Mark Cuban Needs a Dictionary
22 June 2006
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban admitted on his blog that he is a whiner. (In case you were concerned about my hobbies, I only ran across this because Josh Levin pointed it out in Slate.) Even those of us who shy away from the NBA—possibly the worst league in professional sports—were aware of Mr. Cuban's whininess.
However, despite admitting to being a whiner, Mr. Cuban is unrepentant. In fact he sees being a whiner as the key to his success. Here is where I have the problem his post. In order to make his case that whining has done great things for him, he has redefined the word entirely.
A quick Google search will bring up this:
1. To utter a plaintive, high-pitched, protracted sound, as in pain, fear, supplication, or complaint.
2. To complain or protest in a childish fashion.
3. To produce a sustained noise of relatively high pitch: jet engines whining.
Since were not talking about a sound he produces, I think it's best to use definition 2: “To complain or protest in a childish fashion.” So essentially, Mr. Cuban has claimed that he has been so successful because he complains like a child. Let's examine the events in his life that leads him to this conclusion. (All emphasis is mine)
- “When I was a high school, I whined about not being able to take business classes when I was a junior (they were only available to seniors), so I took classes at the University of Pittsburgh instead.”
- When I got to Indiana University, I whined that the classes they wanted me to take were’nt enough of a challenge, so I snuck into the MBA program and took graduate level statistics when I was a freshman.
- When I got a job selling software, I whined to the owner that he shouldn’t make me sweep the floor of our store and I should be able to go out and close sales. That led to me getting fired, which in turn led to me starting MicroSolutions.
There are many more examples, but I think that is sufficient to make the point. What we see here is a clear picture of success despite whining. You see the whining—marked in italics—did not get him anywhere. Instead his intiative—marked in bold did. In fact if you look at the whining failed each time. Most obviously with the software sales job where whining got him fired. But we also see that whining did not bring him success in school either. He had to sneak into those MBA classes, and had to go to the University of Pittsburg to take business in highschool.
It was not whining that got him to where he is. He got to his station in life by perseverance.
I find it very telling that he also has a post defending his use of foul language. He revels in childishness and immaturity. These were not key to his success, but it is probably hard to see that from within.
Page last updated 28 October 2006 19:22:20