Mark Cuban Answers Mogul Questions From Twitter

Hey, I'm Mark Cuban,

and today we're gonna be talking about Mogul Support.

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Coachosilver365, whether in business or sports

when building your team, are you more interested

in getting someone who is an expert at something?

Or would you rather have someone with more potential?

Question of the day.

Olivier, I want an expert.

Everybody's got potential, everybody.

I want someone who knows something,

give me someone who knows their, every time,

'cause then I can turn it into something real.

The key to being successful and achieving your dreams

no matter what they are, is finding something

you really, really like to do, and being great at it.

When you're great at something,

you get to write your own ticket.

So, I'm always gonna hire the expert.

If you just have potential, chances are,

you're working for the expert.

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Thanks, Olivier.

Carisa Sechrist, I have to do an elevator pitch

for a business proposal, I've never done this,

what's your advice?

Carisa, get on an elevator, pitch.

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AliTheGre4t, should I pay off the house or save cash?

@mcuban.

The real answer is depends on what your mortgage rate is.

If your mortgage rate is over 5,6%,

what you should do is refinance.

If you have enough cash to just pay off the entire mortgage,

that's great, but in this particular case,

you probably want to talk to an accountant.

Because depending on what state you live in,

there's all kinds of different laws and rules

for deductions, and so it can kinda get complicated,

and as much as I'd like to give you advice,

talk to your accountant's the best advice.

RobertReed2nd, as a hashtag entrepreneur,

you get to be your own boss.

How do you manage your time between work and home?

So, how do I mange my work-life balance now?

It's easy, I'm rich, I do whatever I want.

If I wanna play with my kids, I play with my kids.

If I travel, I jump on my plane.

It really depends on where you are in your life.

When I was first getting started,

I was living with six guys in a three bedroom apartment,

and so I had no work and home balance,

I was working at night as a bartender,

and all I did was work.

I went seven year without a vacation, dude.

That's what it's gonna take.

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That's home-life balance.

CryptoDoom, if you're really into providing opportunity

for people to grow their net worth, why the hate for crypto?

ICO is the new IPO.

Here's the thing about crypto, particularly Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is worth what somebody will pay for it.

Did you ever see someone who collected baseball cards,

and they were really, really, really proud

of their baseball cards, 'cause they kept on saying

they were gonna go up in price?

Comic books, same thing.

Even artwork.

There's no real intrinsic value, you can't eat

a baseball card, or shouldn't eat a baseball card,

your artwork might look good on the wall,

but not much you can do with it.

Bitcoin there's even less you can do with it.

At least I can look at my baseball card and go,

ooh, that's my favorite player, that's Roberto Clemente.

I can look at artwork and go, wow.

Crypto is a key, that is so complicated

for 99% of the population.

Do you put it in a device?

Do you print it out?

How do you keep from being hacked?

Who's gonna host it for you?

It's just so difficult, that it's only worth

what somebody will pay for it.

So, I say it's like gold.

Gold's a religion.

Now, people who are really into gold,

they'll tell you that there's a bad depression,

and things go to hell in a hand basket,

if you own gold then you'll be okay.

No you won't!

You carry around a gold bar, someone's gonna hit your ass,

knock you out, and steal your gold bar,

and it's gonna happen again, and again, and again.

I'd rather have bananas, I can eat bananas.

Crypto not so much.

Look, I can make a great argument for Blockchain,

there's a lot of applications and they'll be used,

but you don't need public Bitcoin BTC.

You can create Blockchain on your own,

without using all of the available cryptocurrencies.

It's not that I'm against cryptocurrencies,

you just have to be very careful,

at best they're stored value.

Thanks CoinsorDie.

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Mcsoundstudio, what makes a good business partner?

A good business partner is somebody who makes me money.

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@thesnck, tax the robots by the hour?

WTF, question mark.

So, that tweet was in reply to this one.

You are getting the short end with tariffs.

If we as a country invest in robotics,

we can build factories anywhere, including our own.

That's how you replace cheap global labor.

I'd rather pay you to monitor and fix robots

and tax the robots by the hour.

That's how you win.

So, it just so happens I have

a company called, Hirerobotics.

And what does Hirerobotics do?

They have robots that they put on factory floors.

How do they charge the manufacturer

to put those robots on the floor?

They charge em' by them hour.

And they charge em' effectively

what a traditional laborer would cost.

Except they work 24 hours a day,

they don't have to go to the bathroom,

they don't eat, they don't call in sick.

But the real context of this tweet was,

how are we gonna compete with China, Vietnam,

and other countries, who are manufacturing things

that have moved from the United States

to those countries, and move jobs with them.

So, as part of our infrastructure spending,

with public-private partnerships, we invest in robotics.

We'll be able to bring jobs back here,

and replace the factories that are in Asian countries,

in particular, with factories here.

That will allow us, particularly if we tax them by the hour,

to be able to support social programs,

that we may not be able to afford,

based off what our politicians are saying.

It's okay to tax a robot by the hour.

Because that money may come in, and depending on

who wins the election, it may pay for healthcare,

it may pay for single payer, it may for UBI,

it may pay for a lot of different things.

But I'd much rather tax a robot,

who's pulling in factory jobs from over seas,

then any other option then I can see out there.

@LarsenJay, tell me again why there's

no ABCSharkTank for nonprofits?

We're also businesses that need investment

for growth/impact, with a return that's priceless.

Invest in what you value!

I'm gonna tell you why we don't have Shark Tank

for nonprofits, or for kids.

It seems so sweet, and so nice, but the minute we say no

to a nonprofit, we are the worst human beings on the planet.

We can't do nonprofits, we can't do kids,

because we can't say yes to everybody.

And so it's just better that we don't do it at all.

From Chris Winters, wints9er.

Mcuban, when you look for leadership in your organization,

what's the biggest success factor?

Any specific advice for engineering leadership?

When I look for leadership, I look for a few things.

One, it's somebody who can relate to people.

Someone who can define a vision, someone who is nice,

and someone who recognizes that it truly comes down

to helping people achieve their personal goals,

and aligning those with the goals of the organization.

If you can take the goals of your organization,

whether it's your company, or somebody you work for,

and align them with the interests of the people

that work for you, you'll be a great leader.

And you also have to recognize, in this day and age,

people aren't looking for lifetime jobs at a company,

they want jobs that'll help them improve their own skillset,

so they can find a better place in life, that they enjoy.

And if you help people realize their personal goals

like that, great things will happen for you as a leader.

Sade Wagner, hoping I said that right.

Where's the first place to look to find a business mentor?

How do you know if you can trust them?

I'm not a big mentor guy, I've always been a believer

that if you really wanna learn something,

and be great at something, you have to put in the time.

A lot of people look for mentors as shortcuts,

when in reality, maybe they help you a little bit,

maybe they help you avoid some mistakes,

but when you're just getting started out, in particular,

it's okay to make those mistakes.

And more importantly, you have make the commitment to put

in the time to learn what you need to learn to be great

at something or good at what you wanna be good at.

There you go, Sade.

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Stuart Plant, being able to trust

an organization's brand, people, and products,

are all key components of business success?

Question mark.

So, through customer service, how do you gain

and retain your customer's trust?

Have you ever been a customer?

You treat other people like you wanted

to be treated as a customer.

It's really, really, really simple.

You know, you gain and retain a customer's trust

by helping them achieve their goals.

If you're in a business that is a service business,

make their life easier.

No one wants to go to a store

and have to work at buying something.

The most valuable asset everybody has, is time.

The one thing you cannot buy, is time.

The one thing you cannot give back, is time.

If you make someone's life easier,

your customer's lives easier, if you help them save time,

you will develop a great relationship with them,

and you will gain their trust.

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Hieu Nguyen, how do I start a business from scratch

with no money, no credit, and no expert friends to help?

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You don't.

From Cryptic, @CryptoUnlocked.

@mcuban, hey Mark!

I have a question I think many people

would like to hear your answer.

With all the talks of a recession coming,

what do you think will help someone

going through it for the first time?

For example, Millennials.

@mcuban.

It just so happens, I answered that tweet,

and I have it right here.

Number one, refinance your student loan

and any other debt you have.

The reality is, right now, interest rates

are at an all-time low.

So, it's a perfect time to go out there

and refinance your debt.

Two, save as much as you possibly can.

Even if it means continuing to live like a student.

The greatest opportunities come,

when you are one of the few people with cash.

Number three, understand the economics

of the company you work for,

and the impact a slow-down would have on your job.

If you work for a company and there's a recession coming,

and you understand your role within that company,

you can anticipate whether or not a slow-down in business

is gonna impact your job, for better or worse.

Number four, live as much like you can as a student.

Because the ultimate rule is,

the lower your bills, the lower your stress.

Number five, don't listen to any experts

about whether or not a recession is coming or not.

Nobody knows, they're all guessing,

and they guess because it helps them get on TV,

or get interviewed, or probably on a podcast,

'cause all economists love to do podcasts.

Number five A, because there's always a five A.

We live in a global economy whether we like it or not.

The butterfly effect applies.

We don't know what combination of big or little things

will make things better, or make things worse.

A factory could close in Vietnam,

that impacts something else,

and that impacts the global economy.

You just don't know.

Number six, do all you can to be great at your job.

But, you have to be honest with yourself.

Employees with no self-awareness,

are always the first ones to get fired.

Number seven, be someone who reduces

the stress of people around you.

It's always the people who think they're irreplaceable

who cause the most stress for everybody,

because they create this hurricane of hellishness, right?

Reduce the stress of people around you,

be honest with yourself about whether

you're a stress creator, or a stress reducer.

Because in my experiences, I'll always fire someone

who creates stress, and I'll always look to keep people,

and give raises to people, who reduce stress.

From Jordan Snow, UGAScotchman,

do you believe all jobs should pay a living wage?

Are not some jobs supposed to be steps towards careers?

A great deal of wages are based

on how easily replaceable people are,

i.e., the cost of training new employees.

Flipping burgers was never supposed

to support a family of four.

I truly believe there should be

a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

And I say that because, A, if all companies

have to pay the same minimum wage,

then we all play by the same rules.

But that's not even the most important part.

When somebody's not able to pay for themselves,

and/or their families,

they go out and get government services.

You know who pays for it?

You.

And for others, they're not even able to get

the government services they need.

So, you know what happens?

That's when we see people living on the streets.

I don't want that.

You know what else happens?

That's when we see people have food insecurity.

They can't feed themselves, they can't feed their kids.

And so, when we help people, when we're compassionate,

and we allow them to live their lives with a living wage,

then not only do we make the country safer,

but we put everybody in a position where

they're not dependent on government decisions,

and government resources, and government tax revenue.

Part two, when a company doesn't pay a minimum wage,

and they have employees that are

receiving government assistance,

that means we as tax payers,

including you Jordan Snow, subsidizes that company.

That's wrong.

I literally went through my companies,

and asked and checked, to see if any of our employees

were receiving government assistance.

In terms of their wages, I made sure that none were in

a situation where they qualified for government assistance,

because their wages weren't high enough.

I don't want tax payers to be subsidizing my business.

So, let's just raise the minimum wage to a living wage,

and compete, 'cause that's what America's all about,

capitalism, entrepreneurship, with a little bit

of compassion thrown in, and I think we'll be

a far better place to live, a far better country to live in.

Presidential candidate, Andrew Yang.

Someone should definitely run against Trump

in the Republican primary against William Weld.

@mcuban, question mark.

Higher upside than most.

It's not over till I say it's over, Andrew.

You just wait and see.

I'm Mark Cuban, and this has been Mogul Support,

I hope you learned something about business,

entrepreneurship, and most importantly, making money.

And even more importantly, being nice.