How to Win at the Sport of Business by Mark Cuban
Main Idea:
Embrace slow, organic growth, as it’s much more stable and profitable in the long term. Fall in love with sales and make sure your product has a simple & effortless user experience (the path of least resistance).
Lessons & Notes:
Be content with slow organic growth.
“Business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.”
Don’t settle for ordinary employees.
Hire people who are passionate and inspired to move the company forward, not just get paid, do average work, and go home.
If your team doesn’t love what your company does, they will struggle to do all the hard work that is upon them.
Don’t concern yourself about cashing out on your passion too early.
“The sport of business is the ultimate competition. It’s 7 × 24 × 365 × forever.”
Follow the opportunities
Solve problems first, you can revisit your passions later.
Don’t take on new battles until you win the battles you are in right now.
Focus on ONE thing only. Don’t drown in opportunity.
“You only have to be right once.”
The worst day of your life is the day you decide to borrow money.
Great companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and dell started without investors.
Venture investors aka vulture investors – when you sell a portion of your business to them, they gain control of it, thus taking control of you.
Investors could care less about your goals. They love that you have ambitions and are motivated by them. But the reality is, Investors only care about how they are going to get a return on their investment.
Investors care about making money but your family cares about your dreams.
“It would have been easy to judge effort by how many hours a day passed while I was at work. That’s the worst way to measure effort. Effort is measured by setting goals and getting results.”
Your customers own your business – without them, your business wouldn’t exist.
Even when he was already a billionaire, Mark Cuban still kept responding to customer feedback and complaints personally,
You foresee your future by inventing it.
Your customers are a great resource for feedback. Listen to them, they have the answers.
“Your biggest enemies are your bills, the more you owe the more you stress”
Convenience is what pays the bills. Create a product or service is simple and easily accessible. Customers want the path of least resistance.
Don’t sell your service or product. Educate instead and solve their problems.
Majority of people won’t put in the effort or time to acquire a knowledge advantage.
“Relaxing is for the other guy. I may be sitting in front of the TV, but I’m not watching it unless I think there is something I can learn from it. I’m thinking about things I can use in my business and the TV is just there.”
If you want to get your first customer, deliver your product or service for free at first – mark calls this the “no money down approach” to starting a business.
Master the art of selling. In business and life, you’re always selling – to your prospects, employees, investors, friends, & associates.
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes.
Customers want to see that you have other customers.
“As I would learn later in life, money makes you extremely handsome.”
Invest in yourself. Become an expert in whatever you’re doing. It will give you a major advantage because most people neglect this.
Don’t get caught up in how many hours you work. The only thing that matters is your results. You could “work” but not have anything to show for it.