Why billionaire Mark Cuban says it’s good that you’re broke
A lot of people use being broke as an excuse for why they remain broke.
“Gee, if only I had XX number of dollars, everything would be different. I could do this or that and really get my feet under me.”
The end result, of course, is they never shake their financial struggles.
People who use external factors as an excuse stay stuck forever. It’s always someone else’s fault or in someone else’s control.
Others use those challenges as fuel to propel themselves higher than they ever thought possible.
In fact, according to one billionaire, being broke is one of the best things that can ever happen to you.
Allow me to explain.
‘Broke as a joke’
Mark Cuban made his fortune in high tech, used his money to buy the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, and now stars as one of the investors on the hit TV show Shark Tank.
Recently, Cuban gave a wide-ranging interview to GQ magazine in which he reflected on his path to riches.
I touched on this interview already in my piece about why most people are depressed at work, but Cuban said something else that stood out to me and that I thought was worth elaborating on.
In the interview, Cuban explained that he always knew he was an entrepreneur. In his words, it wasn’t a matter of if but when he would start a business.
Some of us are just geared that way. Working for someone else anathema.
But here’s the interesting part:
“The other part of it, and maybe this was the more important part, I was broke.
“I was sleeping on the floor, I only had one direction I could go…”
“You have to have already been thinking about being an entrepreneur or you find yourself in a position where there’s no downside. There was a lot of both for me.”
What did I have to lose by starting a company? I was single, I was broke, I had zero money, like, literally zero money.”
Cuban explained how he needed to borrow $500 at one point just to get the software he needed.
He continued:
“I can’t speak to other people. I don’t know if that’s part of their story. But Daymond John on Shark Tank calls it the power of broke.
“And I was broke as a joke.”
50 shades of broke
Cuban’s answer spoke to me because, not all that long ago, I was broke as a joke too.
But not in the way you think.
I actually had enough money to just get by and support my family — a family I loved deeply and took good care of — but I was broke mentally, emotionally, and physically.
I had lost myself as an individual.
I was effectively an alcoholic, drinking away my dissatisfaction with my unfilled potential and boring job.
My body was starting to fall apart as a result.
And I had lost perhaps the most important thing of all: optimism.
I looked around and thought, “is this it? Go do unfulfilling work during the day to just get by and get kind of drunk every night?”
A year later, I’ve quit drinking, I eat better, I’m in the best shape of my life, and, most importantly, I’ve built a multiple five-figure content business en route to what I hope is total autonomy and an adios to uninspiring commuter life.
But I would never be in this spot without being broke as a joke, just like billionaire Mark Cuban was at one point.
And I’m just getting warmed up.
Take heart
So if you’re feeling low right now, if you’re feeling broke, take heart.
Sometimes we just have to get low enough that it prompts massive action in the other direction.
As I wrote in this piece earlier this week, being “comfortable”, making just enough to get by without having to try very hard — that’s the biggest trap of all. Those are the folks who are really in a bad place.
Being broke can be a gift.
But you have to use it.
This article is republished from my Medium publication Famously Wealthy.
My top 5 trending stories:
100% ... it's easier just to make an excuse than do actual work
People who moan about not having enough money but find time to watch 30 hours of TV a week. (Including Shark Tank aka in UK as Dragons Den)