Episode 481: Mark Cuban's 5:30 AM Success Formula: How a Billionaire Structures His Day for Maximum Impact

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Habits and Hustle – Episode 481

Title: Mark Cuban's 5:30 AM Success Formula: How a Billionaire Structures His Day for Maximum Impact
Date: September 5, 2025
Host: Jennifer Cohen
Guest: Mark Cuban

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Episode Overview

In this lively episode, Jennifer Cohen sits down with billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban to dissect the habits, routines, and philosophies that fuel his success. Cuban is candid about his daily structure, philosophies on sleep, fitness, family, and why “sales cures all.” The conversation ranges from tactical time management to entrepreneurship dos and don’ts, punctuated throughout with Mark’s trademark humor, pragmatism, and straight-talk.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mark Cuban’s Daily Routine & Scheduling

• Wake-Up Rituals

  • Cuban wakes at 5:30 or 6:00 AM, especially during the school year for his children.
  • “You probably should admit this, but like I’ll get up at 5:36, particularly during the school year. My kids are going to school.” (Mark, 02:07)
  • Checking and responding to email is always the very first task.

• Email Habits

  • Mark spends 1.5–2 hours on emails early each morning and continues to prioritize emails throughout the day.
  • "No matter where I’m at, if I’m eating whatever, I’m always doing my email." (Mark, 07:18)
  • He claims exceptional email accessibility, rarely leaving inquiries unanswered unless it’s spam or annoyance.

• Flexible Family Time

  • Cuban structures travel and commitments around his family:
    • “I’d rather spend time with my family.” (Mark, 02:43)
    • Schedules TV shoots (like Shark Tank) for when his kids are traveling.

• Power Napping and Sleep Tracking

  • Emphasizes listening to his body. If tired after his email session, he’ll return to bed:
    • “I get my email done and...go back to sleep? Yeah.” (Mark, 04:22)
  • Tracks sleep with his Apple Watch, wary of more cumbersome tech like Oura rings or Whoop.

• Night Owl Tendencies

  • Goes to bed around midnight to 1:30 AM.
  • “I’m not one of these people that’s just like, oh, I just gotta slug it out, whatever.” (Mark, 04:26)

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2. Strategic Use of Technology

• Email Over Meetings/Calls:

  • Prefers written communication over meetings or calls for searchability and record-keeping.
    • “I really, really don’t [do calls/meetings] because...there’s no record of it. I can’t. It’s not searchable.” (Mark, 04:53)
  • Entrepreneurial lesson: structure business for asynchronous, recordable communication.

• Encrypted Messaging (Dust App):

  • Advocates for using Dust, an encrypted, auto-delete messaging platform, for sensitive information.
    • “With Dust, when you send a message… it’s never stored on a hard drive anywhere. There’s no way to retrieve it.” (Mark, 06:07)
  • Points out privacy shortcomings in alternatives like Snapchat, Instagram, and Telegram.

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3. Fitness and Health Habits

• Exercise Routine:

  • Exercises 6–7 times a week: basketball, Rise Nation, Peloton, treadmill, Zumba classes.
    • “One or the other, six times a week, sometimes seven.” (Mark, 11:43)
  • Uses Move points (Apple Watch) to reach 1,000 per day, burning approx. 3,000 calories.

• Personal Favorites:

  • Loves low-impact, high-results classes (Rise Nation) and group fitness.
  • Even attends Zumba classes for fun and social perks:
    • “Back when I started, it was like three guys and 80 women...just the ultimate distraction.” (Mark, 12:10)
    • “That’s where I met my wife” (sort of – clarifies, it was via basketball at the gym). (Mark, 12:24)

• Diet and Tracking:

  • Vegetarian, occasionally eats fish, avoids fried foods & sweets (except Alyssa's Cookies and Mush).
  • Meticulously logs his food on MyFitnessPal, aims for 2,000–2,200 calories.
  • Focus on iron intake: “At lunch, I'll get these little cups of Rice Krispies…It’s got like, 70% of the iron. And then iron’s absorbed better with vitamin C, so I’ll drink orange juice.” (Mark, 09:15)

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4. Entrepreneurial Mindset and Advice

• Common Entrepreneurial Mistakes:

  • Most fail due to misguided self-deception and focusing on vanity metrics (raising money, top-line revenue) instead of fundamentals (sweat equity, gross margin).
    • “Raising money is not an accomplishment. It’s an obligation.” (Mark, 13:22)
    • “The second mistake people make is they push the top line instead of the bottom line.” (Mark, 13:35)
    • “If you get caught up in growth, you can grow yourself out of business.” (Mark, 15:58)

• What Really Matters:

  • True business health is measured by bottom line, not just growth.

• Sales is Everything:

  • Signature mantra:
    • “Sales cures all.” (Mark, 17:22)
    • Expansion: If you can sell, you have a business. If you can’t, you fail.
    • “No company’s ever succeeded without sales.” (Mark, 17:31)

• Founder Responsibilities:

  • CEOs/founders must sell—no exceptions.
    • Mark recounts failures of previous bosses who refused to participate in sales, all of whom saw their ventures fail.
    • “The CEOs, the owners, the founders that didn’t sell, they all failed. With no exceptions.” (Mark, 19:32)
  • Warns against "hiring home runs":
    • Outsourcing core problems to others rarely works—instead, founders must intimately understand and drive their business forward.

• Optimism and Resilience:

  • Encourages listeners to consider big impact:
    • “I always tell entrepreneurs…just ask yourself a question. Why not me? Why can’t I be the one that just changes everything? Because one of them’s going to.” (Mark, 16:17)
  • Resilience quote:
    • “Doesn’t matter how many times you fail. You only got to be right one time.” (Mark, 16:47)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Schedule Independence:
  • “Everybody works to my schedule.” (Mark, 04:31)
• On Blocking Time Wasters:
  • “When I just block them, which is a great feature that Gmail added, you just hit block.” (Mark, 08:08)
• On Entrepreneurship Fads:
  • “I feel like it’s become like the sexy thing to do now, the word entrepreneurship.” (Jen, 15:59)
  • “If 90% fail, 10% could change the world.” (Mark, 16:09)
• On Delegating Sales:
  • “When you’re just starting and it’s just you, who else is going to sell?” (Mark, 19:40)
• On Common Sense:
  • “It’s pragmatic…common sense but common sense isn’t so common.” (Mark, 20:15)

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Important Timestamps

• Wake-Up and Morning Routine: 02:07–04:22
• Sleep Habits & Tracking: 03:13–04:22
• Email & Communication Philosophy: 04:43–05:10
• Privacy & Technology Tools: 05:11–06:56
• Fitness & Nutrition Habits: 08:18–12:21
• Entrepreneurship Insights: 12:33–20:16
• Notable Quotes (“Sales cures all”): 17:22–17:38

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Conclusion

This episode offers an unfiltered look at how Mark Cuban structures his daily life for productivity, balance, and impact—without prescriptive self-help platitudes. His approach is relentlessly practical, whether it’s in managing sleep, leveraging tech, staying fit, or building companies. Cuban’s key message: focus on what matters most (family, fundamentals, sales), put your ego aside, and don’t be afraid to be both direct and different.

A must-listen for anyone seeking both tactical routines and honest mindset shifts on the entrepreneurial journey.

Transcript

[A]

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

[B]

Hey friends. You're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up.

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

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[A]

It's.

[B]

Head over to therassage.com right now and use code be bold for 15% off this code will work site wide again. Head over to Therasage T H E R A s a g e.com and use code be bold for 15% off any of their products. Like your schedule between the Shark, Shark Tank, all those companies doing like these things, I mean like what time are you waking up in the morning?

[A]

6, 5:36.

[B]

Like what's the day like? Give me a day in the life.

[A]

You probably should admit this, but like I'll get up at 5:36, particularly during the school year. My kids are going to school.

[B]

You have three kids?

[A]

Yeah. 12, 15 and 18. Yeah.

[B]

Are you involved? Do you see these kids? Because how are you able to do all.

[A]

I don't travel that much unless they're out doing stuff right now. My middle daughter Alyssa's at camp. My wife and my youngest son Jake, who's 12 are in Iceland right now. They went on a trip because while I'm shooting Shark Tank, that's when they all know to go do their trips.

[B]

That's a good idea.

[A]

Yeah. And then my oldest is on a trip as well, so with her class and so all, you know, so while we're shooting, they're gone. And so that's when I pack everything.

[B]

In and then you do everything.

[A]

Yeah, but otherwise, you know, I can do one day trips here and one day trips there because, you know, I'd rather spend time with my family.

[B]

So you, so you are like. You spend a lot of time with your.

[A]

Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. That's the best part of my life.

[B]

Okay, so tell me the day. Give me your daily. You wake up at. You said six o', clock.

[A]

Wake up. Yeah. 5:30, six. Do you know, say hi to everybody, get everybody going to school if that's what's up. And then do my email and typically get back in bed, do my email, get through any emergencies, go back, take a nap.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah. Oh yeah.

[B]

So wait, so you did the emails first before you do anything else? Right. I saw that you'd said that a bunch of times.

[A]

And you know I've got an iwatch like you. Right. So I look at my sleep.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So I wear it while I sleep.

[B]

So do you wear an aura, ring or anything?

[A]

No, that I didn't. Yeah. I didn't get the.

[B]

I'm surprised because you love all the.

[A]

I love all the technology and stuff. Yeah. But I just didn't get the feedback the way, you know, I tried a whoop and just the data.

[B]

Yeah, I didn't like that either. So it was also like cumbersome.

[A]

Yeah, it was a pain in the ass. Right.

[B]

Terrible.

[A]

Yeah. And so I get good data with this and yeah, whoop wasn't awful. But I already had this. Right.

[B]

So you know. Exactly. Like then you're just constantly like looking at all these different things.

[A]

Right. And it's not just exercise stuff. I can get stock prices and all shit. Right, Absolutely. And so I'll see how much sleep I got. You know, because you don't really. You might feel okay and you don't, you know, when you didn't sleep, but sometimes you don't know how much sleep you got.

[B]

100. Exactly.

[A]

And so like if I got my 200 deep, deepest sleep. Right. My two miles, two hours rather, then I'm usually pretty good. Right, right.

[B]

So wait, what time do you go to bed at night?

[A]

Typically anywhere from midnight to 1:30.

[B]

Okay. And then you wake up around. Okay. So you get like you're in bed for five, six hours. Yeah.

[A]

And then if, like if I didn't really get good sleep.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Then I get my email done and.

[B]

Go back to bed.

[A]

Go back to sleep? Yeah.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I am so shocked.

[A]

Yeah. So I get an hour. Like I'm not one of these people that's just like, oh, I just gotta slug it out, whatever.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Cause remember, everybody's got Kiss my Ass.

[B]

Yeah, right. I love you so much. Yes, they do.

[A]

You know, they might say not. Right. And I might not like it because I hate that. But everybody works to my schedule.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

You know, it's like, I love you. Tomorrow? Yeah, sure. Okay. Can you come over now? Sure. Now. And I don't really do meetings or calls. I really, really don't because.

[B]

Waste of time.

[A]

Yeah. And plus, like, there's no record of it. I can't. It's not searchable because I have so much shit going on that I want to be able to go back and look and say, okay, when did Jen hit me up last? And you know, what were we talking about? What was the topic?

[B]

So you like to have it in writing?

[A]

Yeah, I like to have it so it's searchable.

[B]

Which is different than that Dust thing that you're involved.

[A]

Yeah, Dust is like a real time version of a face to face. So with Dust, it's important because there's certain business things that I want to talk about that we're not going to be face to face. But I don't want it to. An email.

[B]

Right.

[A]

I don't want there to be a record of a phone call.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

You know, because let's say we're getting ready to fire somebody or you know, there's a lawsuit. You know that, that I get sued a lot. No, hardly ever.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Hardly ever.

[B]

Your level?

[A]

Yeah, less than 10 times my entire life. And you know, half of them were garbage. Yeah.

[B]

That is. That's incredible, by the way.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Never heard of such a thing. Yeah, I mean, you're kind of like.

[A]

Well, yeah, and I never see people either. It's just not worth the hassle.

[B]

I know. It's probably like, it's worth. It's like the time and energy and the money that it actually takes.

[A]

It's not worth it. Um, but yeah, so I use Dust all the time. You can hit me up on their blog, Maverick. You know, I answer questions just because I want to support the platform, but you know, it's just because I want some things to be private.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And you know, with Dust, when you send a message, it auto. You can delete it when you want or it auto deletes, but it's never stored on a hard drive anywhere. And so there's just no way to retrieve it, period. End of story.

[B]

So I never even heard of this before I started, like digging deep into your life. Like, I mean, I didn't realize, like, this is like a thing. Like people are using it and it's Amir did you even know it existed? Oh, sorry.

[A]

Well, yeah, it's been around like eight years.

[B]

Genius. That's why.

[A]

You know.

[B]

But like. But it sounded like Snapchat to me when I.

[A]

In some respects. But Snapchat still keeps everything. Right. It might disappear, but it's on their server somewhere.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Right. Same with Instagram and vanish mode or whatever.

[B]

Right.

[A]

The other ones. Right. Telegram, you can set it to delete so the other people don't see it. But you know, if there's a subpoena because you were doing some business deal and somebody wants to get those records, it's still possible to get them.

[B]

Oh, wow. Okay, so go back to your schedule. So you wake up at six o'.

[A]

Clock, you do your email, take a nap. If I'm tired.

[B]

How long is the email part? Like a half an hour. An hour?

[A]

No, an hour and a half. Two hours. Oh my gosh. Okay, so that's from like 6 to 8pm Right. But when.

[B]

I'm glad you're doing.

[A]

Yeah, just laying in bed, whatever.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And then go get my Alyssa's cookies.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Some water.

[B]

How about coffee? Do you drink coffee?

[A]

No, I'm not coffee drinker. No.

[B]

Tea?

[A]

Sometimes I'll drink tea, but usually just water. And then if I have anything to do, then I'll just go do it. If it's Monday, Wednesday or Friday, I try to set time to go play basketball, then back about 2pm and back to my email and. And no matter where I'm at, if I'm eating whatever, I'm always doing my email.

[B]

Always.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I cannot believe how accessible and easy. It's unbelievable. If I email you, I will get it. If I don't get a response in like the 5, 10 minutes, I would think. I think, oh, he's just going to like, he doesn't.

[A]

Yeah, typically that's true.

[B]

Either he just deleted my email or like something was actually wrong with you because you were so accessible. Like, unbelievable.

[A]

Yeah, I take pride in it because, you know, you should. Unless someone's just like being annoying or pitch me or whatever. When I just block them, which is a great feature that Gmail added, you just hit block.

[B]

It's a great one. So you're right.

[A]

But yeah, then I'll try to respond.

[B]

So then, okay, so you go back to bed. If not, then you have basketball. When did you work out? Because I thought like, well, so I.

[A]

Set my move points to try to get a thousand move points a day.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And that typically gets me to 3,000 calories. A day. And then I also.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, wow. Okay. Well, you eat besides the Alyssa cookies that I know you're obsessed with.

[A]

You know, I've got a woman who makes me natural foods. Right. So.

[B]

Because you're a vegan, right?

[A]

Just vegetarian.

[B]

Vegetarian, yeah.

[A]

So I like eggplants. I'll put cheese on eggplant. So my little version of eggplant parmesan. But I use my fitness pal to track all of my. Everything that I eat. So I try to keep it to 2,000 to 20, 200 calories.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And so you can never get the calories exactly right. You know, and the tracking is never exactly right.

[B]

So it's a round, like.

[A]

Yeah. So it's a close enough. Approximation. Approximation that it works for me.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And it makes me, you know, keeps me good. I try to make sure that I get enough iron because I'm vegetarian. So, you know, I'll typically, at lunch or maybe after the cookies, I'll get one of these little cups of Rice Krispies. And that is one serving plus little bit, 140 calories. But it's got, like, 70% of the iron.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And then iron is absorbed better if you drink it. If you have it with vitamin C. So I'll drink a glass of orange juice with it.

[B]

Oh, so you're doing all. So basically, when did you become a vegetarian?

[A]

Like, four years ago.

[B]

Is it because of a health.

[A]

No, not an issue. Just because I wanted to feel better. You know, supposedly it reduced inflammation. I've had both my hips replaced. You know, I'm still playing basketball, so I'm going to be sore and, you know, so it makes me feel better.

[B]

Do you feel better?

[A]

Oh, yeah. It's night and day.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. You know, I don't eat meat or, you know, sometimes I'll eat fish. Like, if I'm starving, I have no choice.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But typically I won't. And then, you know, I won't eat fried foods, and I try to avoid sweets, which is almost impossible. So my strategy is to always have a thing of Alyssa's cookies out. So when my kids have all the garbage on our counter, then I can grab an Alyssa's.

[B]

So you really are, like, that obsessed with these cookies? Because I've heard you talk about them, too. Like, that's how I was for, like, a good year about these cookies. They are that good, though.

[A]

That good, yeah.

[B]

Do you eat mush? Mush? Whatever.

[A]

You eat mush? Yeah, mush in the fridge, too.

[B]

You have that, too. And then. Okay, so let's get back to the exercise. So do you do you're an investor maybe in Rise Nation or you're not.

[A]

An investor in Rise Nation? I love Rise Nation.

[B]

Yes. It's a hard workout.

[A]

Yeah. You get to go your own speed. Right. So.

[B]

Right. But the versa climbers, like, it's also like.

[A]

But you know the beauty of it, one is low impact.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, so you're not going to feel your joints, you're not going to hurt that at all.

[B]

Body too.

[A]

Yeah. And it's full body. Right. Because you're moving legs and arms. But you know, when you first start, you know, in a 30 minute class, you might get a thousand steps.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then you build it to 1500, then you build to 2000, then 3500, then 4000. Right. And then the superstars can do more. But your cardio, like I don't get tired when I play basketball anymore.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Because you know, I can go on a peloton bike and just crank through 30 minute class or 45 minute class.

[B]

And do you do peloton then too?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So you do everything. You're very like, you're very versatile.

[A]

Well, just accessibility. Right. So if I'm on the road sometimes there's not going to be a versa climb, you know, there's not going to be a Rise Nation there. So I'll do peloton either the, the treadmill or um, the bike. And lots of times when I'm doing the bike, you know, I try to go, if I'm just cruising, I try to hit the 180 average output or 190. And if I'm really pushing, I'll try to do 200, 210 and then, you know, just, you know, but you know, it's great, it's a great workout.

[B]

I want to show you something. There's like a thing. Have you seen the hit axle before? I'm going to show this to you. You're going to love it a lot. A lot of the athletes are using it and sports teams use it. I'll show it to you.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

It's like a side thing, but so you're doing. How many times a week would you say you work out besides the basketball?

[A]

Six, you know. Well, basketball's a workout.

[B]

It's a huge work.

[A]

Yeah. Ye workout. But so one or the other six times a week, sometimes seven.

[B]

Do you still work out at Lifetime Fitness?

[A]

Yeah, I play basketball. Yeah.

[B]

That is so funny. We don't have any here in la. Really, It's. No. And they should bring It. Because it's the best gym.

[A]

It's nice as long as they have a basketball court.

[B]

It's a huge basketball. And they have every piece of equipment.

[A]

Yeah, they got everything.

[B]

They don't. I'm telling you, the west here, then.

[A]

I take Zumba classes on Saturday morning. Hell, yeah.

[B]

Oh, my God, that is so fun.

[A]

And you know, because way back when, when I started, it was like three guys and 80 women. And so it's just like. It's just the ultimate.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Just the ultimate distraction.

[B]

That's actually a great. That's a great place for guys to go to meet girls.

[A]

That's where I met my wife.

[B]

At a Zumba class.

[A]

No, no, no. Playing basketball. Yeah.

[B]

At that gym class. That is how you've been married for what, 20 years.

[A]

20 years, yeah.

[B]

Wow. And so. Okay, so let's get back to the. This is with entrepreneur. Let's ask some more entrepreneurial questions, since we should probably do that. What do you. So would you say the number one. Not to pivot that hard, but, like, would you say the number one reason why people are failing then is because their lack of ability to work hard and kind of dig in. What would it be?

[A]

No, I'd say they're misguided and they sell themselves. They lie to themselves when they start. Right. Oh, I think this business is good. Everybody goes through that same process with a new business. You know, hey, what do you think about this idea?

[B]

Right.

[A]

Then you go on Google and you look at how I don't see it. It's great. Of course, no one tells you that it's not there because 50 companies have failed doing the same thing, and there's nothing left to show that they died. But, you know, then you get excited, you check with your friends, and then they try to raise money.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's what screws them up. Right. Raising money is not an accomplishment, it's an obligation.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, if at all possible, you want to start just organically with sweat equity. Those are the best businesses because you get to get to retain 100% of it.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You know, and there's no rush. And then the second mistake people make is they push the top line instead of the bottom line. Or gross margin dollars.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, it's like, oh, I'm a million in sales. Like that's an accomplishment. Or 10 million. Or like, if you've raised funding, you have your quote unquote KPI's. Right. Right. Or what is. What's the new one? Q O KS or something. There's something ridiculous. That QKP, I don't know, they always come up with these acronyms.

[B]

What is it?

[A]

Qkp. I don't know. Just the one I started seeing. And so everybody's like, oh, yeah, you know, and they think it's an accomplishment if you're doing. I went from 1 million to 5 million in sales. Okay, that's somewhat great. But what matters is what's your gross margin?

[B]

Right.

[A]

Because if you're in that hamster wheel where you're growing, but you need to keep on raising money to grow.

[B]

Right.

[A]

That's not good. No. You see what's happening now when people can't raise money, you're done. You know, and while others have said, well, you know, I've, you know, raised 30 million or 50 or $100 million. Unless you have a really good reason, you know, that you're relativity space and you need to raise money because you're building, you know, 80 foot tall 3D printers.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[A]

You're not going to do that out of your basement. But for most entrepreneurs, it's something where they're, it's an arbitrage on their time.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right. Here's. I can do this more efficiently than Jen or Mark can. So it's worth it for Jen or Mark to buy this product or service from me so that they can use their time more efficiently. So you'll pay. So, you know, effectively, I'm so efficient that my cost to do this is $10. You value it at 25, I sell it at 18. We're both happy. Yeah, right. Most people sell an arbitrage on their time and, but they don't. That's basically what their product or service is. But they don't look at it that way. They look at it say, okay, I'm creating this, you know, I'm going to open up my own training facility. Right. Because I'm a personal trainer and I have 40 clients and I need a place to take them. Why not open my own? I'll get six others. Or I have a beauty salon and I'll get, you know, I'll have slots for eight other stylists to come in and rent a spot.

[B]

Right, right.

[A]

They don't think it through that you got to make money at this stuff. Right. It's not just about top line, it's bottom line. And I think that's where most entrepreneurs make their mistake. And, you know, you get caught. And if you get caught up in growth, you can grow yourself out of business.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And most people don't realize that.

[B]

That's true. I also do think that people, like. I feel like it's become like the sexy thing to do now. The word entrepreneurs, like, I hope so sexy.

[A]

You know, so. Right.

[B]

Because of you, actually. Shark Tank.

[A]

No, Shark Tank has definitely. But, you know, if 90% fail, 10% could change the world.

[B]

Yes. And look like the cost plus, it's going to probably change the world. Yeah.

[A]

You know, I always tell entrepreneurs, you know, or when I talk to kids, I always tell them, you know, just ask yourself a question. Why not me? Why can't I be the one that just changes everything? Because one of them's going to. And even though, you know, some might feel entitled, some might not do the work, some may be lazy and not realize how much work is involved to be an entrepreneur. That happens, you're going to find the same thing if you're a carpenter, a videographer, you know, an editor, where some people don't do the work and the great ones do.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And, you know, and. But, you know, I. This is cliche now, but I say it all the time. Doesn't matter how many times you fail. You only got to be right one time.

[B]

That's the 100. You have a lot of these, like, good. Yeah, I know, I know. I love. I love them. Like. Well, how you do anything is how you do everything.

[A]

Yeah. That one I stole. Yeah.

[B]

That one really wasn't yours. There's one whole on. I have one here that I really liked. Hold on a minute. Which one was it? Because you have so many good ones, most people don't put the. Which one was it? Practice until you. Well, that one I'm not.

[A]

I stole that one. Yeah.

[B]

Was that Nick Saban actually practice?

[A]

Yeah. That's been around a long time.

[B]

Oh, which one's selling? You have one on selling Sales cures all. Yes.

[A]

Yeah, that one's mine.

[B]

That's yours. So basically what you mean is, like, as long as you can, if you can sell, then that's all it really matters. Right. Then you're gold.

[A]

Yeah. You're good.

[B]

Right, Right.

[A]

Because no company's ever succeeded without sales.

[B]

Right. You need sales no matter what.

[A]

Otherwise you're out of business before you start.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Sales cures off.

[B]

So does that mean that, like, you have to be a good salesperson as well? Yeah.

[A]

Yes. Because if it's your baby and you don't love it enough to be able to sell it or figure out how to sell it, it's awful tough.

[B]

Well, look at you, right? Like, you're already established and you're going on all these things, promoting these companies that you're involved with. Like most people don't have that kind of ethic to do that work ethic. They get bored. They think they're too good for it now. They don't want to do it.

[A]

I don' lot of these, but not podcast.

[B]

But you're out there like, you know, talking about whatever.

[A]

Whatever. Yeah, well, I mean, look, I've got a platform that most people don't have.

[B]

Well, yeah, but, but it brings, for sure. Yeah, but it brings up more dollars than most people.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

That's a whole other.

[A]

But I wasn't always in that position.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And so even, you know, back in the day when I had microsolutions, my first company after I got fired, like one of the things I learned, I learned a lot from companies I got fired from most of them. It was like, what not to do. You know, I had a boss that, my boss that fired me, a guy named Michael Humecki at the software store and Huml.

[B]

Exactly. At the software store. I love it. Yeah.

[A]

Anyways, that went out of business three months later. You fucked up, Michael. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for doing it. Yeah, but like he would never go on sales calls.

[B]

He would never see. He probably thought he was too good for it.

[A]

He was the CEO.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I had another job, same thing. Guy named David, I forget his last name, but he told me where to buy a suit when I was buying my suits too for 99, you know, and I was. My shirts, I would wear button down shirts, but I bought them at this place called the Clothes Horse, which is all resale. So like I went five years before I bought my first business shirt that someone hadn't worn before.

[B]

Oh, really? Wow.

[A]

I learned, you know, you got to sell.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because in my experiences, the CEOs, the owners, the founders that didn't sell, they all failed.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

With no exceptions, 100% of them failed. And you know, when you're just starting and it's just you, who else is going to sell?

[B]

Nobody.

[A]

And that's the other, you know, and that leads to another mistake entrepreneurs make. They, they try to hit hiring home runs. Right. So when the minute they hit a roadblock, I'll just hire, you know, I'll hire a new marketing person. Right. Or I'll hire a new head of sales. Hope thinking that, oh, this person's amazing. No one's ever hired somebody and said they suck really bad.

[B]

Of course.

[A]

Right. Oh, I found the most amazing person. Why'd they leave the last five jobs. Oh, they were amazing, But. Right.

[B]

That's such a good point. See, that's what I love, how your brain works. It's like. Exactly. It's so true. It's so practical. And common sense.

[A]

It's pragmatic.

[B]

Yeah, right, common sense. But common sense isn't so common.