64-year-old American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and television personality Mark Cuban has achieved, experimented, and enjoyed a lot of things. One may call his humble parenting style a sham or his investments outlandish (by May 2015, this shark invested in 85 deals across 111 Shark Tank episodes for a total of $19.9 million). But it doesn’t take a genius to guess Cuban is simply a man that ‘does.’ The Dallas Mavericks owner has done plenty in all these years and even admits it. “There’s no one more competitive than me. Business is a sport,” said the billionaire. But all work and no play is not the way Cuban treads. He worked hard to make his moolah and then cussed millions away. Let’s explore the crazy and unpredictable antics of the shark that does bite but invests-
1. Mark Cuban offered Trump $1 million to a charity of Trump’s choosing if Trump shaved his head
Nearly a decade ago, the Dallas Mavericks basketball team owner put his sense of humor to good use. Donald Trump offered to give $5 million to charity if then-President Obama produced college transcripts and passport applications. Cuban retorted to this blasphemous request announcing he’ll pay $1 million toward a charity of his choice if Trump shaves his head.
2. He has been fined over $3 million for bad-mouthing refs.
Sports are a business filled with adrenaline rushes, high-riding emotions, and flaring tempers. No wonder the Dallas Mavericks owner has accumulated a whopping $3 million in penalties for swearing. Candid Cuban was fined a hefty $600,000 by the N.B.A. for making public comments deemed detrimental to the league in 2018 and on several occasions before that.
3. Mark Cuban managed a Dairy Queen for a day.
Motor mouth Mark Cuban has his razor-sharp tongue to thank for landing him in a soup more times than he’d prefer. During the teething period of his Mavericks’ ownership, Cuban famously snapped that N.B.A. director of officials Ed Rush wasn’t fit even to manage a Dairy Queen. As expected, controversy knocked on the door as N.B.A. fined Mr. Cuban a record $500,000 for repeated public criticism of N.B.A. officiating.
His comeback activated master marketer Cuban who decided to show how it’s done by managing a Dairy Queen for a day. Parrish Chapman, who owned the Coppell Dairy Queen, was thoroughly impressed as his store usually rings up 2,000 tickets daily. With Mark on the cash register, it was quickly 6,000 by the end of the day.
4. He still holds the record for the biggest single e-commerce transaction, a personal jet purchased for $40 million in 1999.
Has there ever existed a tycoon without a private plane? Well, that’s Mark Cuban for you- unafraid, unabashed and brazen. In 1999, Mark Cuban’s video portal Broadcast.com was sold to Yahoo for $5.7 billion. With one move, he became a billionaire (he derived $4.8 billion). With great wealth comes great guts, which explains why Cuban bought a Gulfstream V business jet over the internet for $40 million. A record that’s still unbroken landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records, where he still holds the title for the largest single e-commerce transaction.
5. He bought the $250,000 American Airlines AAirpass after making his first million-
Cuban clearly has a passion for traveling as the first thing the businessman purchased on earning his first million was the coveted American Airlines AAirpass. With unlimited first-class tickets to any destination, the world became his oyster. Of course, less than five years later, he purchased the private jet and gifted the pass to a friend when he got a private jet.
