Mark Cuban: Turning Failure Into Opportunity

During my conversation with Mark Cuban – serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, investor on Shark Tank, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks – he told a poignant story about how, early in his career, he got fired from his job as a software consultant after closing one of the biggest deals in his company’s history.

Mark initially found his job from a newspaper ad, and prior to the interview, he bought two polyester suits for $99.?Mark wasn’t qualified for the position – he knew nothing about software but was hired for answering a single question:?If a customer asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, what to do you?

"Tell them I'll get them the answer," he replied.

For nine months, Mark arrived at work at 9:00 in the morning to open the store where he swept the floors and worked as both a salesperson and a software consultant for his firm.?His starting salary:?$18,000 a year.

One day Mark was asked to close a deal at 9:00 in the morning at a client’s office – the same time as when he was supposed to open the store.?Instead of rescheduling the appointment, Mark followed his instinct, asked a co-worker to open the store for him, and closed the deal.?The next day, he walked into work with a $15,000 check in hand – and despite the huge profit to the company, his boss promptly fired him.?He was 25 years old.

Mark was understandably shocked by this turn of events.?He was the only person in the store who had any technology knowledge — all of which was self-taught — and knew that the company he worked for could not execute the deal without him.?Despite losing his job, Mark saw this as the perfect chance to start his own company:?as someone who had the technological proficiency as well as the drive, he knew he had an edge.

“You learn as much from the bad companies as from the good companies,” Mark said.?Looking back, he knew that following his instinct and closing the deal was the right decision.?Mark understood a fundamental principle of business that his boss didn’t:?a company will never succeed without sales.

With this knowledge in mind, Mark turned his failure into an opportunity and started a software provider named MicroSolutions.?Seven years down the road, MicroSolutions was earning more than $30 million in revenue – and CompuServe bought the company for $6 million.?After taxes, Mark made approximately $2 million.

I was also fired from my first job – five and a half weeks after I moved to Los Angeles, when law firms were laying off people, and when I had $3,000 in the bank.?It was a huge setback for me, and similar to Mark, I was able to overcome a terrible start to my career.?

It feels terrible when you lose your job, but it’s important to remember that sometimes our biggest disappointments turn into our best opportunities.?

This article is based on my interview with Mark Cuban, a serial entrepreneur, investor, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and a host of Shark Tank on NBC.?Mark made his initial fortune through the sales of his startups MicroSolutions and Broadcast.com in the 1990s and was ranked number #177 on the 2020 Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest residents in the United States.?In January 2022, he launched the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company with the mission of lowering generic drug prices for end consumers in the US.?Mark is the best-selling author of How to Win at the Sport of Business and occasionally appears in popular television shows including Entourage, Dancing with the Stars, and The League.?Mark is also the founder of the Mark Cuban Foundation, which leads programs including the AI Bootcamps Initiative, a free Artificial Intelligence training program for underserved high school students, and the Fallen Patriot Fund, which helps families of U.S. military personnel who were killed or seriously injured during Operation Iraqi Freedom.?Listen to the full episode here.

You may also enjoy other episodes on?In Search of Excellence, which can be found on?Apple Podcasts,?Spotify,?Google Podcasts,?Overcast, and?YouTube.

Randall Kaplan?is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, philanthropist, and podcaster.?He is the founder and CEO of?JUMP Investors, a venture capital firm that has invested in more than 80 early-to-late-stage technology companies, including Google, Seagate, and Lyft.?Randall is a Co-Founder of?Akamai Technologies, a publicly-traded technology company that has 8,000 employees around the world and earned $3.8 billion in 2022 revenues.?He is also the Founder and CEO of?Sandee, the largest provider of information about beaches in the world with over 100 categories of information for more than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries.

Randall is the host of?In Search of Excellence, a podcast designed to motivate and inspire others to reach their potential and achieve excellence in all aspects of life.?Randall’s guests have included?Mark Cuban,?Kevin O'Leary,?David Solomon,?Bob Pittman,?Sharon Stone,?David Rubenstein,?Steve Case,?Orlando Bravo,?Sammy Hagar,?Sam Zell,?Rachel Zoe,?Tim Draper,?Kliff Kingsbury, and?Eric Garcetti, among many others.?Randall is also a dedicated philanthropist – he is the founder of?The Justice Ball?which has raised more than $8 million for a non-profit legal clinic that aids more than 12,000 poor, sick, elderly, and homeless residents of Los Angeles each year, and is the Co-Founder of?The Imagine Ball?which has raised millions of dollars and is dedicated to ending the cycle of poverty and homelessness in Los Angeles.

Read Randall's full bio at?www.randallkaplan.com.