edge? Where does that edge come from, and how was I going to get there? The one requirement for success in our business lives is effort. Either you make the commitment to get results or you don’t.

The thing you do need to do is learn. Learn accounting. Learn finance. Learn statistics. Learn as much as you can about business. Read biographies about businesspeople. You don’t have to focus on one thing, but you have to create a base of knowledge so you are ready when it’s time.

Do we know what we are destined to be or do we find out through experience?

Going to college should be about experiencing as much academically as you possibly can, but more importantly, it should be about learning how to learn and recognizing that learning is a lifelong endeavor. School isn’t the end of the learning process, it’s purely a training ground and beginning. In my humble opinion, once you have learned how to learn, then you can try as many different things as you can, recognizing that you don’t have to find your destiny at any given age—you just have to be prepared to run with it when you do. Of course, there is always a caveat to destiny, and that’s obligation. The greatest obstacle to destiny is debt, both personal and financial. The more people you are obligated to, the harder it is to focus on yourself and figure things out. I’m a big believer that getting married is about finding yourself first, which makes it a lot easier to find the right person. If you can’t stand on your own, it’s impossible to successfully be part of a couple. I’m also a big believer that financial debt is the ultimate dream killer. Your first house, car, whatever you might want to buy, is going to be the primary reason you stop looking for what makes you the happiest. How crazy is it to settle for a house, car or X over what it is you would like to do on an hourly or daily basis? Never settle. There is no reason to rush. If you aren’t happy with where you are, simplify your life and go out and try as many things as it takes to find what you may be destined to...

The point of all this is that 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 from those around you because … All that matters in bus​iness is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.

Learning that focus and intensity can be virtues and conduits to success.

“Everyone has got the will to win; it’s only those with the will to prepare that do win.”

Everyone is a genius in a bull market A lot of people think that if they are picking stocks that keep on going up, it’s because they are smart. They fail to notice that EVERYONE is able to pick winning stocks when all stocks are going up. The same principle applies to business. Entrepreneurs have to be brutally honest with themselves and recognize where they have added value and where they have gone along for the ride. There is nothing wrong with going along for the ride and making money at it, but it will catch up with you if you lie to yourself and give yourself credit for the ride.

Advertisers want a way to stay in front of the largest possible TiVo-proof audiences,

it’s also important to realize that we can’t raise ticket prices forever without pricing ourselves out of the market.

We have to make sure to do whatever we can to focus on winning the battles in case the bull market does not continue. Which leads to Rule #2 … 2. Win the battles you are in before you take on new battles

If you are the main engine behind your company, taking on new challenges will only dilute your ability to win the wars you are in and increase the risk of injuring your primary business or core competencies.

Win the battles you are in first, then worry about expansion internationally or into new businesses.

If you are adding new things when your core businesses are struggling rather than facing the challenge, you are either running away or giving up.

Where The Rules will really come into play is if you are considering starting, or currently run, your own business. There are always exceptions to any rules, but I can assure you that in this case, those exceptions will be rare. Entrepreneurs who don’t follow The Rules are far more likely to fail. There is no doubt about it.

Rule #1: Sweat equity is the best startup capital The best businesses in recent entrepreneurial history are those that began with little or no money. Dell Computers, Microsoft, Compaq, Apple, HP and tens of thousands of others started in dorm rooms, tiny offices or garages. There weren’t 100-page-long business plans. In all of my businesses, I started by putting together spreadsheets of my expenses, which allowed me to calculate how much revenue I needed to break even and keep the lights on in my office and my apartment. I wrote overviews of what I was selling, why I thought the business made sense, an overview of my competition, why my product and/or service would be important to my customers and why they should buy or use it. All of it went down on a piece of yellow paper or in a word processing file, and none of it cost me more than the diet soda I was drinking while I was writing it up.

Once I could put the idea on paper, I gave the company a name. From there, I took the most important step: I tried to find people to shoot holes in the name.

I wanted to see if there was anything he saw from his experience that would blow up the concept.

Each inquiry cost me next to nothing to get great feedback. Each enabled me to check the foundation of my business idea to see if it was easy to shoot holes in, and most importantly, they all served as sales calls. Each company eventually became a customer of ours. I went through this in each of my businesses. The step gave me confidence that my business idea was valid. That there was a chance of success. At this point, many entrepreneurs think the next step is to take all this feedback, update their 100-page business plans and go out and raise money. It’s as if the missing link for success in a business is cash to get started. It’s not. Far more often than not, raising cash is the biggest mistake you can make.

They forget to put themselves in the position of the person or company they are asking for money. They think they are considering that person’s position by making up numbers and calling them expected returns for the investor. “If you only give me X dollars, you will get Y percent back in Z years. You will double or triple your money in XX years.” Any investor worth anything knows you are just making these numbers up. They are meaningless. Worse, if you tell a savvy investor that the market for your product is X billions of dollars and you just need one or some low percent to make zillions, you will be immediately kicked to the curb. These investors, including myself, know what you don’t, and they are not telling you. The minute you ask for money, you are playing in their game—they aren’t playing in yours. You are at a huge disadvantage, and it’s only going to get worse if you take their money. The minute you take money, the leverage completely flips to the investor.

Investors care about money. There is a reason why venture capitalists are often referred to as Vulture Capitalists. The minute you slide off course from the promises you made to get the money, your dreams fall in jeopardy. You will find yourself making promises to keep investors at bay. You will find yourself avoiding your investors. Then you will find yourself on the outside looking in. The reality of taking money from non-family members is that they are doing it for only one reason, to make more money. If you can’t deliver on that promise, you are out. You will be removed from the company you started. You will find someone else running your dream company.

You shouldn’t have to take money from anyone. Businesses don’t have to start big. The best ones start small enough to suit the circumstances of their founders. I started MicroSolutions by getting an advance of $500 from my first customer. The business didn’t grow quickly in the first couple years—just up to four people, and we all worked dirt cheap. So what’s wrong with that? Nothing! It’s okay to start slow. It’s okay to grow slow. As much as you want to think that all things would change if you only had more cash available, they probably won’t. The reality is that for most businesses, they don’t need more cash, they need more brains.

Before I do any of the many things that I get asked to do, and that I think might be fun, I have one simple question I ask myself. When I (hopefully) turn 90 and look back at my life, would I regret having done it, or not having done it?

“Treat your customers like they own you. Because they do.” “You have to re-earn your customers business every day.”

If someone is complaining, I want to know about it, and I want to get it fixed quickly. The best focus groups are your customers telling you what they think.

Whining is the first step toward change. It’s the moment when you realize something is very wrong and that you have to take the initiative to do something about it.

When

The path of least resistance is why I think Amazon.com, Apple and Google have been so successful. I buy everything from books to electronics to toiletries on Amazon because it’s easier than schlepping to the store.

In business, one of the challenges is making sure that your product is the easiest to experience and to sell.

Moral of the story: Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.

The reason it’s not is that it’s too much work to page through an unlimited number of options. It’s too much work to have to think of what it is we might like to watch.

get as broad based a business education as you possibly can. Finance, accounting, sales, more sales, even more sales, management, etc.

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. The best salesperson is the one the customer trusts and never has to question. The best salesperson is the one who knows that with every cold call made, he is closer to helping someone. The best salesperson is the one who takes immense satisfaction from the satisfaction her customer gets. The best salesperson is the one who wakes up early every morning excited to come to the office, get on the phone and let people know exactly why he loves his product, job and clients.

If you don’t have a job, or don’t have the job you want, get a job in sales. Every single person on this planet can learn to be a great salesperson. All you have to do is put in the effort and care about your company, your prospects and customers.