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93 Comments
- webresources, on 07/19/2008, -5/+51Nice article but don't agree with the 1st fact. If the job you're doing is an obsession than you may never see the truth or look at it objectively and go in the wrong direction without understanding it.
For me, loving the job is great but obsession is not. - Wakuko, on 07/20/2008, -12/+50"If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista... ask yourself why, then use it."
Best advice ever... - AmyVernon, on 07/20/2008, -1/+21swag and PR comments are spot on.... i only wear promotional Tshirts if their from my own company or if i'm doing something where I don't care what going to happen to it. i won't wear it in public...
- inactive, on 07/20/2008, -0/+20Dugg you up for a valid argument, but I don't agree. Startups that succeed eat, sleep and breath the service they are building. Without obsession, the first few (inevitable) hurdles would be insurmountable, as it can get very tough to keep yourself and team motivated. Obsession is a powerful thing.
- spoogieking012, on 07/20/2008, -1/+16you have to believe him. after all, he just bought all of sports.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/mark_cuban_bu ... - inactive, on 07/19/2008, -2/+16Can someone be "objectively obsessed"? lol
- lordmike, on 07/20/2008, -4/+16Disagree about the offices thing... especially for tech startups... programmers need a place to themselves where they won't be disturbed. They need privacy to be focused on their work. Open offices don't work for programmers.
- inactive, on 07/20/2008, -0/+11What! No Hawaiian Shirt Fridays?
- bxblox, on 07/20/2008, -1/+11Nothing I hate more than a random over the shoulder "watcha workin on there"
- inactive, on 07/20/2008, -0/+9Open office works fine for programmers, as long as people respect the "headphones on = do not disturb" rule.
Phillip. - alapoet, on 07/20/2008, -0/+9webresources >>For me, loving the job is great but obsession is not
Tell that to Steve Jobs. - AnthonyC, on 07/20/2008, -3/+12Mark Cuban rules. In college we sent him a Q/A for our school paper (I was the sports editor) and he sent the questions back with full paragraph answers. Very thoughtful responses and a worthwhile "interview". It was nice for him to take the time to answer questions for a small college paper in the midwest.
- monsieurginger, on 07/20/2008, -3/+1213. Do it in Israel. Every month an Israeli start-up is bought by an American giant for tens of millions and you can start you retirement early.
- richiewrt, on 07/20/2008, -1/+9or wait 2 months and she will dump you.
- retop56, on 07/20/2008, -0/+8He forgot to say go ballistic when one of your employees gets fouled and the ref doesn't call it.
- disrupter, on 07/20/2008, -3/+1013. Dump the girlfriend
- ebob9, on 07/20/2008, -0/+7This is all well and good, unless your startup is a PR firm targeted at empire-building executives who really like coffee.
- booyahbitch, on 07/20/2008, -2/+9This guy started ONE ***** business and sold it at the start of the DOTCOM boom...he don't know ***** about a startup. I would sooner take Lucille Ball's advice!
- tblanchard, on 07/20/2008, -1/+6This junk about how hours==productivity and loving what you do must mean its all you do every day is BS. You need life balance.
"Well, I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while!" replies Groucho. - Snakedal337, on 07/20/2008, -0/+5Didn't this guy just say not to have my company hire you?
- HenryFatass, on 07/20/2008, -1/+6Mark Cuban is incredibly lucky, and he'd be the first to admit that, but broadcast.com was not his first start up. Do a little research before hitting caps lock...
- inactive, on 07/20/2008, -1/+6I'd avoid any 'SEO' firm that spams digg like the plague. If this is how they promote themselves, you can expect the same for their clients.
- conjuror1972, on 07/20/2008, -2/+7what's an expresso? Time to get out of texas...
- str3ama, on 07/20/2008, -3/+7"NEVER EVER EVER hire a PR firm"
If you're dealing in anything controversial or need promotion, you'll want a PR team - it makes a difference. If you don't have one, you better have a damn good marketing strategy and a really good set of connections to get the word out about your startup. I'd agree it's unnecessary for small startups or companies or for startups that don't deal with consumers directly.
"there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know."
Yea but realize that the costs involved in getting the licenses can sometimes exceed the cost of just getting a commercial license for an open source program, which you can then train your staff in. Which brings to a point he never brought up..
-Only hire employees who can adapt.
As a startup if you're starting off small, make sure that all or most of the employees are not only committed to the goal of your project but are actually willingly to take on new roles or learn what they need to as they go - not everyone can do this or is willingly to, so you may want to ensure they're willing and capable before you take them on. - CivicTV, on 08/14/2009, -1/+5Mark? Is that you?
Oh . . . its his brother. - sippykup, on 07/20/2008, -0/+4I disagree. I'm using Open Office 2.3 and it works pretty well for me.
;-) - TheSwashbuckler, on 07/20/2008, -1/+52. If you have an exit strategy, its not an obsession.
- Versh, on 07/20/2008, -0/+4I disagree. Part of being obsessed is being unusually knowledgeable to your field, not out of necessity, but through compulsion. Being obsessed means having the ambition to study and surpass the competition, or just ignore them once you've decided what you want. Either way, the obsessed are well informed.
- Fedaykin311, on 07/20/2008, -0/+4Needing undisturbed work time does not equate to being unable to work as a team.
- gothicform, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3See what he means is the best ones are obsessions that somehow become jobs. Do you think originally people like Steve Jobs planned to build massive empires? Nah, him and the Woz were a couple of kids who liked making computers and saw the chance for getting a little pocket money on the side. Somewhere along the line what they were doing for fun, and almost free, boomed. At this point some accountant tells you you're actually a millionaire, you take a reality check and realise your obsession that you could well have been doing part-time in between your real job is taking over that too.
I agree with Cuban on every single one of his points. I still do sales calls myself because I like adding the personal touch for clients, we don't have a PR, buy swag, use the cheapest technology but always the best we can get for the money too by building the solutions ourselves, people are hired on the basis of enthusiasm above all and how well they will fit in with an existing small tight knit team, there is no exit strategy and the company is and always has been profitable from the word go with no debt.
Imagine a dot.com with no debt? The advantage, and this is where we get to the exit strategy is someone has offered me several millions of dollars for a chunk of one of them. I sell 25%, I retain control, they get a good investment, and I get a few million in my bank account so the exit strategy has in a way appeared as the business progressed. The funny thing though is all that happened by accident, i never set out to make money that way, I am a journalist. It happened because it is my obsession. - inactive, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3Only if it was that easy.
- trousercustard, on 07/21/2008, -0/+3I'm pretty sure most of the world DOESN'T think it's expresso. Most of the civilised world, that is.
- FatBird19, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3Also disagree with #2. If you have an exit strategy, that just means you're a responsible and sensible person!
This market is so competitive; to assume that you're not going to fail if you give it 110% is just a stupid plan! - AnthonyC, on 07/20/2008, -1/+4You should try college, its fun.
- MadHarvey, on 07/20/2008, -1/+4Yes, college kids are above interviewing successful business men. I mean, once you're in college, you're like half way to being a billionaire already, so why bother asking questions?
- inactive, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3A "Couple" rules to old Mark is actually 12 rules.
- ligyron, on 07/20/2008, -2/+5This isn't a businessman. It's clearly just a nerd in disguise. I stopped reading the article after I read that line.
- bdbr, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3I noticed the misspelling, too. I think it just means he's not a coffee guy.
- kd1s, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2I know how to deal with the press so I'd never hire a PR flack. That said, I've watched a business go down in flames because a company president tried to be involved with EVERY aspect of the business to the ultimate detriment of the one thing he should be concerned with which is sales.
They brought in a PR flack for $90,000 a year. Nice guy and all but he and I had frequent discussions about it and he freely admitted that the company didn't need him, but he was never going to tell the company president that.
About two years after I left the company they went belly up. - gothicform, on 07/21/2008, -0/+2It took Apple about six years to go from hobby to company. Inbetween Jobs did things like take a year off and go to India, take acid etc. When Jobs started out he never planned to build an empire, Apple was simply a little something on the side when he was working at Atari. The Job's you're talking about comes much later than the guy who was with us in the early to mid 70s which is the era relevant to the article.
- frogstik, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2How many of you actually are working at a startup?
- inactive, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2***** You.
- mrshickadance9, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2or you can sell your product/service/ and make money that way. The three ways you listed are not the only things to happen to a company.
dugg down SON. - kreatre2007, on 07/20/2008, -1/+3I love number 8:
8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the cheapest way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista... ask yourself why, then use it. Its a startup, there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.
I'm doing a lot of consulting for a startup here in Dallas. The CEO uses this rule and it has made for a more efficient workforce. - wesdenton, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2What's this about not having an exit strategy? That is called basic planning.
- PabloIV, on 07/20/2008, -2/+4Both true. First hand.
- wizbowes, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2Rule 13 - Learn to count. A couple is two. Not three, not four, not twelve. It is two and only two.
- sensibledriver, on 07/21/2008, -0/+2Sure, sure, kid.
- bombula, on 07/20/2008, -0/+1This guy may be bright and talented, but so are a zillion people. Truth is, he just got lucky on his first try. If you want to know how to succeed in business as an entrepreneur, you never EVER listen to people who made it on the first try. That's one of the most basic rules. If you make it on the first try, it's luck and you learn all the wrong things. That's why so many of the internet gazillionaires are one-hit wonders. Cuban has done better, but it still doesn't really make him worth listening to unless you're also doing a tech start-up. This guy knows absolutely nothing about brick-and-mortar business. Programming software is a service, and service start-ups are piss-easy compared to actually designing and manufacturing a product. Plus, this guy has obviously never run the gamut with VCs. Venture capitalists are brutal, especially today - 15 years after the start of the internet boom and 8 years after the internet bust. It'll be almost impossible to get money from anyone unless they're a friend or family member. Maybe Cuban got money from VCs, maybe not, I don't know. But my guess is he was lucky enough to know the right rich guy at the right time. And again, service companies are piss easy because they have no expenses. You only need money to pay your people because you virtually no other costs (other than maybe a bit of server space and bandwidth). Trying doing a start-up that builds cars by financing it out of your garage with a credit card...
If you want to start a software or web business, then maybe you'll get something by checking this article out. Otherwise, this guy is just a blowhard who you're better off ignoring. - inactive, on 10/18/2008, -0/+1http://digg.com/business_finance/Billionaire_Mark_ ...
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