在成为《创智赢家》（Shark Tank）的投资人、NBA达拉斯独行侠队的老板，抑或是全球顶级富豪之前，马克·库班也曾在底层摸爬滚打，有时靠一些有点不光彩的方式努力谋生。
在接受旧金山标准（San Francisco Standard）的“Life in Seven Songs”播客节目采访时，库班透露，为了支付上世纪80年代初在印第安纳大学（Indiana University）大三的学费，他在宿舍发起了一种“连环信”活动。他从找一个人索要100美元开始，开启了一场庞氏骗局，他自己也称之为“诈骗”。
库班对那人解释说：“我会拿走其中50美元。这里有10个人的名单。我们会把剩下的50美元寄到名单顶部那个人所在的宿舍，然后把他的名字从名单上划掉，并把你的名字放在最底部。这样，我们就做成了一封50美元的连环信。其他人都照做之后，你的名字会逐渐往上移动，直到排在最前面。随着连环信规模不断扩大，你有望获得高于投入的回报。”
听上去是不是有点像社会资本运作？
67岁的库班笑着回忆道：“不不不，那基本上就是诈骗。不过我确保朋友们都拿回了他们的钱。当时我的名字一路排到了名单最上面。太神奇了！我每次去查邮箱，总会看到各地寄来的信封，里面装着50美元。就是靠这些，我付清了大三的学费。”
对于出身普通的库班来说，这笔钱在当时意义重大。他生长在匹兹堡郊区的一个工薪家庭，从事汽车内饰工作的父亲偶尔会给他20美元零花钱，但他始终在寻找赚钱的门路。这种执念源于童年时期。小时候他想要一双新篮球鞋，父亲告诉他：等他将来工作了，想买什么都可以。
这句话开启了库班漫长的创业之路，而他的第一桩生意是卖垃圾袋。他父亲的一位朋友有大量垃圾袋亟待处理，并告诉库班可以拿去卖。于是，库班在附近社区挨家挨户地推销起了这种家庭必需品。
库班回忆说：“我会挨家挨户敲门，说：‘嗨，我叫马克，你们家需要垃圾袋吗？’结果大获成功。”
库班的亿万富豪之路
大学毕业后，库班前往达拉斯发展。当时他完全想不到，自己有朝一日会成为这座城市 NBA球队的老板。在那里，他做过软件销售，和另外五个人挤在他口中所谓的“破败小窝”里生活。
库班说道：“那里的居住环境非常糟糕。我睡在地板上，只有有人出差时我才能睡到床上。我没有自己的衣柜，没有自己的抽屉，什么都没有。”
在那段日子里，库班抓住一切机会学习电脑和软件知识——哪怕只是一份说明书，他也会坐下来从头读到尾。做销售期间，他原本有机会赚到一笔1,500美元的佣金，那笔钱足以让他搬离这间被他和五位室友戏称为“地狱旅馆”的公寓。然而，当他去领取佣金支票时，老板却当场解雇了他。也正是那个瞬间，激励库班创办了人生中的第一家公司MicroSolutions，从事PC软件开发。这家公司在1990年以600万美元的价格售出。
此后的一段时间里，用库班的话说，他给自己买了“美航（American Airlines）的终身机票”，过着摇滚明星般的生活，一路旅行一路狂欢。
库班说道：“那时我年轻、单身，疯狂，无所顾忌。我只想尽可能和更多人开怀畅饮，尽可能体验更多事物。”
库班的创业生涯也从此扶摇直上。上世纪90年代中期，他和两位朋友卡梅隆·克里斯托弗·杰布与托德·瓦格纳共同创办了互联网电台公司Audionet.com，之后更名为Broadcast.com。在互联网泡沫巅峰期的1999年，他们以57亿美元的价格将公司出售给雅虎（Yahoo），库班也由此跻身亿万富翁行列。
此后数十年，库班重点专注于商业投资，通过《创智赢家》节目为初创公司担任明星导师，并于2000年收购达拉斯独行侠队的多数股份。库班于今年正式告别《创智赢家》，并在2023年末以35亿美元出售了他在独行侠队的控股权。根据彭博社的数据，库班如今的身家估计为91亿美元。
库班决定退出独行侠队的主要原因是，保护他的三个孩子。
库班表示：“经营一支职业球队，赢球时一切都好，那感觉很棒。但如果球队战绩不佳，孩子们会在社交媒体上看到各种负面评论，我不希望他们承受这些压力。”
如今，库班又投身全新且完全不同的事业。他于2022年创立了Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs，旨在消除医药行业的中间环节。库班指出，中间商正是导致药价居高不下的罪魁祸首。
库班对《连线》杂志表示：“颠覆一个人人都痛恨的行业，其乐无穷。”（*）
译者：郝秀
审校：汪皓
在成为《创智赢家》（Shark Tank）的投资人、NBA达拉斯独行侠队的老板，抑或是全球顶级富豪之前，马克·库班也曾在底层摸爬滚打，有时靠一些有点不光彩的方式努力谋生。
在接受旧金山标准（San Francisco Standard）的“Life in Seven Songs”播客节目采访时，库班透露，为了支付上世纪80年代初在印第安纳大学（Indiana University）大三的学费，他在宿舍发起了一种“连环信”活动。他从找一个人索要100美元开始，开启了一场庞氏骗局，他自己也称之为“诈骗”。
库班对那人解释说：“我会拿走其中50美元。这里有10个人的名单。我们会把剩下的50美元寄到名单顶部那个人所在的宿舍，然后把他的名字从名单上划掉，并把你的名字放在最底部。这样，我们就做成了一封50美元的连环信。其他人都照做之后，你的名字会逐渐往上移动，直到排在最前面。随着连环信规模不断扩大，你有望获得高于投入的回报。”
听上去是不是有点像社会资本运作？
67岁的库班笑着回忆道：“不不不，那基本上就是诈骗。不过我确保朋友们都拿回了他们的钱。当时我的名字一路排到了名单最上面。太神奇了！我每次去查邮箱，总会看到各地寄来的信封，里面装着50美元。就是靠这些，我付清了大三的学费。”
对于出身普通的库班来说，这笔钱在当时意义重大。他生长在匹兹堡郊区的一个工薪家庭，从事汽车内饰工作的父亲偶尔会给他20美元零花钱，但他始终在寻找赚钱的门路。这种执念源于童年时期。小时候他想要一双新篮球鞋，父亲告诉他：等他将来工作了，想买什么都可以。
这句话开启了库班漫长的创业之路，而他的第一桩生意是卖垃圾袋。他父亲的一位朋友有大量垃圾袋亟待处理，并告诉库班可以拿去卖。于是，库班在附近社区挨家挨户地推销起了这种家庭必需品。
库班回忆说：“我会挨家挨户敲门，说：‘嗨，我叫马克，你们家需要垃圾袋吗？’结果大获成功。”
库班的亿万富豪之路
大学毕业后，库班前往达拉斯发展。当时他完全想不到，自己有朝一日会成为这座城市 NBA球队的老板。在那里，他做过软件销售，和另外五个人挤在他口中所谓的“破败小窝”里生活。
库班说道：“那里的居住环境非常糟糕。我睡在地板上，只有有人出差时我才能睡到床上。我没有自己的衣柜，没有自己的抽屉，什么都没有。”
在那段日子里，库班抓住一切机会学习电脑和软件知识——哪怕只是一份说明书，他也会坐下来从头读到尾。做销售期间，他原本有机会赚到一笔1,500美元的佣金，那笔钱足以让他搬离这间被他和五位室友戏称为“地狱旅馆”的公寓。然而，当他去领取佣金支票时，老板却当场解雇了他。也正是那个瞬间，激励库班创办了人生中的第一家公司MicroSolutions，从事PC软件开发。这家公司在1990年以600万美元的价格售出。
此后的一段时间里，用库班的话说，他给自己买了“美航（American Airlines）的终身机票”，过着摇滚明星般的生活，一路旅行一路狂欢。
库班说道：“那时我年轻、单身，疯狂，无所顾忌。我只想尽可能和更多人开怀畅饮，尽可能体验更多事物。”
库班的创业生涯也从此扶摇直上。上世纪90年代中期，他和两位朋友卡梅隆·克里斯托弗·杰布与托德·瓦格纳共同创办了互联网电台公司Audionet.com，之后更名为Broadcast.com。在互联网泡沫巅峰期的1999年，他们以57亿美元的价格将公司出售给雅虎（Yahoo），库班也由此跻身亿万富翁行列。
此后数十年，库班重点专注于商业投资，通过《创智赢家》节目为初创公司担任明星导师，并于2000年收购达拉斯独行侠队的多数股份。库班于今年正式告别《创智赢家》，并在2023年末以35亿美元出售了他在独行侠队的控股权。根据彭博社的数据，库班如今的身家估计为91亿美元。
库班决定退出独行侠队的主要原因是，保护他的三个孩子。
库班表示：“经营一支职业球队，赢球时一切都好，那感觉很棒。但如果球队战绩不佳，孩子们会在社交媒体上看到各种负面评论，我不希望他们承受这些压力。”
如今，库班又投身全新且完全不同的事业。他于2022年创立了Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs，旨在消除医药行业的中间环节。库班指出，中间商正是导致药价居高不下的罪魁祸首。
库班对《连线》杂志表示：“颠覆一个人人都痛恨的行业，其乐无穷。”（*）
译者：郝秀
审校：汪皓
Before you knew him as an investor on Shark Tank, the owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks, or just one of the richest people in the world, Mark Cuban was hustling in humble—and sometimes sketchy—ways.
To pay his way through junior year of college at Indiana University in the early 1980s, Cuban set up a “chain letter” in his dorm, he told the San Francisco Standard’s Life in Seven Songs podcast. He started by approaching one person and asked them to give him $100, starting the Ponzi scheme or “scam” as he called it.
Cuban told that person “I’m going to take $50 of that. And here’s a list of 10 names. We’re going to send 50 bucks to whatever dorm room that this person at the top of the list is. Then we’re going to take their name off the list and put your name at the bottom. So we’ll make it a $50 chain letter. And as everybody else does that, your name moves up the list until you’re at the top. And as we grow the chain letter, hopefully you’ll get more money than you put out.”
Sounds kind of like social capital, right?
“No, no. It was basically a scam,” Cuban, 67, said as he chuckled. “I made sure my friends all got their money back. And so I got up to the top of the list. And it was amazing, because I’d go to [my mailbox] and there’d be envelopes with 50 bucks from here, 50 bucks from there, and that’s how I paid for my junior year of college.”
That type of cash meant a lot at the time for Cuban, who came from humble beginnings, growing up in a working-class family in a suburb of Pittsburgh. He said his dad, who worked in car upholstery, would occasionally throw him a $20 bill, but he was always searching for ways to make money. That started during childhood when he asked his dad for a new pair of basketball shoes: His dad said when he had a job, he could buy whatever he wanted.
That instance launched Cuban into a long career of entrepreneurship, starting with selling—of all things—trash bags. His father’s friend had tons of boxes of trash bags to unload, and told Cuban he could sell them. With that, Cuban went door-to-door around his neighborhood selling the home essential.
“I would go door-to-door to be like, ‘Hi, my name is Mark. Do you use trash bags?” Cuban reflected. “I killed it.”
Cuban’s journey to billionaire status
After college, Cuban made his move to Dallas—not knowing one day he’d be the face of the city’s NBA team. There, he worked as a software salesman and lived in what he called a “s–thole” with five other guys.
“It was nasty as can be,” Cuban said. “I slept on the floor, and if somebody was out of town, I got a bed. I didn’t have my own closet, didn’t have my own drawers. Nothing.”
During his time there, Cuban learned everything he could about computers and software—even if that meant sitting down and reading manuals. While working as a salesman, he had the opportunity to make a $1,500 commission, which would have helped him move out of the “hell hotel,” as he and his five roommates fondly called their apartment. But when he went to pick up the check, his boss fired him right on the spot. That moment inspired Cuban to start his first company called MicroSolutions writing software for PCs. He sold that company for $6 million in 1990.
For a while after that, Cuban bought a “lifetime pass on American Airlines, partied like a rock star, and just traveled,” he said.
“I was young, single and crazy, and there were no limits,” Cuban said. “I just wanted to have a beer with as many people as I possibly could, experience as many things as I possibly could.”
Cuban’s entrepreneurial career soared. In the mid-1990s, Cuban and two of his friends, Cameron Christopher Jaeb and Todd Wagner, founded internet radio company Audionet.com, which was later renamed to Broadcast.com. They sold that company to Yahoo in 1999 for $5.7 billion, during the height of the dotcom bubble, cementing Cuban’s status as a billionaire.
In the following decades, Cuban focused heavily on business investments, starring on Shark Tank for startup companies, and eventually purchased a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks in 2000. Cuban parted ways with Shark Tank this year—and in late 2023, he sold his majority stake in the Mavericks for $3.5 billion. Cuban is currently worth an estimated $9.1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The primary reason Cuban decided to step away from the Mavericks? To protect his three kids.
“Running a professional sports team is always good when you’re winning. It’s great,” Cuban said. “But when you’re having a bad season, and [my] kids are on social media, I just didn’t want them to put up with everything.”
Now, Cuban is on to new—and very different—ventures. He launched Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs in 2022 with a mission to eliminate the middleman in the pharmaceutical industry. Cuban diagnosis this as being the major culprit behind high drug prices.
“Disrupting an industry that everybody hates, that’s fun,” Cuban told Wired.