Kyuban Mark is an American entrepreneur, billionaire, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks (National Basketball Association) basketball team. Mark also owns companies such as Landmark Theaters, HDNet SEO companies, and the HDTV Cable Network. The general condition of the Kuban Mark is 2.3 billion US dollars.
He began his career as a bartender
Many believe that Mark Kuban is just a genius, others argue that his success can be explained by nothing but banal luck. However, no matter how many opinions, the fact remains: Mark is a successful entrepreneur, whose status is annually calculated by world tabloids and the famous Forbes magazine. This person has an incredible mind, his calculations almost always turn out to be correct, thanks to which he makes profitable long-term investments with a high percentage return on dividends. Many will say that making money is much easier when you already have start-up capital, but not every second person on the planet becomes a billionaire. Young and novice businessmen who have not yet managed to put together their first million or billion should consider the success story of Mark Kuban comforting, because after graduating from college, he began his career as an ordinary bartender.
Kyuban Mark: biography and interesting facts from life
Born July 31, 1958 in the city of Pittsburgh (USA). He grew up in Pennsylvania (a suburb of Pittsburgh) in an ordinary family of workers who professed the Jewish religion. Father Norton Kuban worked in a car repair shop - sheathed car interiors.
Since childhood, Mark was resourceful and creative. His first small success came at the age of 12, when he organized his mini-business selling trash bags. With the proceeds, he bought himself expensive sports shoes for playing basketball. In addition, he sold greeting cards, magazines and beer. During his youth, Mark changed many works: he was a bartender, a dance instructor in the direction of disco, a seller of shoes ... As a teenager, Kuban loved collecting stamps. Once he made a bargain, selling a rare series of brands, for which he earned 1,100 dollars. This money went to pay for his college education. Even this fact suggests that at such a young age he was already an independent and calculating guy.
Mark traded his last year of high school for admission to the University of Pittsburgh, and after the first year he transferred to Bloomington (Indiana University). In 1981, Kuban Mark received his higher education and a bachelor's degree in business administration.
Jobs at Mellon Bank
After graduating from Indiana, Mark returned to his native Pittsburgh, where he immediately found a job in a beginner bank called Mellon. In those days, all existing banks worked with paper documentation. There were already computers then, but there was no proper software to keep automated data records. In Mellon, Mark was engaged in the fact that he entered data from a piece of paper on a computer, summing up the necessary estimates for the bank. Most of his peers, who also ended up in Mellon, were proud of their profession, but Mark had completely different outlooks on life - he strove for something more and constantly reflected on how to improve the work of the enterprise. Kuban Mark constantly shared his initiative with the board of directors.
In an interview, the guy said that quite often he sent his notes to the CEO of the bank with innovative proposals for Mellon. Once he read an article in a magazine on how to boost the economy of a corporate enterprise by circumventing the payment of social benefits. In response, I received a letter of thanks. Then he thought that he could bring more benefit to the bank, doing other activities, and not just enter data from a piece of paper into a computer. And he organized something like a “recruiting club”, where bank managers could conduct business negotiations in an informal setting with young employees, such as himself. Then Mark began to publish a newsletter with news feed on existing projects. He did this in a laid-back journalistic style, in which there was always a share of humor. The guy was sure that his steps would always be approved by the CEO, but it wasn’t there. Once he summoned Kuban to his office and yelled at him, shouting phrases like: “Who do you think you are here? "You will never be able to get around me, and if you resist, I will crush you." The guy tried to explain that his activity was aimed at making Mellon earn as much money as possible, for which, according to Mark, he received rude and ambiguous answers.
After this conversation, our hero realized that it was time to look for a new job. So he again went to Indiana, where he found a place in Tronics 2000, and after a while he moved to Dallas and got a job as a bartender.
Work at Your Business Software
In his spare time from the bartender's worries, Kuban Mark was looking for a new job. Soon he received an invitation letter to be interviewed at Your Business Software, a company that sold PC software. It is noteworthy that shortly before this, Mark purchased a computer for $ 99, on which he began to master the basics of programming on his own. Acquired coding skills allowed Kuban to get this job. “Yesterday's” bartender began to take the initiative, which impressed the management. Then he was promised a salary of 18 thousand dollars a year, plus commission payments. Fortunately there was no limit, because now Mark worked in a promising position with a good salary.
Millionaire Luck
Once he received an offer to accept an order for 15 thousand dollars, from which he could personally receive 10 percent. At that time, $ 1,500 was very good money, thanks to which he could move to another apartment and start a new life. Calling the boss and reporting the deal, Mark heard in response that there was no need to agree. Disobeying the boss, Kyuban accepted the check anyway, thinking that he was just joking. Upon returning to the office, he was fired for disobedience.
Mark Cuban: A Success Story. Microsolutions
Dismissal from Your Business Software has been a determining factor in Mark Cuban's career. It was after this that he decided to open his own business. Having received a check for 15 thousand dollars, he went to the person who placed the order and asked that everything remain valid. “I told him that I have absolutely no money, but if you give me a chance to fulfill your order, I can establish my own company.” The customer encouraged Mark with his consent, and he set to work. Thus, in 1983, Kuban Mark founded his own advisory company called MicroSolutions. Together with a comrade and colleague from Your Business Software, he began to promote his company, which was aimed at creating software for system integration.
Selling MicroSolutions
Kyuban’s business began to grow and flourish. Over time, the company reached a high level, having such major customers as Perot Systems. In 1990, Kuban Mark sold his company for $ 6 million. After conducting financial transactions, including certain taxes, Kyuban received $ 2 million in his personal bank account. It would seem that nothing more is needed - you can live the rest of your life happily and without doing anything. However, Kuban Mark is an entrepreneur who does not stop there.
“Either we become millionaires, or, becoming unemployed, remain friends”
In 1995, Mark founded Audionet, which broadcast student basketball news on the Internet. Thus, he combined earnings with his own interest. Later, in 1998, the company was renamed Broadcast.com. The new portal was dedicated to news from the world of sports, and there was also a whole section on litigation with US President Bill Clinton. The Internet portal was gaining momentum and overgrown with employees, which eventually became 330 people. Everyone worked for a symbolic $ 10 per hour, but Kyuban always encouraged his employees with future success, offering to buy shares from Broadcast.com. Once he said to his employees: “Either we become millionaires, or, having become unemployed, we remain friends.” With such an ideology, the company began to work harmoniously and efficiently. Predicting the rapid growth of dotcom development, Kyuban achieved incredible success. In early 1999, the portal’s turnover amounted to 13.5 million dollars. A little later, Broadcast.com organizes the filing of documents for the initial issue of shares. At that moment, the financial shoulder of the company skyrocketed, and all the employees who trusted Mark became millionaires.
The first purchases of a billionaire
In 1999, the search service Yahoo! makes the purchase of the portal Broadcast.com for $ 6 billion. Having broken a fabulous jackpot, Kuban Mark (photo below) receives 2 billion on his personal account and after a few months he makes several major purchases at once: a mansion for 14 million dollars and a private plane Golfistrim-5 for 41 million dollars.
By the way, the purchase of the aircraft was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest electronic transaction. A year later, Mark sublimates his childhood dream of becoming a basketball player by buying the Dallas Mavericks basketball club for $ 280 million.