Every since I started reading Mark Cuban's weblog, BlogMaverick.com, I've been emailing links of my favorite posts to my employees and business associates. I subscribe to it on my RSS feed and typically read every entry within a matter of hours. So when I saw Mark's entry on Facebook that he had produced an ebook for sale, I bought it without a second thought. I must admit, I read the foreword and was immediately irritated to learn that the ebook was simply a collection of his most popular posts, many of which I'd read 10x over. Oh well, it's $2.99 as I read his first post which he discusses his humble beginnings coming to Dallas as a broke college grad. 5 hours later, I'm finished with the book and I'm convinced that was probably the best $3 I've spent on a book. If you're a blogmaverick reader his old posts have been updated with details and commentary that you will find very interesting and if you're not a blog maverick reader, you will no do doubt find find inspiration and more importantly, practical advice that applies to any business.
What I have always found most impressive about Mark is how little he cares about what people think about and how passionate he is about getting 'IT' right. This book arranges his rags to riches tale in a chronological order that will be of great practical use to any entrepreneur.
One thing I've felt throughout this NBA Lockout and ever more so after reading this ebook is that Mark Cuban must be going absolutely insane sitting in these 'business meetings' over the NBA's labor issues with dinosaurs like Billy Hunter and David Stern. I'll borrow a quote from his post "Twelve Cuban Mantra for Success":
"11. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered
This is one I got from my partner Todd Wagner. He is right on. Sometimes you have to go for the jugular, but more often than not, the biggest mistake people make is getting too greedy.
Every good deal has a win-win solution. There is nothing I hate more than someone who tries to squeez every last penny out of a deal. Who often raises the aggravation level to the point where it's not worth doing the deal. Which also raises the dislike level to the point where even if a deal gets done, you look for ways to never do business with that person or company again.
Business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal."
hrrmm...wonder if this could apply to Dan Gilbert and MJ??
Well as I digress, I'll end this review with saying that rather than emailing links to my employees, friends and business associates, I'm going to buy this ebook for them.
