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The Story of Mark Cubin: An American Billionaire Entrepreneur
The Story of Mark Cubin: An American Billionaire Entrepreneur
Matthew Napier
Management 280-01
Marietta College
The Story of Mark Cubin: An American Billionaire Entrepreneur
There are only a select few people in the world that have had the success that Mark
Cuban has had. Mark Cuban is a household name, for most because of his ownership of the
National Basketball Association Dallas Mavericks, but also for others his unfathomable success
outside of sports ownership. Over the years, Cuban has continued his success and continued to
become one of the wealthiest people in the world. Mark’s reputation is almost as strong as his
businessman personality, as most know him for his whatever-it-takes mindset and his
commitment to progress and winning. Throughout this essay, his history and childhood will be
explained along with his success in his previous business experiences, and look into his current
role in business and the sports world. I am credible to write about his life and role in sports,
because I have spent the time to do research. First, as is important in studying anyone, we will
talk about Mark Cuban’s early history.
Mark Cuban was born on July 31, 1958 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in the
Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, in a middle class Jewish working class family. His father,
Norton, spent nearly half a century working at a car upholstery shop and his grandfather,
Morris Chobanisky, emigrated from Russia and fed his family by selling merchandise out of the
back of a truck. He wasn’t raised in wealth, so he wasn’t used to living the style of life that he
has today, but he had make it happen himself. Just like his grandfather before him, Mark Cuban
inherited a tendency to make a better life for himself. Cuban's first step into the business world
occurred at age 12, when he sold garbage bags to pay for a pair of expensive basketball shoes.
He continued to stay interested in the idea of making money and throughout his schooling he
had many different jobs. While in school, his list of jobs included bartending, instructing disco
The Story of Mark Cubin: An American Billionaire Entrepreneur
dancing, and promoting parties. The young entrepreneur to be wasn’t born into the lifestyle
like most wealthy people are, but he made it a priority to work his hardest to get there
someday and it started at the age of 12 with his first job.
Throughout school, Mark Cuban’s hard work also showed in his desire to learn as much
as possible to get to the point that he is at today. Cuban always challenged himself with tough
courses and was fascinated with the business courses that his high school offered. Rather than
finishing of his senior year of high school, Cuban enrolled as a full time student at the University
of Pittsburgh. After one year at the University of Pittsburgh, he transferred to Indiana
University in Bloomington, Indiana and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in business
administration. He even came up with a way to pay for his college. He paid for college by
collecting and selling stamps, and once gained about $1,100 from starting a chain letter. Mark
Cuban’s drive and determination from his early childhood transferred into his school work, as
he was always overachieving and set himself up for the prosperous future that would soon
come. And in 1982 Cuban moved to Dallas, Texas. This is where the Mark Cuban that everyone
knows would start.
When Mark Cuban first got to Dallas, he brought in good money as a bartender but
didn’t like the hours and wanted more quickly. He soon found his chance, when he was hired to
be a salesperson for Your Business Software, one of the first PC software retailers in Dallas.
One of the many failures in Cuban’s life came when he was fired from this job for meeting a
client for something that he had been working on for a possible personal business. But even
this failure turned out to be a positive for him when he started his company MicroSolutions. In
The Story of Mark Cubin: An American Billionaire Entrepreneur
1990, Cuban sold his company MicroSolutions to CompuServe for $6 million and he retained
approximately $2 million after taxes on the deal. This was Mark Cuban’s first real taste of the
life of extreme wealth that was soon to come. In 1995, Cuban and fellow Indiana University
alumnus Todd Wagner started Audionet, combining their mutual interest in college basketball
and webcasting. With a single server and an ISDN line, Audionet became Broadcast.com in
1998. By 1999, Broadcast.com had grown to 330 employees and $13.5 million in revenue for
the second quarter. In 1999, during the dot com boom, Broadcast.com was acquired by Yahoo!
for $5.9 billion in Yahoo! stock. Today he has added other businesses to his possession including
Landmark Theatres, and he is the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet. And as of 2010,
Cuban is #400 on Forbes' "World's Richest People" list, with a net worth of $2.4 billion. But still
Cuban is most known for his ownership of the Dallas Mavericks, and this is why I chose him as
my sports manager to write about.
On January 4, 2000, Cuban purchased a majority stake in the NBA's Dallas Mavericks for
$285 million from H. Ross Perot, Jr. Starting from the day that Mark Cuban bout the ownership
of the franchise, he turned around a very average NBA franchise into a contender year in and
year out. He did this through his whatever-it-takes attitude and his desire to win. In the 20
years before Cuban bought the team, the Mavs had a winning percentage of 40%, and playoff
record of 21–32. In the ten years following, the team won 69% of their regular season games
and reached the playoffs in each of those seasons. The Mavs playoff record with Cuban is 49
wins and 57 losses, including their first trip to the NBA Finals in 2006, where they lost to the
Miami Heat. Cuban isn’t like any other owner of a professional franchise, in the way that he is
the Maverick’s biggest fan. Most owners sit up in their own box suite but Cuban is always down
The Story of Mark Cubin: An American Billionaire Entrepreneur
on the court wearing one of the player’s jerseys. Cuban even flies his private Gulfstream V to
attend road games. Most people familiar with sports know that Cuban has been fined
numerous times and for a lot of money for being such a big fan. Cuban has been fined by the
NBA, mostly for critical statements about the league and referees, at least $1,665,000 for 13
incidents. In a June 30, 2006 interview, Mavericks player Dirk Nowitzki said about Cuban “He's
got to learn how to control himself as well as the players do. We can't lose our temper all the
time on the court or off the court, and I think he's got to learn that, too. He's got to improve in
that area and not yell at the officials the whole game. I don't think that helps us.... He sits right
there by our bench. I think it's a bit much. But we all told him this before. It's nothing new. The
game starts, and he's already yelling at them. So he needs to know how to control himself a
little.” So he has a little temper, but like it or not, this doesn’t take away from his success or
talent to successfully manage a franchise. This shows how passionate he is in his job as a
manager, and how much he cares about his team. This is one of the most important things that
all managers should have, is passion, and Mark Cuban has plenty!
When Mark Cuban isn’t Dancing With the Stars, or writing children’s books, or making
appearances on shows like Entourage or the Simpsons, he is doing his best to successfully
manage the Dallas Mavericks and his other businesses. Cuban wasn’t born into the lifestyle that
we see him in now, but he sure did find a way to get himself there. This example of
determination and drive should be motivation for everyone that know about him. As long as he
is the manager of the Mavericks and any other professional sports team, the fans will know that
they are going to get the most out of their management and their team. Mark Cuban is beyond
successful both in the sport world and out of it, and will continue to find a way to get it done.
The Story of Mark Cubin: An American Billionaire Entrepreneur
"Mark Cuban Biography." Investing Value - Business and Investment Portal. Web. 15 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.investingvalue.com/investment-leaders/mark-cuban/index.htm>.
"Mark Cuban Biography." Biography.com. Web. 15 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.biography.com/articles/Mark-Cuban-562656>.
"MAVERICKS: Mark Cuban Biography." NBA.com. Web. 15 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.nba.com/mavericks/news/cuban_bio000329.html>.