Entrepreneur Essay #2 - Grade: a PDF

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Personal History Mark Cuban is a well-known entrepreneur who has become quite successful throughout his career. He is the owner of the NBA basketball team the Dallas Mavericks and an effective entrepreneur. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania July 31 st, 1958, Cuban started his venture as a successful businessman early in life. During his adolescent years, Cuban sold garbage bags to earn the money to purchase an expensive pair of basketball shoes. He also started working for himself creating a stamp and coin business during his teenage years, obviously showing interest towards business. Mark Cuban’s family consisted of business deals and entrepreneurial ideas as well. He was aware of his family’s success and was inspired to become a successful entrepreneur. Cuban’s grandfather was successful in immigrating to the United States from Russia by selling goods out of the back of his vehicle, to support his family. Cuban saw this as encouragement to follow is family’s footsteps as an entrepreneur. During Cuban’s junior year of high school, he began taking college courses at the University of Pittsburgh before he fully enrolled as a college student during his Senior year of high school. He began offering dance lessons to make money for himself after he transferred to the University of Indiana his freshman year of college. He had a commitment to pay for his college degree the same way his grandfather had a commitment to earn money to immigrate out of Russia. Cuban had a passion to earn and work for himself effectively as an entrepreneur. Business idea Cuban today is well known for being one of the investors on the ABC television series “Shark Tank”. The series involves a group of investors nicknamed “Sharks”, who invest money towards new products or services that contestants of the show have invented. “Once Cuban entered the Shark Tank, it resulted to an increase of ratings of the show and won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Structured Reality Show (Frost Snow, 2016.”) The show had already been successful, but when Cuban stepped foot inside the show it skyrocketed with success. This was not Cuban’s first time being involved with investing his own money. Several previous events had led up to him airing on television. During 1990, Cuban started a company called MicroSolutions, selling computer software. He eventually sold the company for a profit of over 6 million dollars. 5 years after this success, he created another company called Audionet, an internet radio company he created from an interest towards college basketball games. The company was renamed to Broadcast.com in 1998. The next year, the company aired a Victoria Secret’s fashion show which ultimately helped him sell the company to Yahoo! for 5.7 billion dollars. During 2000, Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks for 285 million dollars after they had suffered management problems. However, Cuban lead the team to earn the NBA title in 2011, providing the team with the motivation they required. “The team qualified for the playoffs in 2001, set a franchise record for wins (57) the following year and made it to the 2006 NBA Finals before losing to the Miami Heat. In 2011, the Mavericks finally won the NBA title by defeating the Heat. (Mark Cuban Biography, 2017.”) During 2011, Cuban was put on the Forbes

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List for the world’s richest people. In 2012, Cuban finally started investing in the ABC television show “Shark Tank”, boosting the show’s popularity tremendously. Cuban had a passion to be successful as an entrepreneur in the business world. Through his experiences, he could make it a reality. Currently, Cuban is still airing on “Shark Tank” and is considered one the most valued sharks. “Before Cuban invested in the show, he knew there was a market for the idea after being successful with Broadcast.com, and being the co-founder of the high definition satellite network AXS T.V. during 2003 (Mark Cuban Biography, 2017.”) It is understandable that Mark Cuban displayed a creative mindset during his career. “The reality is that getting into the zone usually happens when there is a mindset, structure, and lots of repetition (Joe Startup, [APA], n.d.) Cuban had the mindset to be successful in the business world ever since he was an adolescent. He found the structure in business that allowed him to be an effective entrepreneur; and he exhibited repetition when it came to business. Creating several businesses, selling them, and investing in new ones. Strengths of Mark Cuban 

One of Cuban’s biggest strengths is being able to identify who he is. It is important to not lie to yourself. Knowing who you are is an essential part of marketing and building relationships with colleagues. Cuban States, “Many entrepreneurs, he noted, are tremendously gifted at lying to themselves about what they can and can’t do, but that’s dangerous. By being self-aware, you play to your own strengths, and delegate out your weaknesses, and this helps build trust with customers as well as colleagues (Fortune, 2015.”) Mark Cuban is effective at knowing who he is, even at a young age. Cuban identified who he was as a businessman and sold garbage bags to earn money for expensive shoes. He didn’t lie to himself about what he could and couldn’t do; especially while earning money for himself to succeed in college.

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Cuban could empower his team and built relationships with trust. This was essential for him to move forward with his career. “No one has the personal bandwidth to do everything. You must find more personnel to complement you. To help make the company stronger. In a growth environment, the faster things go, the more the trains speed up, the less you’re going to be able to do (Fortune, 2015.”) He didn’t slow down in moving his team forward. He only moved quickly to empower his team. He couldn’t afford to slowly gain motivation with his team, so he made the moves right away to be successful for himself and with others. “Do what you say you are going to do and expect that from everyone else. Your employees will stay around lot longer. Delegate authority only when employees have earned your trust (Joe Startup, [APA], n.d.) Obviously Cuban was successful in creating trust with his employees to empower his team.

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Cuban is also an individual who is nice, which is necessary in the business world. It’s also important for your overall perceived image; especially with employees, employers, and fans. “It’s not surprising that if you are Mark Cuban, you often get stopped on the

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street for selfies and to hear business pitches. Cuban is known to bend for his fans — stopping to sign, listen, or smile – to such a degree that his team questions him on it. He says it’s easier and more fun to be nice than otherwise (Fortune, 2015.”) Empowering employees through being nice is essential. If rude on the other hand, things may go downhill. Delegating authority after earning trust and being nice is essential. “Once employees have gained your trust, delegate decisions. Even if you don’t agree with everyone. Step in on the important decisions when necessary (Joe Startup, [APA], n.d.)

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Weaknesses of Mark Cuban Social media was one of the areas that Mark Cuban displayed his weaknesses. Showing the public how to interact with social media can affect your business career as well. Cuban explains, “Our privacy is disintegrating in a lot of respects. While looking for new recipes for a new cookie product, I came across a hardship. Every person you interact with on social media defines who you are. There are applications now who are collecting every bit of that, and creating profiles about you to anticipate what you will do next (Inc.Video, [APA], n.d.) Cuban mistakenly put information online that made others look at him differently to predict his next move with business opportunities. “Social media has several potential uses in customer communication, including customer service, rumor control, research and relation building. They can also be used for promotion, but that should be done in an indirect, customer-focused manner (Courtland & John, 2015.”) Cuban made the mistake of using promotion in a direct customer manner with the cookie recipes on social media.

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Cuban also misjudged his market and a product which lead to some hardships. It’s important to know your target market and understand your product to earn success with it. “Cuban lost interest in the computer business and began a new idea with powdered milk. He saw an ad for the product and thought everyone needs milk. It’s cost effective and tastes about the same -- why not go for it? As it turned out, his parents were among his only customers. ‘I honestly thought it would make a killer business,’ Cuban recalls, ‘and it lasted minutes’ (Entrepreneur, 2017.”) “Marketing includes the process of creating value for customers and building relationships with those customers to capture value back from them (Courtland & John, 2015.”) Cuban made the mistake of not earning value back from his customers because of his posts from social media.

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Additionally, Cuban never made a good fallback plan for when things began to get tough. “Cuban’s parents encouraged him to learn a trade should he ever need a job to fall back on. Practical advice, except for one small problem. Cuban was pretty bad at most of the jobs he took on. He worked as a carpenter laying down carpet, and quickly discovered he was terrible at it. As a short-order cook, he could only tell when food was ready by sampling it. And as a server, he struggled to open wine bottles without getting corks in

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diners’ Merlots (Entrepreneur, 2017.”) Knowing where to fall back when times get tough is important for success as an entrepreneur. Clearly, Cuban didn’t have a good backup plan during part of his business career.

My strengths 

One of my main strengths includes loving what I do as well as a drive with passion to succeed. Currently, as a college student, I love what I am doing. I am driven with passion to become a business manager and to be successful. “Strengths are positive internal factors that contribute to a company’s success, which can come from a team of expert employees to financial resources to unique technologies (Courtland & John, 2015.”) I do portrait internal factors to lead to my own success in college. This includes getting my homework done and having passion about what I learn and want to learn.

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Another one of my passions includes having an entrepreneurial spirit. Ever since I was in high school, I have loved being involved with buying and selling goods on e-bay. I would Buy goods from local thrift shops and sell them to e-bay to earn profit. “Entrepreneurial spirit is the positive-forward thinking desire to create profitable, sustainable business enterprises (Courtland & John, 2015.”) I am inspired to create a profitable business, even if that means starting out on e-bay.

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An area in which I also have strengths is within professionalism. “Professionalism is the quality of performing at a high level and conducting oneself with purpose and pride (Courtland & John, 2015.”) I have purpose in my life to become successful throughout college and earn a good job. I have pride in what I do and feel accomplished when I can take the steps to achieve my overall goal.

My weaknesses 

Having an exact set plan and knowing my future is one of my general weaknesses. I have no idea what I will do after graduating college with my bachelor’s degree. I tend to procrastinate a lot, which isn’t a great thing to do. What I may do in my future may be completely different from what I may actually do. “Establishing goals and objectives are essential. What do you want to establish long term, and what milestones do we need to reach along the way (Courtland & John, 2015?”) These questions from the book are questions I have not yet answered personally.

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Enforcing those who are acquainted with me is also a weakness of mine. From my past, I’ve found it hard to be firm with people at a job that I have become acquainted with. For example, while working as a line cook at my previous job, it was difficult to tell my coworkers to stay on task when they weren’t. “Being able to move with decisional roles comfortably while performing the basic management functions is just one of the many skills that managers must have. The following actions have a closer look at those four functions—planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (Courtland & John, 2015.”) Controlling is one of the factors I feel that I lack. But to become a manager, you must acquire these skills. However, throughout the future I want to work on this skill. How Cuban and I relate

There are certain ways I can relate myself with Mark Cuban. With my strength of having a passion to succeed; this can clearly relate to Mark Cuban. From a young age, he knew about his family’s success in business and wanted to be a successful businessman as well. He sold trash bags as a child to earn money for himself. I’ve earned money for myself during high school by selling goods such as winter coats, china dining wear, and other miscellaneous items through e-bay. Cuban could empower his team with trust to earn good relationships. He could earn trust with his employees to delegate authority. However, I haven’t been very successful at delegating authority. It was hard for me in the past to tell people at my workplaces to get on task when authority was needed. However, I’d like to change that to become successful in my future. By looking at Mark Cubans experience with this, it motivates me to want to do the same.

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Work Cited Mark Cuban. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2017, from http://frostsnow.com/mark-cuban Who is Mark Cuban? Everything You Need to Know. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2017, from https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/mark-cuban-6743.php Mumford, C. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved September 28, 2017, from https://www.joestartup.com/ Luke, J. W. (2015, October 26). 5 Business lessons from Mark Cuban. Retrieved October 28, 2017, from http://fortune.com/2015/10/26/mark-cuban-growth-summit-entrepreneurship/ Mark Cuban: The Biggest Mistake You Don't Know You're Making On Social Media. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://www.inc.com/mark-cuban/playbook-biggest-mistake-social-media.html What Has Mark Cuban Learned From His 6 Biggest Failures. (2017, July 31). Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/mark-cuban/playbook-biggest-mistake-social-media.html

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