Mark Cuban Failure

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Mark Cuban is an entrepreneur whom I’ve always looked up to and been interested in. Being a huge basketball fan, I always saw Mark on television, passionately screaming on the sidelines at games of the NBA team he owns, the Dallas Mavericks. I also watched him on one of my favorite shows, Shark Tank. One day, I sat down at my computer and listened to various interviews with Mark and I was amazed at the plethora of knowledge he was willing to spew out on how to become successful. Despite his success, Mark did experience a few failures. His show The Benefactor, got cancelled after its first season. Also, his own TV network, HDNet, failed greatly and hardly received any viewers. Despite these failures, Mark is truly a guy I aspire to be, and he …show more content…

Before purchasing the team, the Mavericks were the laughing stock of the NBA and could barely win ten games a year. Mark’s first initiative when coming to the team was to change the players mindsets. He told them to have the mindset “that you can win and are expected to win” (Bloomberg). This was probably really an eye opener for the players. He showed them that there was a new boss in town, and losing was no longer going to be accepted. To the team’s surprise, however, Mark did not act like a typical NBA owner. He walked around in T-shirts and jeans, personally called fans, and sat courtside at games while screaming his eyes out at the refs like a crazed fan. Additionally, he completely ripped apart and replaced the facilities. He gave the players’ locker room a full revamp with new hardwood floors, TV’s, weight room, and a billiards room. He wanted the players to feel like they were in a “clubhouse” and had a fun place to hang. Even further, he booked players the best hotel rooms and bought the team their own private jet, with leg room to fit 7-footers. Through these actions, Mark showed the players he was dedicated to making their basketball program the best out there, and the passion he showed inspired them to buy into his entrepreneurial mindset that craved to crush the competition. Also, when he personally called fans asking them to buy tickets I think he really showed them how much he …show more content…

Broadcast.com was the first website where you could stream any sports game live. Mark said, “with a computer and a little bit of internet, you might as well be sitting in Bloomington, Indiana!” (Bloomberg). It was incredibly smart of Mark to jump on the opportunity of the internet. At the time he started using it, not many people possessed the skills to code or make websites, making his skills incredibly useful, and profitable. There were endless opportunities to have the first of something on the internet. His website got insanely popular and the stock for the website went from $18 to $62.75 in one day (Bloomberg). Yahoo expressed interest in this type of company as they attempted to make their own websites like his. Cuban new he could manipulate them. He knew that they simply didn’t realize how easy it was to make a website like his. Cuban told Yahooo “they were where they wanted to be, so you’re either gonna have to buy us or compete with us” (Bloomberg). I love this. Mark knew that he could beat these guys and this shows his competitive nature. This also probably surprised the owners of Yahoo that someone would fire back at them. While Mark was negotiating prices with Yahoo, colleagues told him it was only worth 100 million, but he was convinced it was worth at least 1 billion. Mark didn’t settle for the low price and sold the company to Yahoo for an astounding 5.7 billion. Mark’s entrepreneurial

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