Hey GQ I'm Mark Cuban and this is how I Made saved and spent my first million and then flipped it into a billion. Wait said what you've been spent my first million and then flipped it into a billion Jesus a billion dollars I grew up in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Just a middle class kid. My dad did upholstery on cars. my mom did odd jobs as long as I could remember I was hustling I remember going to my dad I did that too. Hey yo hey okay okay okay, had to be a billionaire. Okay so I got one one down one out of ones and saying Dad I need some new sneakers and he looked at me, looked at my feet and goes those tennis shoes you got on. They work when you have a job, you can buy whatever you want I'm learning and one of his buddies that had to be drunk was sitting at the poker table with him and he goes hey, I got something you can sell I got all these boxes of garbage bags. why don't you sell them in the neighborhood and then you can take the money you make and buy your sneakers. He had these boxes that he sold to me for three bucks I sold them for six but it went like this: hi my name is Mark do you use garbage bags? I've got a great deal for you and every time you need garbage bags, all you ever have to do is call me and I'll put them in the back of my wagon and I'll bring them right down to your house. That was my first, the world's first probably only garbage bag door-to-door subscription company as I started to get older and got into High School in particular I really 35 had a high school boys in my jam that I wanted to learn as much as I could about business I started taking classes at night at the University of Pittsburgh when I was 16 and then when I was 17. it is all together and went to Pitt full time. That's where things really started to happen for me. I Never ever thought in terms of money. okay I need to make millions I Always thought in terms of time has always been my driving motivation. How can I control my own destiny? So today it's not about today. Today we have Amazon or whatever. Yeah, right, hello, that's not. but I'm sure they have like the milk man or whatever right? So why not do that with anything else? How can I control my own time? I started a company called micro Solutions that's how I got my first. Stacks So here's the rundown of when I sold Micro Solutions for six million dollars. So million dollars Yes the Milkman the guy who delivers the milk at your house. Okay, it's like they just they're just gonna do the thing. so why not do it with anything else? Look at this guy today. question mark add everything in Oh my God you're an idiot. You're an idiot. Okay I brought in two million to me I live like a student but the first thing I did was by a lifetime pass on American Air sorry what was that? Mostly played it micro Solutions Payout one million employees two million Department live like a student but the first thing I did was by a lifetime pass on American Airlines and I just went all around the world taking friends and partying like a rock star. Other than the air pass I wasn't just buying I was saving it I could have gone out and bought a bigger house, bought a nicer car I didn't care, would have bought me was freedom I never thought I was going to work again I made a ton of money in the stock market. 20 plus million dollars. Life was good. Then one of my buddies from college Todd Wagner sat down with me and this was in 1995. he was like you know there's this whole new thing called the internet. There's got to be a way we can use this to listen to Indiana basketball. We set up this website called Audionet and the next thing you know video comes along and we turned it into a company called Broadcast.com And so we started what turned out to be the very first streaming company that's OG July 18th 19th broadcast. We went public and we're guessing you know what what's the stock going to open at and I was the high I'm thinking 33 dollars goes 62.75 All of a sudden I'm worth 300 million dollars plus and I'm sitting there thinking oh, if this stock price triples I'm a billionaire Well we took that company and became the biggest media portal on the internet and Yahoo came along and made us an offer and all of a sudden that stock price tripled and I was a billionaire. We sold the company to Yahoo for stock and I had seen stocks go up and I had seen stocks go down and I told Todd my partner I told everybody who worked out there's a good chance because this stock market is so highly priced that the whole thing could crash. Don't be greedy. Okay, dump that that Hogs get slaughtered, don't get slaughtered. So I put together what they call a caller and what that is I sold some of the upsides to that: Yahoo stock that they gave me and I protected Myself by buying puts on the downside. three months. Oh damn Stock market. Wait a minute. That makes a lot of sense. protecting Myself by buying put sold some of the upside to that Yahoo stock that they gave me and I protected Myself by buying puts on the downside. Three months later, the Internet stock market cratered. It was called one of the top 10 Wall Streets of all time and it taught me a hell of a lesson when you just Chase dollars, it never works out well. I was worth a billion dollars and it was the most insane thing that I could ever come to realize. All I had to do was protected I'd be set for the rest of my life. We talked about how I met You're a lot of bet against yourself if you want to even even as a shareholder and save some money. We don't quite have a billion dollars here, but let me tell you, you just own stock. You know you're not at the company. you're not the table do you? Are you? You just? you're just a random cycle there. it's been it. Thank you. Wait I told you I value. How is that insider trading yet? Dude Dude, if I if I buy a hundred dollars worth of uh Tesla stock and I I buy a 100 bucks whether I can put some I'm not instead of trading you I'm first thing I bought Gulfstream G5 now I didn't just buy it I'm a tech guy I go online and I'm like looking up Gulfstream G5 email the guy and I'm like can I do a test flight First time I'd ever been on a private plane. oh sitting there and I'm thinking oh this could be my plane so I stacked up some more and I sent him an email saying done 40 million dollars I'll buy it Biggest online purchase in the history of the internet. Still to this day was my buying that. Gulfstream G5 Why do I want to plan? because the most valuable asset you can never own is your time time. The one thing I can do is save time and get to places and it was amazing. Wait 40 mil I Why is it so expensive? Second purchase I paid 280. not that expensive dollars for the Dallas Mavericks I Went to an opening night of the 99 2000 season. first game of the year. Energy wasn't in the black like this is every day these days. Like this is supposed to question Mark: you don't know dude I know this like focus on did it jets are they expensive and people say inflation? That was the opposite way. that works the opposite way. it's the opposite. Inflation would mean why it's cheaper, not like more expensive Man this. oh man this was early November by January 4th I owned the Dallas Mavericks so when I took over the maps I didn't get a big office I didn't give a about an office I didn't get a big desk I didn't give a about big desk. we had a sales Bull Pack called the Fishbowl because it was in an open office with all these windows and we had eight nine whatever salesperson I put my desk right in the middle of them I put a phone book and a computer print out of all of our former customers and right there next to them I Just started dialing trying to sell the Mavericks ma'am I Know you've been to a Mavericks game before, but you realize now that it's less expensive to come to a Mavericks game than to take your family in McDonald's Our tickets started eight dollars and McDonald's and a coke is more than that. Why don't you come and try us out. The first game's free on me I wanted everybody that worked with me to see that if I ask them to do it I'll do it. same thing I do with people in the front office I did with players on the court we moved into it. American Airlines What it? What if? What if you were to fill a lot of empty seats in your Stadium by let's say you do a sponsored like McDonald's and whatever whoever buys a meal of whatever they get it they get a ticket to they're gonna take it to the game of the certain amount. Boom now people. you create a culture. people going to the stadium and after they stop that boom No. I wanted them to when they go to work feel good about going to work we put in PlayStations we put in TV screens. Now to this day we upgraded it so they made it with Taco Bell Roma because different Aromas impact you more before game when you're trying to get hyped versus after the game light impacts you more. All these things that try to give our players an edge to help us win again. Selling tickets at a loss. If you're not filling your Stadium up, it's never. it's never full. You're not. You're not missing on something in the seat isn't being bought by giving it to somebody like what have we done about? If you're running a company and if you can align your interests with those of the people you work with, things are going to work for you. And you know what's really cool about owning a team? It's not so much owning the team. There's little perks. Let's just say that you're down one. There's three seconds to go in the game. Your team takes the shot for the chance to win. The ball is in the air, everybody holding their breath and when that ball goes, no wonder you're just a streamer. I'm also a multi-millionaire Where are you again? Oh wait a minute. wait. I Gotta take the bus. Wait a minute. Oh my. God Man love each other screaming and yelling and huggling and you see this man pile of people. What? I Got mad I Got mad I Got mad I got mad. Everything's being a dumb. My idea was fine. It was fine. The idea was fine. No one's going to arrest me. it's my team. and that is the most amazing part of owning the team enough. Stacks My entire life. Okay, it's not pushing me I'm just showing myself the best Universe of my entire life. Man that was my my second big purchase, third big purchase I will put your link in my buyer I need to set for example here and take the money down because there was a lesson in my third big purchase. So one day one of my partners from Micro Solutions Martin Woodall comes up to Amigos there's this amazing house that's about to go into foreclosure. The guy who owned it spent three years building it. This is their dream house he and his wife and his whole family spent. How about Jack I Lied I Lied: a million dollars multi-billionaire sorry about that building. this house only lived there eight months and then the stock market crashed and he had never sold a share of stuff. You can buy it right now but you have to let me know today. Yes or no. 12.5 million dollars I'd never seen the house I saw some pictures, had never been there I was like yeah I accidentally more from you. That's right I'm back I'm dumb as it's why the not purchase and it was amazing house I've raised my three kids there still live there but the lesson is large. Well you can't ever take wealth for granted. You can't ever think it's always going to be there. If it's not, you're going to get busted. Boy, that that was pretty good. If you want to be a millionaire, you can do it. But there's a couple things you have to be able to accomplish. Rule Number one: Find something you can be good at and then be great at it. Second, you have to know how to sell. Whatever it is you're good at. Somebody's going to need that service. Someone's going to need that. whatever it is that you're creating. But you have to be able to sell because you don't want to be in a position where you're dependent on other people. Number three, Be curious and always be. Yeah, Because one thing. boom. There's always the normal advice. Be curious, be interested, and ask questions every single day. And then the fourth thing. when you have that knowledge. When you have that ability to sell, when you know that when you walk into a room, you know your better than anybody else in the room. That's when it's time to start a company. Then you can start to control your own destiny. Thanks everybody in GQ land for tuning in to see how I earned, saved and spent my first million and then turned it into a billion. I'm gonna see you at the time I Just want to be there I I literally I had chat, then minimized for most of the video. Actual dog somehow today I might be so pressed yo this is X x on the video I'm going through my voice as well. That is anyone knows that boy I don't know. he's just so soy. anyone knows that boy I don't know, He's just so sorry.

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