- The person who controls the algorithm controls the world
- Mark Cuban discusses entrepreneurship and the importance of curiosity, agility, and sales skills
- He emphasizes the importance of being able to sell by helping others
- He learned important life lessons from his father, who taught him to be caring and accepting
- Starting a business requires confidence and preparation, and not just having a good idea

- Starting a business requires a willingness to change and deal with consequences
- Saving money and preparation are essential for success
- America has a strong culture of entrepreneurship
- Social media has impacted the celebration of entrepreneurs
- Shark Tank celebrates the American dream and motivates entrepreneurs
- Valuation is a common conflict in the show

- The biggest conflicts in Shark Tank happen over valuation of businesses
- Mark Cuban explains how to determine the value of a business
- He discusses the importance of technology and team in determining if a company will be acquired
- Cuban emphasizes the need for entrepreneurs to be grounded in reality and continuously iterate their business
- He shares how he made his first billion by creating the first streaming content company on the internet, which eventually sold to Yahoo for $5.7 billion

- The speaker started a multimedia company called audionet.com in the late 90s
- They initially focused on providing on-demand radio and video content
- The company grew rapidly through word of mouth, without spending money on advertising
- They eventually made a significant amount of revenue by providing multimedia services to corporations
- The company was acquired by Yahoo for $5.7 billion in stock
- The speaker protected their stock investment through a collar strategy, which was successful in the market crash
- They were able to foresee the market bubble and protect their investment through their knowledge of stocks and trading
- The speaker's insight into the market crash and their successful collar strategy was considered one of the top 10 trades of all time

- The speaker discusses the concept of a financial bubble and whether we are currently in one
- They mention the role of luck in becoming a billionaire and the importance of timing in seizing opportunities
- The speaker also talks about finding success and happiness, and the value of time and family
- They share a personal financial mistake involving Uber and the importance of recognizing potential in business opportunities.

- Mark Cuban discusses his initial meeting with the founder of Uber and his decision not to invest at that time
- He talks about his experience turning around the Dallas Mavericks, focusing on the business and basketball sides
- He emphasizes the importance of selling the experience of attending an NBA game
- Cuban also discusses his disagreement with Elon Musk over DEI programs, sharing his opinions on diversity and equity in hiring.

- Equity means putting employees in a position to succeed
- Inclusion means providing support to non-typical employees
- Quota-based DEI programs can result in racism towards certain groups
- Criticizing DEI programs can be difficult due to strong defense mechanisms
- There is debate over whether reverse discrimination is prevalent
- Leadership and decision-making in organizations play a crucial role in addressing DEI issues
- It is difficult to criticize DEI programs, but there has been positive progress in correcting past wrongs

- Mark Cuban discusses entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, agility, and sales skills
- He shares lessons learned from his father and the essential qualities for starting a business
- Social media has impacted the celebration of entrepreneurs, and Shark Tank motivates and celebrates the American dream
- Mark Cuban made his first billion by creating a streaming content company, which was eventually acquired by Yahoo
- He discusses the concept of financial bubbles, the role of luck in success, and the importance of timing
- Cuban talks about his decision not to invest in Uber and his experience turning around the Dallas Mavericks
- He shares his opinions on diversity and equity in hiring, emphasizing the importance of leadership in addressing DEI issues.

- The speaker discusses the flaws in the implementation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in universities and companies
- They argue that both the "woke" and "anti-woke" mindsets can be abused, and discuss examples of bias in AI technology
- The conversation also touches on the power of the free market to correct biases and mistakes in technology
- Overall, the discussion highlights the complexities and challenges of implementing DEI and addressing biases in various industries.

- The speaker discusses the influence of internal and external factors on AI models and social media platforms
- They mention the potential for AI models to become more personalized and diverse
- The conversation touches on the power of algorithms and the potential for censorship and control
- The discussion also includes the influence of media outlets and the impact of trends on social issues, particularly gender transition
- The speaker expresses skepticism about the influence of social media on gender transition and the lack of evidence to support these claims

- The speaker discusses the influence of social media and the perception of transgender surgery for minors.
- They compare the situation to historical atrocities and express concern for democracy.
- The conversation also touches on the immigration situation and the differences between Biden and Trump's leadership styles.

The speaker discusses the impact of immigration on crime rates and the importance of diversity in the US. They also talk about the influence of social media algorithms and the lack of transparency in the healthcare system, particularly with Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). The speaker emphasizes the need for transparency and trust in the healthcare system, and criticizes PBMs for prioritizing profits over patient savings.

- CVS Caremark prioritizes profits over patient savings
- Lack of transparency in pricing and claims data from big PBMs
- CEOs lack understanding of healthcare coverage and are being overcharged
- Cost Plus Drugs aims to provide transparent pricing and lower costs for medications
- Big PBMs are causing community pharmacies to go out of business
- Lack of transparency and greed in the healthcare industry is leading to higher costs and less leverage for smaller pharmacies and patients.

- The speaker discusses the impact of pricing on community pharmacies and the need for transparency in the healthcare industry
- They advocate for open sourcing AI models and the importance of finding one's passion and being curious
- The speaker shares a personal story about teaching entrepreneurship in Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union

- Discussion on flaws in DEI implementation in universities and companies
- Both "woke" and "anti-woke" mindsets can be abused
- Examples of bias in AI technology and the power of the free market to correct biases
- Influence of internal and external factors on AI models and social media platforms
- Skepticism about social media's influence on gender transition
- Comparison of immigration policies under Biden and Trump
- Criticism of lack of transparency in the healthcare system and prioritizing profits over patient savings by Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs)
- Impact of big PBMs on community pharmacies and the need for transparency in the healthcare industry
- Advocacy for open sourcing AI models and finding one's passion and curiosity

- Entrepreneurship boomed in Russia and Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union
- The system in these countries suppresses entrepreneurial spirit
- Rebuilding after war creates opportunities for growth
- Mark Cuban finds hope in the curiosity and ambition of young people, particularly Gen Z
- He encourages kids to believe they can change the world
- The conversation with Mark Cuban was enjoyable and hopeful

- Entrepreneurship flourished in Russia and Ukraine post-Soviet Union
- The system in these countries stifles entrepreneurial spirit
- Rebuilding after war presents growth opportunities
- Mark Cuban is hopeful about the curiosity and ambition of young people, especially Gen Z
- He encourages kids to believe they can make a difference
- The conversation with Mark Cuban was enjoyable and optimistic

Mark Cuban is a businessman, investor, star of TV series Shark Tank, long-time principal owner of Dallas Mavericks, and founder of Cost Plus Drugs. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Mark's X: https://twitter.com/mcuban
Mark's Instagram: https://instagram.com/mcuban
Cost Plus Drugs: https://costplusdrugs.com
Shark Tank: https://abc.com/shows/shark-tank
Dallas Mavericks: https://www.mavs.com

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Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
0:54 - Entrepreneurship
15:48 - Shark Tank
26:13 - How Mark made first billion
52:24 - Dallas Mavericks
57:49 - DEI debate
1:33:42 - Trump vs Biden
1:36:04 - Immigration
1:45:37 - Drugs and Big Pharma
2:01:38 - AI
2:05:49 - Advice for young people

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The person who controls the algorithm controls the world.

And if you are committed to 1 specific platform as your singular source of information or affiliated platforms, then whoever controls the algorithm or the programming there controls you.

The following is a conversation with Mark Cuban, a multi-billionaire businessman, investor and star of the series Shark Tank, longtime principal owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and is someone who is unafraid to get into frequent battles on X.

Most recently over topics of DEI, wokeism, gender, and identity politics with the likes of Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson.

To support it, please check out our sponsors in the description.

And now, dear friends, here's Mark Cuban.

You've started many businesses, invested in many businesses, heard a lot of pitches privately and on Shark Tank, So you're the perfect person to ask, what makes a great entrepreneur?

they wanna keep on learning because business is ever changing, it's never static.

Somebody who's agile because as you learn new things and the environment around you changes, you have to be able to adapt and make the changes.

And somebody who can sell, because no business has ever survived without sales.

And as an entrepreneur who's creating a company, whatever your product or service is, if that's not the most important thing and you're just dying and excited to tell people about it, then you're not gonna succeed.

I've always looked at it about putting myself in the shoes of another person and asking a simple question.

And from the time I was 12 years old, selling garbage bags door-to-door and just asking a simple question.

I'll bring them to your house and drop them off to you know streaming.

Why do we need streaming when we have TV and radio?

Well you can't get access to your TV and radio everywhere you go so we kind of break down geographic and physical barriers and you know cost plus drugs.

You know what's the product that we actually sell?

In a simplistic approach, we buy drugs and sell drugs, but we add transparency to it.

And bringing transparency to an industry is a differentiation and it helps people.

Trust in an industry that's highly lacking in trust.

Okay, so what's the trick to selling garbage bags?

12 years old, what, I mean, is it just your natural charisma?

I guess a good question to ask, are you born with it?

I mean, because selling garbage bags door to door was easy, right?

It was like, 12 year old Mark going, hi, my name is Mark.

You know what the answer is going to be, right?

Can I just drop them off for you, you know, once a week, whenever you need them, you just call and I'll bring them down?

I don't remember, but it's pretty close to 100%.

Oh, okay, so that's why you don't remember.

Yeah, right, because who's gonna say no to a 12-year-old kid who's gonna save him time and money.

But you know, typically my career where I've started companies, it's to do something that other people aren't doing.

Whether it was connecting PCs to local area networks and at micro solutions and you know, the Salesmanship was walking into a company and just saying, look, talk to me and I can help you improve your productivity and your profitability.

And then the question is, can I do the job and can I do it cost effectively?

And So you didn't have to be a born salesperson to be able to ask those questions, but you have to be able to be willing to put in the time to learn that business.

I'm sure there's a skill thing to it too, in like how you solve the puzzle of communicating with

Yeah, I mean, there's skill from the perspective that I read like a maniac.

Then, like now, you can give me an example of any type of business, and it'll take me 2 seconds to figure out how they make money and how I can make it more productive.

And I think that's probably my biggest skill, being able to just drill down to what the actual need is, if any, and then from there being able to say, well, if this is what this company does and this is what their goal is, how can I introduce something new that they haven't seen before and is that a business that I can create and make money from?

So figure out how this kind of business makes money in

the present and then figure out is there a way to make more money in the future by introducing a totally new kind of thing.

Because going back to what I said earlier about curiosity, you have to be insanely curious because the world is always changing.

My dad used to say, we don't live in the world we were born into, which is absolutely true.

If you're not a voracious consumer of information, then you're not gonna be able to keep up and no matter what your sales skills or ability are, they're gonna be useless.

My dad did upholstery on cars, you know, got up, went to work every morning at 07:00, came back 5 or 6, 07:00 exhausted.

Just, you know, qualities that I think he really tried to pass on to myself and my 2 younger brothers were just be a good human.

And I think he didn't have business experience, so as I got into business, he would just say, sorry Mark, I can't help you.

Neither 1 of my parents had gone to college.

You've got to figure it out for yourself." But he was also very insistent that...

He worked at a company called Regency Products where they did upholstery on cars.

He would bring me there to sweep the floors.

Not because he wanted me to learn that business, because he wanted me to learn how backbreaking that work was.

I mean, he lost an eye in an accident at work, a staple broke, and the only thing he wanted from my brothers and I was for us to never have to work like that, to go to college, to figure it out.

That said, you also said that you, when you were first starting a business, you were a bit more of

an asshole than you wish you would have been.

Yeah, what you see on the sidelines, you know, with me at a Mavs game, maybe a little bit, but I also didn't have any patience for somebody I thought wasn't using my kind of common sense, right?

Because I was always on the go, go, go, go, go, particularly when I was younger, just trying to be successful, trying to get to the point where I had independence.

And I would tell this to people, either you're speeding up and getting on the train or we'll stop and drop you off at the next station, but let's go where you go.

Did you have trouble with the hire fast, fire fast part

Yeah, always, because I hated firing people, because it meant, 1, it was an admission of mistake in the hiring, and 2, the salesperson in me always wanted to come out ahead, and I was always horrible at firing.

But I always partnered with people who had no problem with it, so I always delegated that.

When you're working with somebody and they're not quite there and you have to decide are they going to step up and grow into the person that's the right or they're not?

And in that gray area is probably where you have to fire.

yeah, for sure, because it's obviously a failure somewhere in the process.

And when I would interview people for jobs, I think 99% of the people I've ever interviewed I've wanted to hire because in my mind, it was like, okay, I can figure out how to make this person work, right?

And then they wouldn't, and then, you know, People at the company would be like, Mark, you suck at this, you know?

I see the potential in people, I see the beauty in people, and which is a great way to live life, but when you're running a company, it's a different thing.

It's different, and You gotta know what you're good at and what you're bad at.

I was a ready, fire, aim guy, and I always partnered with people who were very anal and perfectionist because where I could just go, go, go, go, go, go, they would keep me inside the baselines.

They would do the due diligence, I suppose.

Yeah, or just, yeah, the detail work, the dot the I's and the cross the T's.

What does it take to take that first leap into starting a business?

It really depends on your personal circumstances.

I was sleeping on the floor, 6 guys in a three-bedroom apartment, So I couldn't go any lower.

Yeah, there was no downside for me starting a business.

And it was just like, you know, I was 25 when we started microsolutions and, you know, I just gotten fired.

And it was like, look, I'm a lousy employee.

I'm gonna just start going to some of my prospects that I had at my job and ask them to front the money that I needed to install some software and found this company, Architectural Lighting, who put up $500 for me.

That allowed me to buy software and have 50% margins and that's how I started my company.

But like by way of advice, would you say?

Yeah, I mean, you've gotta be in a position where you're confident.

I get emails and approached by people all the time, what kind of business should I start?

That tells me you're not ready to start a business.

Either you're prepared and you know it or you don't.

In the United States, with the American dream, everybody kind of always looks at themselves and say, okay, I have this idea.

And then you go through this process of saying, okay, you talked to your friends or family, what do you think?

And then almost always, oh, it's a great idea, right?

Then you go on Google and you say, oh my God, no 1 else is doing it without thinking 10 companies have gone out of business trying the same thing, but okay, it's on Google.

Because that next step means, okay, I have to change what I'm doing in my life.

And that's not easy for 99% of the people.

Some people look at that as an opportunity and get excited about it.

Some people get terrified because it's, okay, maybe I'm comfortable, maybe I have responsibilities.

And so whatever your circumstances are, if you want to take that next step, you have to be able to deal with the consequences of changing your circumstances.

If you have a job, do you have a mortgage?

You gotta save money, you can't just walk.

I mean, they've gotta eat and they've gotta have shelter.

But on the Other side of the coin, if you've got nothing, it's the perfect time to start a business.

Yeah, desperation is a good catalyst for starting a business.

But in many cases, the decision, as you're talking about, you're gonna have to make is to leave a job that's providing some degree of comfort already.

So I suppose when you're sleeping on the floor and there's 6 guys, it's a little bit easier.

Particularly when you get fired and you don't have a job.

You know, and you're looking at bartending at night to try to pay the bills.

And so it wasn't hard for me, but to your point, it really comes down to preparation.

You know, if it's important enough to you, you'll save the money, you'll give up, you know, whatever it is you need to give up to put the money aside.

If you have obligations, you'll put in the work to learn as much as you can about that industry so that when you start your business, you're prepared.

And you can always, at night, on weekends, whenever you find time, lunch, start making the calls to find out if people will write you a check, transfer you money to buy whatever it is you're selling.

And by doing those things, you can put yourself in a position to succeed.

It's where people just think, okay, you know, Geronimo, I'm leafing off the edge of a cliff and I'm starting a business.

But sometimes that's like the way you do it though.

There's always examples of any situation or scenario.

Yeah, but if you're going into a new business, you're gonna have competition unless you're really, really, really, really, really lucky.

And that competition is not gonna just say, okay, let Lex or Mark just kick our ass.

And so you've gotta be prepared to how you're gonna deal with that competition.

What do you think that is about America that has so many people who have that dream and act on that dream of starting a business?

You know, I think we've just got a culture of consumption and more.

You know, and to get more, you've got to, you know, creating a business gives you the greatest potential upside and the greatest leverage on your time, but it also creates the most risk.

So that capitalist machine, there's a lot of elements by contrast.

The respect for the law, like an entrepreneur can trust that if they pull it off the law it'll protect them, there won't be a government.

Right, right, so us versus other countries, like Joe Biden of all people said to me, it was at an entrepreneurship conference that when he was vice president, he had put together.

And we had gone up there, a bunch of us from Shark Tank, to talk to young entrepreneurs from around the world.

And he said to me, Mark, the 1 thing that separates, I've been to every country around the world, and the 1 thing that separates us is entrepreneurship.

We're the most entrepreneurial country in the world, and there's no 1 else who's even close.

And when you look at the origin of our biggest, you know, the biggest companies in the world, for the most part, there's an American origin story somewhere behind there.

And I think, you know, that just gets perpetuated on itself.

We see examples of the Jeff Bezos of the world, the Steve Jobs of the world, and those are the types of people we

Yeah, we wanna be really careful and try to really figure out what that is because we don't wanna lose that.

We wanna protect the whatever, you know, and that's a lot of the discussions about what's the right way to do government, big government, small government, what's the right policies, but also culture, like who we celebrate.

1 of the things that troubles me is that we don't enough celebrate the entrepreneurs that take risks and the entrepreneurs that succeed.

It seems like success, especially when it comes with wealth, is immediately matched with distrust and criticism and all that

Yeah, it's changing for sure because you can go back just 12 years, right?

Traditional media dominated, let's just say, through 2012.

Newspapers weren't as strong, but they still had some breadth and depth to them.

And then social media comes along and everybody gets to play in their own sandbox and share opinions with people who think just like them.

And it also gives them the opportunity to amplify those feelings.

And I think that's where celebrating entrepreneurs really started to subside some.

There were always people who were progressive that were like billionaires are bad or millionaires are bad depending on the time period, but you didn't really see it on an ongoing basis, right?

It wasn't going to be in the front page of the newspaper.

It was going to be if you read a book and someone talked about it, or you read a magazine and there was an article talking about this progressive movement or that progressive movement, whatever it may be, or political parties.

But now, all of that is front and center in social media.

And we're trying to figure it out, how we deal with the mobs of people and the virality of it all.

I think we'll find our footing and start celebrating greatness again.

Well, I mean, that's the whole reason I do Shark Tank.

That's true, that show celebrates the entrepreneur.

It's the only place where every single minute of every single episode, we celebrate the American dream.

And the reason I do it is we tell the entire country and it's shown around the world even.

We're amazing advertising for the American dream in I don't even know how many countries.

But every time somebody walks onto that carpet from Dubuque, Iowa or Ketchum, Idaho, that sends a message to every kid who's watching, 789, 10, 12 year old kid, that if they can do it from Ketchum, Idaho, you can do it.

If they can have this idea and get a deal or even present to the sharks and have all of America see it, you can do it.

The 15 years of that is just, it's just been insane.

You know, now kids walk up to me and go, yeah, I started watching you when I was 5 or 10 and I started a business because I learned about it from Shark Tank.

And so, I think we're being, it celebrates it and we convey it and I don't think it's going away, but there are different battles we have to fight to support it.

Yeah, I love even when the business idea is obviously horrible.

I mean, because like some of the best business ideas are probably maybe even you and Shark Tank will laugh at.

The good ones, we're not gonna recognize every good 1, and then sometimes we'll just motivate people to work even harder to get it done because of what we say to them.

There's been great success stories that we said no to.

They're all best in their own way, I guess.

The stupid ones and you know, we haven't had any, you know, world changing earth shattering ones, right?

Because those aren't gonna apply to Shark Tank.

So we typically get businesses that need some help at some level or another.

But there's ones I've passed that I wish, like spike ball, do you know what spike ball is?

So it's this rebounding net that you can put on the beach and you have these yellow balls and you play a game of, it's just a competitive game, but they're killing it.

So if you go to beaches in New York or LA, you'll see kids playing it all the time.

And it was a fun game that I wish I had done a deal with.

They were getting some traction and they wanted to create leagues, spike ball leagues.

And they wanted me to be the commissioner.

And I don't want to be a commissioner of a new spike ball league.

So you have to kind of have this gut feeling of, will this scale, will this click with

Is it something that makes me think, why didn't I think of that?

Or is it just a good, solid business that's gonna pay a return to the founder and may not be enough of

Yeah, and I guess the question you're trying to see, Will this scale, this promise, will the promise materialize into a big thing?

Well, see, I don't even care if it's gonna be a big thing, right?

Because it's all relative to the entrepreneur.

We had a 19-year-old from Pittsburgh, Laney, who came on with a simple sugar scrub.

And there was nothing outrageously special about it.

I didn't see it becoming a $100 million business.

I thought it could become A23, $5 million business that paid the bills for her, and that was good enough.

And 6 months after The show aired, she called me up, she goes, Mark, I've got a million dollars in the bank, what am I gonna do?

I'm like, enjoy it, put aside money for your taxes, and go back to work.

And so it doesn't have to be a huge business, it's just gotta be 1 that makes the entrepreneur happy.

I mean, do a lot of the entrepreneurs overvalue business?

I mean, and that's really where the biggest conflicts in Shark Tank happen, that's in the valuation.

They think this is the best business ever.

We had 1 lady, couple that came on, and they had this scraper for cats' tongues, right?

And they had this insane valuation, and it was on because it was corny and fun TV, not because it was a good business.

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Mark Cuban: Shark Tank, DEI & Wokeism Debate, Elon Musk, Politics & Drugs | Lex Fridman Podcast #422