Imagine waking up one morning, your bank account drained, your house gone, your credit cards canceled — and all you've got left is a pair of shoes and a half-charged phone. Most people would panic. Mark Cuban would go pour drinks and close deals.
"I would get a job as a bartender at night and a sales job during the day, and I would start working," Cuban said in a 2016 episode of the "How I Built This" podcast.
No private equity contacts. No startup fund. Just grit and tips.
The billionaire entrepreneur — who built Broadcast.com and sold it to Yahoo for $5.7 billion — says if he lost everything overnight, he wouldn't try to fake it till he made it. He'd get to work. Two jobs, one mission: stack cash and start over.
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Could he become a billionaire again? Probably not, even he admits that. "To be a billionaire, you have got to get lucky," Cuban said. But could he claw his way back into millionaire territory?
"Could I become a multimillionaire again? I have no doubt."
And he means it. Cuban's not one of those billionaires who grew up with a trust fund and a country club membership. He grew up in Pittsburgh. His dad never made more than $40,000. When Cuban earned his first $100K, his father cried.
Before the money came, he was living in a rundown apartment with five guys, sleeping on the floor, eating mac and cheese, and driving a car with holes in the floorboards. He's not just guessing what it's like to be poor. He's been there.
But he also knows how to sell.
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As a teen, he sold garbage bags door-to-door. Later, he sold software. "I was the best," he said. "I crushed it."
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That's why if he ever had to start from zero again, sales would be his first stop. "Knowing what my sales skills are and the products that I am able to sell, I think I could find a job selling a product that had enough commissions or rewards for me," he said.
Add bartending to the mix, and he's got income coming in around the clock. Bartenders in the U.S. can make anywhere from $30,000 to $80,000 a year depending on tips and location — and that's before you tack on commission-heavy sales income. It's not glamorous, but it's fuel.
Once he'd saved enough, Cuban said he'd launch a business again. Same formula, different starting point.
The plan isn't flashy — and that's the point. Cuban doesn't believe in shortcuts. He believes in hustle. He believes in stacking wins. And he believes that going from broke to seven figures isn't magic — it's execution.
So yeah, if he woke up poor tomorrow?
He's not crying about it. He's pouring shots, flipping leads, and building an empire all over again.
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