Mark Cuban Gets It!

Mark Cuban definitely gets it! Mark is yet another example of an individual who understands that there is a very real economic downturn occurring, but he has chosen to prosper nevertheless. And, prosper in the full dimensions of the word!

Mark Cuban is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the last twenty years. He was the co-founder of MicroSolutions, a leading national systems integrator, which he later sold to CompuServe. Mark subsequently co-founded Broadcast.com, the leading provider of multimedia and streaming on the internet. That company was sold to Yahoo just four years later for five billion dollars worth of Yahoo stock! Two years later, Cuban co-founded HDNet, an all high-definition television network on DIRECTV.

In January of 2000, Mark purchased the Dallas Mavericks and quickly turned that NBA basketball team into a perennial championship contender. Mark holds the record for owner fines from the NBA for his proclivity to "tell it like it is." Love him or hate him, one has to respect all that Mark has accomplished in his business career.

Recently, Mark posted a great challenge on his blog, Blog Maverick. He calls his challenge the Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan Open Source Funding. He challenges entrepreneurs to post business plans that will stimulate other entrepreneurs, because of his belief that entrepreneurs will play a key role in leading the way out of this downturn.

Now besides offering to fund a plan(s) he really likes, Cuban is stimulating entrepreneurs with both his challenge and his very thoughtful list of business requirements. His requirements focus on creating a business model that is quickly cash flow positive. In a world where so many are looking for bailouts and handouts, I so love Mark Cuban's idea of getting people focused on self-help (my December post on self-rescue has turned out to be one of the most popular of the posts todate).

Just with his challenge, Mark Cuban is likely to stimulate a whole bunch of businesses created to prosper in these tough times. Brilliant. Just plain brilliant!

Mark Cuban definitely "gets it."

Coming Next: I will be saluting executive coach Ken Potalivo in the next installment of my series on examples of individuals, from all walks of life, who "get it." The series starts here.