Jin S. Lee/Business Insider
- Mark Cuban trumpeted blockchain, and downplayed the relevance of crypto prices and NFTs.
- The "Shark Tank" investor reflected on his early business ventures and buying the Dallas Mavericks.
- Cuban also offered some advice for budding entrepreneurs, and shared his approach to selling.
Mark Cuban discussed his early business ventures, told the story of how he bought the Dallas Mavericks, and argued people pay too much attention to the daily swings of cryptocurrency prices in a recent Bloomberg interview.
The billionaire investor and "Shark Tank" star also trumpeted the disruptive potential of blockchain technology, downplayed the importance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and shared a key piece of advice he gives to aspiring entrepreneurs.
Here are Cuban's 8 best quotes from the interview, lightly edited for length and clarity:
1. "I never really thought that I would be in a position to own anything. I just wanted to have a good life and try to find my way to college."
2. "From the time I was 9 or 10, I was hustling. I was one of those kids that was always selling something." (Cuban flipped baseball cards and sold garbage bags door-to-door.)
3. "Selling isn't convincing somebody to do something they don't want to do. Selling is understanding what they need, and then finding a way to provide it in a better way."
4. "I had been going to Mavs games, and there was nobody there. It was opening night and the place wasn't sold out, and I'm like, 'I can do a better job than this.' Then it hit me — ding, ding, ding! — now I can afford this stuff. (Cuban, who sold his internet-radio startup to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in April 1999, officially owned the Dallas Mavericks by January 2000.)
5. "I always say I don't own the team, I just handle the finances. Mavs fans everywhere own the team — that's what makes basketball and all sports so much different than traditional businesses. Look at Apple, multitrillion-dollar market cap, but no one's throwing a parade in Cupertino when they have a super quarter."
6. "I think it's a big part of the future, I really, really do. But people are looking at it the wrong way. They get really amped up about the price of the cryptocurrencies, and they think that's really what crypto is. But that's the noise; the signal is, 'If I were going to start a business, how can I use this new technology to give myself a competitive advantage and disrupt an industry?'"
7. "Everybody's all amped about NFTs, and you see guys with their Bored Ape Yacht Club avatars all day long. It's a collectible just like anything else. To me, NFTs are just a proof of concept and an example of how smart contracts work."
8. "Know your business. If you're going to do it, you've got to be the best at it. I'll tell them, 'Look, if I come in and compete with you, I'm going to kick your ass, are you ready to compete with me?' You've got to work. There's someone working 24 hours a day to take it away from you." (Cuban was sharing some of the advice he gives to entrepreneurs.)