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    An Interview With Mark Cuban on Social Media and Entrepreneurship

    By Dan Schawbel | Forbes – Sun, Jul 17, 2011
    I had the chance to speak with Mark Cuban recently about his view on social media and entrepreneurship.  Although he's currently a billionaire, he has been an entrepreneur since age 12 when he sold garbage bags door-to-door. Today, Mark founded HDNet, Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions. He has also been an investor in startups, including Mahalo, JungleCents.com, motionloft.com, Filesanywhere.com, Naked Pizza and 140Fire.com. You can see him on ABC's Shark Tank, as well as on a few episodes of Entourage on HBO. Mark may be best known for his purchase of the Dallas Mavericks on January 4, 2000. He also co-owns the Landmark Theater chain, Magnolia Pictures and Magnolia Home Video along with partner Todd Wagner.

    Who do you think will win the battle for our "internet ID," Facebook, Google+, Twitter or LinkedIn and why?

    I think Facebook has won to this point, but having a Gmail address will work in the Google ecosystem. It's going to be challenging for the others.

    What 3 pieces of business advice would you give to a first time entrepreneur?

    1. Sweat equity is the most valuable equity there is.

    2. Know your business and industry better than anyone else in the world.

    3. Love what you do or don't do it.

    Do your TV appearances on Shark Tank and Entourage help your businesses grow or are they more for fun? Can you describe their impact?

    Entourage is for fun. It's a blast to work with them. Shark Tank is fun, but it's all business. We use our own money and the competition between the sharks is fierce. More importantly, it's an opportunity to invest in businesses that are being watched and considered by millions of people every time it's shown. And unlike any other reality show ever, not only is Shark Tank being repeated over and over , it's winning its time slot in repeats. So the marketing and investment opportunities are both unique.

    How did the jobs you had when you were younger (bartender, disco dancing instructor, and party promoter) help you become the businessman you are today?

    I learned the value of every job and the impact an employee can have, both positively and negatively. I have stocked shelves, waited on tables and bartended. I have been a salesperson at many levels. Each giving me a unique view of what made a company successful and even more importantly, what made a company fail. I also learned that the more fun I could have on the job, the more and harder I worked, hence owning a bar and giving disco lessons.

    Every job in a company is important. Unless you experience a wide range of those jobs, I don't think you are as well prepared to start and run a company as you could be.

    You get thousands of pitches from entrepreneurs looking for you to invest in their companies. What do you use to filter the pitches and how to you decide what to invest in?

    I can tell after reading the first paragraph if I'm interested. If the pitch starts with a sob story, I'm out. If the pitch talks about personal issues. I'm out. If the pitch starts off with how big the market opportunity is, I'm out. If the pitch tells me what is unique about the product, how it can make a profit, AND it's an area where I have expertise, I will read on. From there, it has to be something I feel is a unique product /service that can scale, be profitable AND again, matches my skill set so i can add value. I try to never be just a financial investor and I rarely do deals that are built on financial engineering.

    Dan Schawbel, recognized as a “personal branding guru” by The New York Times, is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, LLC, a full-service personal branding agency. Dan is the author of Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future, the founder of the Personal Branding Blog, and publisher of Personal Branding Magazine. He has worked with companies such as Google, Time Warner, Symantec, IBM, EMC, and CitiGroup.

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