- Billionaire investor Mark Cuban didn’t take a vacation for seven years when he first built the $30 million-a-year tech company MicroSolutions. At the time, he was “broke as f-ck,” recently fired and living with five men in a three-bedroom apartment. But working hard at a young age paid off. Cuban is today worth $5.7 billion—and it’s a work philosophy he now recommends.
Most people in their 20s already have their weekends booked out for bar hopping and hanging with friends, but one CEO lived a very different life in his youth. When billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban launched his first technology company at just 24, trips to Bora Bora weren’t on the table.
“[I] didn’t take a vacation for the next seven years,” Cuban said in an interview with Sports Illustrated’s series “The Playbook” on June 3. “I was broke as f-ck, where else was I going to go?”
Today, Mark Cuban may be sleeping in a $25 million, 24,000-square foot mansion in a wealthy Dallas neighborhood. But in the 1980s when the 66-year-old former Shark Tank investor first launched MicroSolutions, a software business also providing computer consulting services, he had just been fired from his job. At that time Cuban was sharing a “nasty” three-bedroom apartment with five roommates, where he often slept on the floor.
“I was living, six guys in a three-bedroom apartment, which wasn’t great. It was a sh-thole,” Cuban said.
But experiencing rock bottom lit the match to finally invest all his time into building his technology business into a million-dollar success. Without a 9-to-5 to report to or a financial safety blanket to back him up, Cuban made it his mission to work night and day until the venture took off.
“If I took the weekend, the whole thing could fall into the sh-tter,” Cuban explained. During those seven years with no days off, he said MicroSolutions climbed to over $30 million in sales, eventually being sold to H&R Block for $6 million.
Cuban’s advice for young people: ‘Work your ass off’ and learn while you sleep
The entrepreneur worth $5.7 billion has always given advice that young people should have an intense work ethic to propel them to success. And in the new era of AI, Cuban said that teens should even be learning in their sleep.
“If I was 16, 18, 20, 21 starting today, I would spend every waking minute learning about AI,” Cuban said at SXSW earlier this year. “Even if I am sleeping, I am listening to podcasts talking about AI.”
“Those people who put in the time are going to crush it.”
In March, Cuban even rolled out a chatbot with MasterClass on Call so users can ask AI-Cuban questions and for advice on emulating his success. At anytime, day or night, people can field ideas and issues by the tool. When Fortune asked the chatbot questions—like how to make your first million dollars—it echoed the same philosophy Cuban has been espousing for years.
“Work your ass off, learn everything you can, and stay adaptable,” Cuban’s AI chatbot responded. “Success rarely happens overnight, but persistence and smart decisions can get you there.”
