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Waiting for the perfect job can become a full-time job of its own. And for anyone living paycheck to paycheck, with just $1,000 in savings and no obvious way up, the next move can feel especially difficult.<\/p>\n
Billionaire investor and entrepreneur Mark Cuban has a much simpler starting point. Forget chasing the perfect position. Get a job, become exceptionally good at it and figure out how to move up.<\/p>\n
Cuban didn’t build his fortune by waiting around for the perfect opportunity. As a kid, he sold garbage bags door to door, and he has worked his share of ordinary jobs along the way. <\/p>\n
During an appearance on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast with Steven Bartlett on Oct. 26, the “Shark Tank” investor explained why the first step toward a better financial future might be closer than people think.<\/p>\n
Read more: Mark Cuban says let’s take healthcare back to 1955 — see a doctor, get a bill, pay what you can<\/p>\n
Cuban says stop waiting for the perfect job<\/p>\n
Bartlett put the question directly to Cuban, describing people who feel trapped in a 9-to-5, live paycheck to paycheck, and might have just $1,000 in savings. He asked, “Is there some type of life raft? Are there principles of how to escape?”<\/p>\n
Cuban’s answer wasn’t to quit, launch a business, or take a risky financial leap. It was to start with whatever job is available.<\/p>\n
“I say this to new college graduates all the time,” Cuban said. “Don’t go get the best job because that’s the hardest to find. Don’t get the perfect job because those are hard to find. Just get a job. And when you have a job, just work to be really good at it.”<\/p>\n
He explained that being good at a job also requires an honest assessment of performance, something he said many workers struggle with.<\/p>\n
“The second part of that is you have to be brutally honest with yourself because nobody looks at the job they’re doing and says, ‘I suck.’ Right? They’re like, ‘Oh, I’m great at this.’ They just don’t realize it,” Cuban said.<\/p>\n
His advice was to seek honest feedback from people around them. Once someone becomes genuinely good at something, he said, “That’s when doors do open up.”<\/p>\n
Mark Cuban says even in the “worst possible job,” there is a path that can open doors for a better future.<\/p>\n
Billboard \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Even McDonald’s or Dairy Queen can lead somewhere<\/p>\n
Cuban’s point wasn’t that everyone should dream of managing a fast-food restaurant. It was that almost any workplace can offer a chance to build a track record.<\/p>\n
“Even in the worst possible job, you know, you could be working at a McDonald’s, at a Dairy Queen, but there’s a path,” Cuban said.<\/p>\n
He explained that learning how to move up, even in a job that isn’t part of someone’s long-term plan, can make a difference when applying elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Cuban described the value of having a former employer willing to give a glowing reference, saying the person had been incredibly valuable and that the company had tried to keep them.<\/p>\n
More Mark Cuban: <\/p>\n
Mark Cuban sees a new way to compete with China<\/p>\n
Mark Cuban exposes a problem with how Meta and Google fund AI<\/p>\n
Mark Cuban says the ‘one thing in life you can control’ gives you a huge advantage<\/p>\n
“That’s what you need,” he said.<\/p>\n
Cuban estimated that building that kind of reputation and demonstrating career growth could take two or three years. The problem, he said, is that many people get discouraged by their circumstances and stop looking at the bigger picture.<\/p>\n
“It’s just most people don’t want to think like that. You get in your head and you get inside yourself. It’s just like, oh, this is miserable,” Cuban said.<\/p>\n
Cuban knows what starting at the bottom looks like<\/p>\n
Cuban’s advice comes with some personal history. Long before becoming a billionaire, he sold garbage bags door-to-door as a kid, worked as a bartender, and took other jobs while trying to find his footing.<\/p>\n
He isn’t the only billionaire with fast food on his early résumé, either. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos worked at McDonald’s as a teenager, a detail Bartlett also brought up during the conversation.<\/p>\n
Cuban even has a Dairy Queen connection of his own. CNBC Make It reported that he worked a shift at the restaurant as a publicity stunt following a public dispute involving NBA officiating in 2002. It wasn’t an early-career job, but it made for an unusual entry in the billionaire’s work history.<\/p>\n
The larger message from Cuban is that escaping a paycheck-to-paycheck routine doesn’t always begin with a big investment, a business idea, or a dramatic career change. Sometimes it starts with becoming the person a company doesn’t want to lose.<\/p>\n
A better job, a promotion, or a new opportunity can follow. But first, Cuban’s advice is simple. Get good at the job that’s already available.<\/p>\n
Related: Read more.<\/p>\n
#Mark #Cuban #tells #workers #stuck #9to5 #saved #ahead #life<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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