#MotivationalMark

On wealth:

“Being rich is a good thing. Not just in the obvious sense of benefitting you and your family, but in the broader sense. Profits are not a zero sum game. The more you make, the more of a financial impact you can have.”

“I don’t care what anyone says. Being rich is a good thing.”

On customer service:

“It is so much easier to be nice, to be respectful, to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and try to understand how you might help them before they ask for help, than it is to try to mend a broken customer relationship.

“Treat your customers like they own you. Because they do.”

On sports:

“I love to compete. To me, business is the ultimate sport. It’s always on. There is always someone trying to beat me.”

“The sports industry is the “worst possible business for a college graduate to try to get into. It doesn’t pay s–t. There are a thousand people applying for every job.”

“Go out there and get rich. Get so obnoxiously rich that when that tax bill comes, your first thought will be to choke on how big a check you have to write.”

On risk:

“Because if you’re prepared and you know what it takes, it’s not a risk. You just have to figure out how to get there. There is always a way to get there.”

On relationships:

“If you think back to the first sporting event you went to, you don’t remember the score, you don’t remember a home run, you don’t remember a dunk. You remember who you were with. Were you with your mom, your dad, your brother, on a date?”

“Culture is very important to the Mavs. Your best player has to be a fit for what you want the culture of the team to be. He has to be someone who leads by example. Someone who sets the tone in the locker room and on the court. It isn’t about who talks the most or the loudest. It is about the demeanor and attitude he brings.”

On government:

“I’m not against government involvement in times of need. I am for recognizing that big public companies will continue to cut jobs in an effort to prop up stock prices, which in turn stimulates the need for more government involvement.”

“I think political people are afraid of me.”

On social media:

“You’ve got to be very cognizant of the correlation between social media links and business because they don’t always correlate as highly as people would like.”

On working for passion:

“Think about all the things you have been passionate about in your life. Think about all those passions that you considered making a career out of or building a company around. How many were or are there? Why did you bounce from one to another? Why were you not able to make a career or business out of any of those passions? Or if you have been able to have some success, what was the key to the success? …I propose a different frame of reference: Forget about finding your passion. Instead, focus on finding big problems.”

On failure:

“It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. You only have to be right once and then everyone can tell you that you are an overnight success.”

How to make easy money:

“Shoelaces.”
Say what? “Shoelaces. I said it. Easy money. Guaranteed.”

On starting your own business:

“Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.”

On open-floorplans in offices:

“Open offices keep everyone in tune with what is going on and keep the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show him or her how to use the lock on the bathroom.”

On keeping employees happy:

“Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. My first company, MicroSolutions, when we had a record sales month, or someone did something special, I would walk around handing out $100 bills to salespeople. At Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions, we had a company shot. The Kamikaze. We would take people to a bar every now and then and buy one or ten for everyone. At MicroSolutions, more often than not we had vendors cover the tab. Vendors always love a good party.”

On conventional wisdom:

“I love to challenge conventional wisdom. I’m a big believer that in business and in politics, when everyone is doing the same thing, none are probably as effective or successful as they could be. Typically it’s not prudent for people within those industries, parties, or organizations to stand up and challenge the incumbents. It is usually a formula for losing a job, customer, or endorsement. My businesses are usually built around challenging conventional wisdom, so I tend to gain by taking the other side. It’s been very profitable and entertaining for me.”

On stocks:

“I sold all my stock. I asked myself – what’s the worst that could happen? I walk away with two billion dollars in the bank? How much money do I really need? …It’s hard to feel dumb when you’re flying around in your GV.”

On dreamers:

“It’s not in the dreaming, it’s in the doing.”

On drive:

“Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you.”

On self-improvement:

“I still work hard to know my business. I’m continuously looking for ways to improve all my companies, and I’m always selling. Always.”

On advice:

“I create offbeat advice; I don’t follow it. I rarely take third-party advice on my investments.”

On networking:

“It’s not about money or connections–it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone…And if it fails, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time.”

On BeatBox:

“I thought they could be the first viral party wine for young adults. When you see someone with a BeatBox, you want it for your party. [The team] is aggressive, smart and driven. Great product, great energy, great impact, very memorable and great execution.”

I think that last quote might be our favorite.

Cheers,

The BeatBox Team