Mark Cuban: Playing Nice with the Competition Never Works

According to Mark Cuban, the secret to success in business is kicking the butt of the competition! And if you are a new entrepreneur just starting out, your butt is already on his radar!

What else would you expect from such a cutthroat shark like Cuban? A pat on the head with a cheerful. “Go get ‘em, kiddo!” Not likely, not from someone like the billionaire judge from TV’s Shark Tank.

Cuban recently appeared on stage at the San Francisco TechCrunch Dispute where he flexed his well-established entrepreneurial muscle and highly competitive edge. And as usual, Cuban didn’t hold any punches.

When Cuban was asked by TechCrunch editor Matt Burns about what drives him to keep establishing new companies, Cuban said,

“There is no sport as competitive as business. It’s 24 by seven by 365 by forever, and there’s all these young kids out here trying to kick your ass” as his deliberately points into the crowded audience of attendees.

Strong words from a man who made his first millions after selling his computer consulting enterprise, Microsolutions, to Compuserve back in 1990, years before many of the twenty-something audience members were even born. As the young, aspiring entrepreneurs sat dumbfounded in the auditorium, Cuban made his intentions even more crystal clear.

“I just love to kick your ass! You know, seriously, I’m just so competitive that, you know, f-ck y’all. I want to win and that’s it in a nutshell.”

How’s that for succinct clarify of vision?

This, coming from a man who started his first business at the age of twelve selling garbage bags door-to-door, is part of the reason why Cuban has founded and sold more companies than he can remember. If you were to ask him how many firms he currently manages and operates, the number will usually allude him. He estimates the number to be around thirty, at any given date, but how knows?

An avid basketball fanatic, Mark Cuban calls business the “ultimate sport”. He compares the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship to the round-the-clock action of an NBA sports team like the Dallas Mavericks. Hours of long, strenuous practice, intense physical workouts, and mental exertion that all lead to a final showdown that only lasts a mere 48-minutes of gameplay against another fierce competitor with varying levels of age, skill, and experience.

The Dallas-based father of three went on to encourage parents to coach their kids towards achieving a winning and aggressive attitude towards business rather than focusing their skills sets on becoming a professional basketball star.

“Hopefully we’re evolving from I want to see my kid be the star quarterback or see my kid be the star of the basketball team to them being an entrepreneur and being excited about business.”

And they had better be more competitive in their business practices than they are on the basketball court or the football field. Cuban is playing the game for the long haul, and he just might be the one to lay them out and kind their butts!