7 Crippling Behaviors Billionaire Mark Cuban Would Never Do As An Artist

If you’re alive, you may have heard of Mark Cuban, tech guru, owner of the U.S. Mavericks basketball team and permanent fixture on the hit television show Shark Tank, where entrepreneurs pitch to investors in hopes of gaining once-in-a-lifetime expertise and investments.

His net worth is 3.7 billion dollars.

So, what can Mark Cuban, who’s made his fortune in sports and tech, teach us about creative business? As it turns out, a lot. 

In The Beginning, God Said, "Let There Be Failure"

Mark’s story is a great one because he’s so relatable to the massive middle class, which includes most of us. Plus, his story is still unfolding this very minute making him highly relevant. Most importantly, we're afforded the same tools he had when he started out (with the exception of the mighty internet, which gives us a leg up on him).

You see it didn’t appear in the beginning (circa 1980's) that Mark would ever become a billionaire. In fact, he made moves that appeared counter productive to billionarism. 

1. He skipped his senior year of high school to enroll in college. In the traditional sense, skipping school was frowned upon in the pre-internet era. But nonetheless, in addition to taking college courses full-time, he’d decided to open a bar (he wasn’t even of legal drinking age). This venture was shut down immediately after he mistakenly allowed a 16 year old to enter and win a wet t-shirt contest. 

Important takeaway: Pay attention to the details. They often matter most to the success of your business.

2. Then there's the business he started going door-to-door selling powdered milk. If you guessed this one failed too, you’re right.  

Important takeaway: Always test your market before going all in.

3. Another time early in his career he trusted his business financials — banking deposits, withdrawals and accounting to just one employee who promptly embezzled $85,000 dollars putting him out of business. 

Important takeaway: Know the ins and outs of your business and set up checks and balances for everything.

The lessons Mark learned along the way go far beyond these, but I started this article with them to show he’s real. And you’re real and you can apply his principles even if your business isn’t tech or sports, even if you don't want to become a billionaire. 

Mark says it wasn't so much his brains and definitely not his organizational skills that got him to where he is today. In fact, what he did is possible to copy without clout, money, education or even support. According to him, he became successful for two main reasons:

1. He took every failure and used it as a genuine tool for learning.
2. He never stopped getting back up and starting again.

Sound easy? It is (on paper). In practicality, it’ll take some serious grit, but you can surely do it. You may even have a much better transition to ultra success than he did.

Read this next sentence twice….

Mark never saw his failures as a reflection of his future potential. Therefore, his failures never kept him down. He simply wasn’t afraid to fail again and again and again and yet again. He kept moving forward quickly, learning, falling down and getting back up. And, according to him, that’s what created a winner. Period.

"The genius thing we did was, we didn't give up." JayZ

The list of successful people who’ve used that same recipe for success is endless. But it’s the lessons in Mark’s sort-of-messy story that I find so doable for me and for you.

Seeing your failures as challenges and using them to continually alter your course going forward will highlight for you what NOT to do.

So, let’s dive in. There are several key parts from Mark’s book, How To Win, that give us huge insights we can apply. My challenge to you is to read through them and see if you might be able to alter your own practices. How can you shift your creative process, delivery method, presentation style, processing routines, overall performance and/or sales.

7 Crippling Behaviors

Behavior #1: You don’t think of your creative business as a legitimate business.

According to Mark, what you bring to the universe should be used to enhance your life and business is the form of enhancement he's referring to.

This could never be so true as it is for artists. Let me explain. Your talent is unique to you and therefore, by nature of its exclusivity, it is highly quantifiable (albeit there's a whole different discussion to be had on determining that valuation) giving you a unique advantage over mass productions.

Simply put, your originality potentially makes your creation's desirability higher and positions it as a perfect commodity for trade in the form of money. As mentioned briefly above, you'll have to do the work to determine the value, but nevertheless, the value is the means to the business.

Since this is the case, it would be unjust to not view your commodities as a legitimate means of earning money which then leads us to the next obvious thing. Your ability to take your earnings and fund further creation of said commodities which you then offer to patrons who wish to own them. In other words, there's no need to join the "starving artist" party so long as you can provide items that bring quality to the right buyers and you can find those buyers.

There are some in the art arena whose goals are entirely altruistic as opposed to monetary. Their view on capitalism as it relates to their art form may be counterintuitive to growing a profitable business with art as the medium for growth.

For those on the fence, I'd like to suggest that thinking of your art as a business doesn't demean its significance. Collectors of extremely high end works label their valuation in dollars. The terms of their assets on paper are translated into money which in turn translates into the business of personal finance. Whether you create rarely or often, high end or other, to view it from a business perspective (as well as a spiritual, aesthetic, historical one...) is essential on the whole to continuing your craft and its legacy. It may require a shift for a few artists that feel uncomfortable in the business arena. So, if that’s you, then perhaps viewing it from another angle will bring some enlightenment.

Try thinking of it this way. By exchanging your talent for healthy profits, you are able to fund future creation and growth. Profitability in this way is empowering, freeing. It allows you to distribute more of your talent with fewer constraints. Increased profits puts you in the position to drive up quality by giving you the option to increase the time you can allot to your work by decreasing the pressure to make more money within shorter time periods. 

Another example is that increased profits can change the landscape of your life. After tracking the ebb and flow of your monthly profits, you may decide to quit your day job gaining needed time to create higher quantities which you can then sell more often. 

In short, business profitability affords you the luxury of time, quality and quantity if you so choose. The end result is a more robust art business.

Behavior #2: You’ve taken out loans, hired people or rented studio space that’s outside your budget in order to present yourself as more professional.

Mark is clear on this one. He’s against entrepreneurs having debt. He says debt comes in two forms: money and people. The message here is to stay debt free at all cost. Mark is 100% convinced that debt keeps us from reaching our dreams quickly and for some, at all.

Sleep on a couch in a shared apartment if necessary. Meet clients or patrons at a restaurant or other shared spaces for appointments, showings or events. Overall, never overextend yourself for ANY REASON. Acquiring debt forces your hands to be tied.

Use free or inexpensive methods to better present yourself or your work. Then as your income rises, rent, buy or hire to fit your budget. Whatever you do, keep from owing anyone if it’s possible and get where you want to be 10 to 100x faster.

Behavior #3: You aren’t studying your competition.

As I said earlier, your work is unique so it can feel as if you have no real direct competition. However, consider this huge warning from Mark's book.

Having a unique product or talent definitely sets you apart, but competition can come in many forms. It isn’t always a straight across trade.

You may be the creator of beautiful garden ware such as benches, bird baths, bird feeders and such. You see only a few artists online whose work is similar to yours and no one locally who's offering what you are. So, you decide it’s best to keep your head down and work on.

But what do you do when sales begin to decline? If you weren’t paying close attention then you wouldn’t know that an artist nearby has started making copper garden ware that’s becoming quite popular or that lapis blue is all the craze this Spring and department stores are selling out of garden ware in that color.

If you were paying close attention then you may have decided to incorporate those things into your works. Or even better, you divert away from trends altogether and offer something completely new for the season.

Whatever you do, look up. Look around. Be ready for your competition when they come, not if they come because competition is as certain as death and taxes.

Behavior #4: You're your own best friend.

What could be wrong with that? It seems to be in line with modern thinking that we are kind and loving to ourselves. Well, according to Mark, there's a lot wrong with it. Why? We tend to lie to ourselves. I admit I wasn’t in agreement with this one at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how I tend to boost myself up at times when I'm feeling down. Instead of being more logical and forming a plan of attack to remedy the situation that made me feel that way, I might nurse my ego way too long.

I get it that sometimes we really need to be our own best friend. I also realize some of you may be saying, “Ha! I’m not my own best friend at all. I’m my own worst enemy!” It’s true we can be cruel to ourselves, but even worse for business sake is when we’re too nice.

Instead, enlist a friend who can pick you up from time to time. Lean on them when your chipped ego needs repair, but don't befriend yourself in the business sense because you might end up telling yourself you’re doing great, that you’ve done more than you need to, that people’s criticisms are wrong, that your eye for color, form, etc… is always on point, that your work has more to offer than anyone else’s…. 

Just say no to being your own best business friend. Instead, keep it real. Keep it honest. 

Behavior #5: You’re too comfortable.

If effort is the great equalizer, then it's possible to even the playing field by not getting too comfortable.

According to Mark, once you’re aware of who your competition is ask yourself, “What do I need to do (relentlessly) to understand my competitor even better than anyone else?”

By learning everything you can about them, you gain much more than simple insights. You’ll not only see what’s working, but also what’s not. This opens up avenues for you to swoop in and conquer. There are two things to do here:

1. Learn where they’re lacking and take the reigns. If their website is not up to par, be sure yours shines.
2. Learn where they’re killing it and copy. If their shows are highly attended, document and follow the processes they use to market, advertise, and present their works. Find out who their connections are.

Overall, work, work, work. Keep your edge, go for gold and you'll come out ahead.

Behavior #6: You take on new opportunities before it's appropriate.

This one is a bit shocking. How can taking on new opportunities be bad? I thought I knew where Mark was going with this one, but I also had a ready rebuttal. 

Here’s his explanation. Mark clearly spells out that we can easily drown in opportunity. New opportunities are everywhere. At no time in history has it been easier to nurture, learn and execute on new ideas and ventures, but being able to do this in less time isn’t always beneficial.

Never in history has a person been able to teach a class to a group of students half a world away, learn how to crochet, and set up an ecommerce store all in one afternoon. It’s extremely easy for us to start, learn or do whatever we want.

Instead, Mark says to stay focused on your core competency. Look closely at ways you can strengthen your offerings, and not at taking on new shiny ideas that will weaken your hold on your current market.

As an artist and therefore creative thinker, you're likely multi-talented making it easy for you to become a Jack or Jane-of-all-trades. However, it makes sense to remain disciplined. Without mastering your core competency, you'll threaten your status as a sought after artist in your art form.

Look at practicing this discipline as an investment. Enforce it by putting on blinders, saying no to people, and so on. Stay the course. The result will be expertise and expertise has a funny way of putting you on top.

Behavior #7: You’re a one-person show.

It’s stating the obvious to say no one can do everything. Even makers and creators have to do tasks that take them away from their craft. There are specific things we don’t need to do ourselves. So, delegate. Don’t go in debt over it, but do it in this order:

1. Make a list of all the tasks keeping you from focusing on your core competency. 
2. Highlight everything that can be done easily by someone else. 
3. Decide what’s most worth your money (and within your budget).
4. Delegate and automate with online tools, software and/or people to get it all done.

Now that you’ve taken care of that, allot only specific slots of time for the labor-intensive tasks you have to do yourself. Stick tightly to your schedule and always keep going back, going back, and going back to your craft.

How would you use Mark’s advice? As always, wishing you huge success!

#markcuban #art #entrepreneur #marketplace

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Paula Soito is the founder and CEO of Arts Row, the first website of its kind solely dedicated to connecting American Artists to patrons by location which now serves artists in all 50 states. She is also CEO of PaulaSoito.com, a website for industry leading business development and growth for the modern artist with a global audience of creative professionals and amateurs.

In addition, she is a contributing writer at Art Market Magazine, an international publication spotlighting the world's most highly respected, living artists. Her work has been published in print and digital and has been seen in countries around the world including the US, UK, Canada and China. Paula Soito has written for, been covered by, or seen in, Art Market Magazine, Follow Magazine, Barnes & Noble, Rand McNally....