Mark Cuban Quotes

160 Mark Cuban Quotes

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I never said I was subtle!
Mark Cuban

I would drive by big houses and wonder who lived there – every weekend I would do it. What did they do for a living? How did they make their money? Someday, I would tell myself, I would live in a house like that.
Mark Cuban

I worked jobs I didn’t like. I worked jobs I loved but that had no chance of becoming a career, I worked jobs that barely paid the rent. I had so many jobs my parents wondered if I would ever be stable.
Mark Cuban

You don’t want to write about selling powdered milk or selling franchises for TV repair shops.
Mark Cuban

If I ever grew up, I hoped to run my own business. It’s exactly what I told myself every day. In reality, I had as much doubt as confidence. I was just hoping the confidence would win over the doubt and it would all work out for the best.
Mark Cuban

We all want our dream job or to run our own companies. The truth? It’s a lot easier said than done.
Mark Cuban

What kind of job should you settle for when you can’t or don’t have the job you want?
Mark Cuban

Continue your education.
Mark Cuban

When I graduated from Indiana University, I certainly didn’t dream or working for a bank. I wanted a job where I could learn more about computers. So I took a job working for Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh… I lasted all of nine months at that job.
Mark Cuban

Calling and calling on TV repair shops trying to explain the value of franchising wasn’t easy. But I learned how to cold-call. I learned not to be afraid of going through the phone book and making calls.
Mark Cuban



[Selling TV repair shop franchises] I lasted in that job about nine months, and from there took off to Dallas, Texas, in search of fun, sun, money and women.
Mark Cuban

I was 23. I had no money. The ’77 Fiat I was driving drank oil faster than I could drink beer and had a huge hole in the floorboard…
Mark Cuban

I had no idea what the future would bring. I was unemployed and heading to Dallas with zero job prospects. But I knew I had taken a few classes in real-world business and got paid for it instead of paying tuition, and I had every intention of continuing to do the same thing until things worked out.
Mark Cuban

I didn’t have my own bedroom. I slept on the couch or floor, depending on what time I got home. I had no closet. Instead, I had a pile that everyone knew was mine.
Mark Cuban

You know all the jokes about the fat kid at the buffet? That was me. I probably gained 30 pounds in a year.
Mark Cuban

Great friends, great city, great energy, pretty girls. OK, the pretty girls had no interest in my fat and growing ass at the time, but that’s another story…
Mark Cuban

I was motivated to do something I loved, I just wasn’t sure what it was.
Mark Cuban

As fired up as I was about the job, I was scared. Why? Because I have never worked with an IBM PC in my life. Not a single time, and I’m going to be selling software for it. So what do I do? I do what everyone else does – I rationalize.
Mark Cuban

I had these old ratty towels that had holes in them and could stand on their own in the corner. They were so nasty I needed a shower from drying off after a shower, so I went out and bought six of the fluffiest, plushest towels I could find. I was moving on up in the world. I had the towels. Life was good.
Mark Cuban

I was lucky. I loved what I was doing.
Mark Cuban



I followed my first instinct: Close the sale.
Mark Cuban

You never turn your back on a closed deal.
Mark Cuban

[On being fired again for closing a deal.] The only right thing to thing to do was to start my own company.
Mark Cuban

No job. No money. No way to pay the bills. But I did have nice towels.
Mark Cuban

[On Martin Woodall] While I covered my mistakes by throwing time and effort at the problem, Martin was so detail-oriented, he had to make sure things were perfect so there would never be any problems. We could drive each other crazy. He would give me incredible amounts of sh*t about how sloppy I was. I would give him the same amount back because he was so anal he was missing huge opportunities. We complemented each other perfectly. It would only be a matter of time before we both knew we had to be partners and work together instead of separately.
Mark Cuban

It’s crazy the things you remember. I remember my accounts receivable reaching $15k and me telling all my friends. I remember reading the PC DOS manual (I really did) and being proud that I could figure out how to set up startup menus for my customers.
Mark Cuban

[On one of his employees stealing $83k of the $85k they had in the business bank account.] 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.
Mark Cuban

You never quite know in business if what you are doing is the right or wrong thing. Unfortunately, by the time you know the answer, someone has beaten you to it and you are out of business.
Mark Cuban

I would continually search for new ideas. I read every book and magazine I could. Heck, three bucks for a magazine, twenty bucks for a book. One good idea would lead to a customer or a solution, and those magazines and books paid for themselves many times over.
Mark Cuban

Everything I read was public. Anyone could buy the same books and magazines. The same information was available to anyone who wanted it. Turns out most people didn’t want it.
Mark Cuban



To this day, I feel like if I put in enough time consuming all the information available… I can get an advantage in any technology business.
Mark Cuban

My wife hates that I read more than three hours almost every day, but it give me a level of comfort and confidence in my businesses.
Mark Cuban

I learned from magazines and books, but I also learned from watching what some of the up-and-coming technology companies of the day were doing. It’s funny how the companies I thought were brilliant back then are still racking it up today.
Mark Cuban

[On his first dealings with Michael Dell] I remember driving down to pick up some hard drives. I had no idea up to that point, but it turns out that they had just moved from the owner’s dorm room into a little office/warehouse space. I was so impressed by this young kid (I was a wise, experienced 25-year-old at the time) that I actually wrote a letter thanking him for the great job he was doing, and… I’m embarrassed to say now, I told him that if he kept up what he was doing he was destined for far bigger and better things.
Mark Cuban

[On Michael Dell] I have since told him that I thought his weekly full page ads with ever-declining prices changed the PC industry and were the first of many genius moves on his part.
Mark Cuban

Back in those days, the number one party was the Microsoft party. I sold some Microsoft products so I could get in.
Mark Cuban

I’m a Bill Gates fan, so I won’t describe his dancing, but he was definitely having fun… Long story short, I go to the bar to get some drinks for all of us and when I come back, they aren’t there. Come to find out the next day, Bill stole my girls. As I would learn later in life, money makes you extremely handsome.
Mark Cuban

Always ask yourself how someone could preempt your products or service.
Mark Cuban

[On competitors] 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.
Mark Cuban

It’s always better if you are honest with yourself and anticipate and anticipate where the problems will come from.
Mark Cuban



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