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    How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It
    How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It
    How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It
    Ebook97 pages1 hour

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

    By Mark Cuban

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Mark Cuban shares his wealth of experience and business savvy in his first published book, HOW TO WIN AT THE SPORT OF BUSINESS.

    "It's New Year's resolution time, and Mark Cuban's new book offers the rationale for a good one." —BUSINESS INSIDER

    Using the greatest material from his popular Blog Maverick, Cuban has collected and updated his postings on business and life to provide a catalog of insider knowledge on what it takes to become a thriving entrepreneur. He tells his own rags-to-riches story of how he went from selling powdered milk and sleeping on friends' couches to owning his own company and becoming a multi-billion dollar success story. His unconventional yet highly effective ideas on how to build a successful business offer entrepreneurs at any stage of their careers a huge edge over their competitors.

    "In short, [HOW TO WIN AT THE SPORT OF BUSINESS] exceeded...expectations. Short chapters...got right to the point and were not filled with 'stuffing'." —HUFFINGTON POST
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDiversion Books
    Release dateNov 20, 2011
    ISBN9780983988533
    How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It

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    Reviews for How to Win at the Sport of Business

    4.5/5

    73 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      While it is true that Mark Cuban's eBook How to Win at the Sport of Business is simply a compilation of his blog posts (which are all available online for free), this book has something that his blog doesn't. Editing. I've read a number of his blog posts over the years and a few things are clear to me: 1) Mark is a smart, successful guy. 2) He has a lot of good ideas and information in his head and he's willing to share what he knows with anyone willing to take the time to read what he writes. 3) He's not a great writer. (His blog is filled with typos and weird punctuation issues.)Thankfully, this book has been edited. The punctuation errors so common on his blog have been fixed, and most typos corrected (though there are still a few, and in some of the storytelling parts he changes from present tense to past tense). The blog posts have also been arranged in a logical way so that this book reads very comfortably as a complete book. That said, my biggest complaint about this book is also the editing. There is one blog post that appears twice (with different titles though). I don't know how someone misses something like that. Small quirks aside, this book is a good, fast read filled with lots of valuable information. There is by no means anything earth shattering here, but there is plenty of useful information for anyone running a business or thinking of starting one.
    • 4/5
      Zabimljivo i prakticno.Mark Cuban je jedan od ljudi od kojih treba uciti!
    • 5/5
      I loved it. It contains valuable tips for anyone thinking of starting a business or fed up working at jobs they hate.
    • 5/5
      Thank you Mr. Cuban for this masterpiece I really learn a lot
    • 4/5
      I've read Mark Cuban's blog for years. I was so excited when his book came out and I could see the pictures. I went to the same undergrad school, and he's a legend.
    • 5/5
      Quick, great read with tons of insight and tremendous anecdotes about success in business.
    • 4/5
      Interesting book. Inspiring life lessons from mark cuban. Short book so it’s worth the time reading.
    • 5/5
      Really short and nice book. Get a good amount of highlights and ideas from this book. I would recommend this book to beginners in business.
    • 5/5
      Good book. I’m motivated. I recommend this book for aspiring entrepreneurs
    • 5/5
      Awesome Cuban and Branson the best all OVER the world
    • 5/5
      Short and sweet, no yada yada and repetitive preach. Really enjoy it.

    Book preview

    How to Win at the Sport of Business - Mark Cuban

    PART ONE: The Dream

    I did it too. 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. 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. (And hopefully this book will make the difference for you!)

    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. Most of them aren’t on my résumé anymore because I was there so short a time or they were so stupid I was embarrassed. You don’t want to write about selling powdered milk or selling franchises for TV repair shops.

    In every job, I would justify it in my mind, whether I loved it or hated it, that I was getting paid to learn and every experience would be of value when I figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up.

    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.

    We all want our dream job or to run our own companies. The truth? It’s a lot easier said than done. We need jobs that pay the bills, and we can’t wait out the search for the perfect situation. Which leads to the question: What kind of job should you settle for when you can’t or don’t have the job you want?

    Not everyone’s situation is going to be the same, but for the recent graduate, or if you find yourself in a job you don’t like, or if you are unemployed, the answer is pretty straightforward (at least I thought it was when I graduated college). You continue your education.

    Go back to school? No. Get your MBA? No.

    For most recent college grads, you just spent the last four or so years paying tuition to get an education. Now that you have graduated, it’s your chance to get paid to learn. And what if you aren’t a recent college grad? The same logic applies. It is time to get paid to learn.

    When I graduated from Indiana University, I certainly didn’t dream of 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 helped on systems conversions. Taking old manual systems at small banks and helping them convert to automated systems. I wasn’t that good at it. The job was fun for the first couple months because I worked with a lot of fun people. A lot of fun people that liked to hang out and drink after work.

    But as the months wore on, I liked it less and less, and I had to remind myself, more and more, exactly why I was there. I was getting paid to learn about how computers work, how big companies work and how middle managers work—that was a whole lot better than paying tuition to get a business education.

    I lasted all of nine months at that job. I lasted about eight months at my next job, working for a company called Tronics 2000. At Tronics 2000, our mission was to try franchise the TV repair industry. The company was supposed to be entrepreneurial. It was supposed to be looking into franchising the computer repair business as well. (They had me write an analysis of the opportunity in my off-time). As it turns out, it basically was none of the above. But I got paid my $1500 per month and I learned a whole lot.

    The company sold a total of one franchise. Which I sold. Again, I was far from a great employee. I spent too much time having fun at the expense of doing my job to the best of my ability. Going to work hung over once a week isn’t a good career move. So, in some respects I cheated them. No excuses on my part.

    The job was also frustrating. Calling and 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.

    I also got to talk to an old industry veteran, Larry Menaugh. Larry wrote the very first service contracts in the television industry. He was a wise old vet. We didn’t talk much about the company or the industry, but after meetings we would talk about how to get the job done. He would give me honest critiques of things I was doing, and coming from Larry, I knew they were right. I wish I could go back and thank him. I tried to look him up a few years ago, but couldn’t find him. If you read this Larry, thank you.

    As I said, I lasted in that job about nine months, and from there took off to Dallas, Texas, in search of fun, sun, money and women.

    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. I was going to stay on the floor of some friends who had moved from IU to a huge apartment complex called The Village in Dallas.

    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. When I got to Dallas, I drove up to the address my friend Greg Schipper had given me. I don’t think he expected me to move in. It wasn’t like I had many living options. In fact, since he was the only person I knew in town, crashing at his apartment was my only option.

    Shippy lived in a three-bedroom apartment with four other friends in Dallas. I became roommate number six. This wasn’t a really nice place we all

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