trump in the lucky sperm club

i dont get it.. cuban is the one who got lucky

Both got lucky if you look at it this way, but still have to give them both their credit, they both reached the 1 billion mark.

lucky sperm club, as in he was born into a rich family

Cuban got lucky with Broadcast.com

he built a company and sold it when most idiots took loans with overpriced stocks as collateral. he made the right business moves when most people were about to lose their shirts a few years later.

I don't deny that Broadcast.com had value, but $5.7 Billion? That was luck.

Cuban did not get "lucky".

Built two businesses from the ground up and flipped them both. the 2nd biz being the billion dollar payday. I read his blog all the time... "lucky sperm club" LOL http://www.blogmaverick.com/



plenty of good entries.

cuban is a self made billionaire but trump was handed down 300 million from his dad so who really got lucky

I think they both got lucky.

If Yahoo hadn't been foolish enough to pay $5.7 Billion for Broadcast.com, Cuban would still be a millionaire, but not a billionaire. His own efforts made him a millionaire, but luck made him a billionaire.

how was it luck? every internet company was grossly overvalued. if yahoo didn't buy it someone else would have for a stupid amount. it was merger mania in the late 90s.

hell he could have hired a top trader to off shares over a few years and prolly make even more

That was the luck

the market has ups and downs which create opportunities. its not luck if you recognize the right time to buy and sell. he built a business, got a great price and sold. how many people hung on and lost their shirt?

no luck about it, he took his profits and ran instead of getting greedy and having shit blow into his face.

My point is that it was luck that the business he started just happened to exist at a crazy bubble time like that

If it wasn't luck, then he would be able to replicate the same thing today, do you think he would get $5.7 Billion today?

Does it really matter if it was luck or not? Neither Cuban or Trump made a billion dollars sitting on their asses.

Its also worth adding, if Gates was two years late do you think he or Microsoft would be where they are today?

Making a billion means being in the right place at the right time, a little luck and whole lot of hard work.

Oh, not quite my friend. Cuban didn't just handed that money. He got handed stock (not valued that high, mind you) and he figured out a way to sell it without getting raped on taxes.

I think everyone sitting on a pile of cash has a little luck, but, of all the billionaires that I know about, I'll give Mark Cuban mad props for finding/calculating a way to make it happen. He's no silver spoon story in my opinion.

who knows, maybe he would keep the business and grow it. so maybe he could have made even more out of the deal in the long run.

he seen an opportunity to start a business based on current market conditions and made a shitload of money. he still had to start the business and execute it to get the business to a point where a large company would pay a premium for it.

I don't deny that.

It's the amount of the premium that was paid which is where I think the "luck" applies to.

Broadcast.com had value, but whether it had $5.7 Billion of value is rather questionable, especially if you look at what it has (or hasn't) become since Yahoo bought it.

maybe yahoo hurt the business. could have been that they couldnt integrate the company and grow the business unit like it should have been grown.

how many companies didn't sell during the bubble?

maybe, maybe, maybe, who knows?

I don't think Broadcast.com was worth $5.7 Billion before Yahoo bought it, and I don't think it would be worth $5.7 Billion today if they hadn't. I think it has value, but certainly not $5.7 Billion. It was a crazy time and he was in the right place at the right time and he got waaaay more for the company than he normally would have if it weren't for .com mania.

again how many companies didn't sell during the bubble? he made the right decision to cash out at the right price instead of believing the hype and watching paper profits vanish faster than they appeared.

I'm not saying his decision to sell was luck, I'm saying that the environment that resulted in him even receiving an offer of $5.7 Billion was luck.

Internet mania in the late '90s is what the luck was. He became a millionaire from his own skill, but he became a billionaire because the times they were crazy and people were making rediculous purchases for rediculous prices and one of those rediculous purchases was Broadcast.com

Of course, this is all just my own opinion.

A huge part of real world business without outside equity is being in the right place at the right time. Cuban is exactly right about the differance between people who did business his way and people like Trump. My first business I opened with no outside help financially and did everything by hand, the company grew because I kept feeding it with the money it was making and from time to time money I had to back invest. You treat things totally differant when you are like that. Your skill will keep you alive till you position yourself for a lucky break. Donald on the other hand knows nothing about this, he makes his luck by bullying, talking loud and using his father as well as investor money. Cuban pegged him 100%

Warlock is 100% correct, Gates was a front man who got out of control. Someone was there and used him because at that time investors were throwing money at any pimple faced white kid who sneezed the word tech. He was in the middle of the bubble because a businessman put him there and Bill moved in the right mannor to capitalize on it the most when those who put him there were afraid of losing it all when it toppled. From there he took money and payed other people to show him what decisions to make and payed them handsomly for their help. The man had programing skills but he was "lucky" to be in the center of the bubble as it went up. There were many many Bill Gates out there they just did not have the right idea and the right people to position them. I just feel bad for all the people being mislead into thinking that bubble has not popped, hard lesson to be learned by these kids graduating with Comp Sci degrees.

Luck favors the prepared.