No chakra-cleansing yoga. No brisk sunrise run. No steaming hot cuppa’ Joe. Not for Mark Cuban. Like Winston Churchill, the first thing the intrepid billionaire does after waking up is work, right from his bed. Then he works some more.
“Business is my morning meditation,” Cuban told us on the Culver City, Calif. set between filming Season Six pitches last week. “Business is what I like. I get up and I work immediately. I love doing this.” Then he flashed his trademark million-watt smile, the one he says defines his success. “[Success] is defined by waking up with a smile on your face, knowing it’s going to be a great day.”
The energetic, 6-foot-3 Dallas Mavericks owner and veteran tech mogul loves working so much, he says, that he also regularly does it in the middle of the night. “If something’s on my mind, I’ll get up several times at night and start hitting some Cyber Dust. I’ll work.”
Related: Shark Tank Star Mark Cuban: 'Money Can't Buy Happiness'
No, Cyber Dust isn’t a tasty midnight snack. It’s Cuban’s new Snapchat-like ephemeral app. He says he created the private mobile messaging tool to take back his privacy in the wake of his recent insider trading battle with the SEC, which he won.
The one-time bartender and disco teacher, the first to attend college in his working-class family, says he checks Cyber Dust literally first thing after he opens his eyes in the morning (or at night) “because that’s where all of my most important messages are.” We can’t even begin to imagine how many jam his inbox.
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Next, Cuban, whose family name was Chabenisky before his Russian immigrant grandfather changed it at Ellis Island, checks his emails. Then the richest Shark -- boasting a net worth of an estimated $2.6 billion -- starts putting out fires. I “read, update and deal with whatever issues I have to address. First thing’s first and the first thing for me is always work.”
You can watch Cuban work, and obviously have a ton of fun doing it, during Shark Tank’s Season Six premiere on Friday, Sept. 26, from 8 to 10 p.m. ET/PT on your local ABC station.
Related: Mark Cuban: There's No Playing Nice With Your Competition
