In today’s AI era, achieving productivity and mastering it can feel more stressful than ever. However, according to the billionaire, people might be focusing on the wrong things.
“It’s time for all of us to get off our lazy butts, leave the house, and have some fun,” Cuban said earlier this month, right after investing in a live events company. “In an AI – dominated world, what you actually do is much more important than what you input as a prompt.”
When the message comes from Cuban, there’s a bit of irony: The former Shark Tank investor has built his career on being extremely intense and outworking everyone around. And while he has long been involved in both business and entertainment—from [missing details] to [missing details]—Cuban still positions himself at the forefront of tech trends, including AI.
But when it comes to finding [missing details], the 67 – year – old doesn’t exactly advocate for moderation.
“If you’re okay with a nine – to – five job, you can have a work – life balance,” he said on “[missing podcast name],” a business and athletics podcast from Sports Illustrated. “If you want to be really successful in whatever field you’re in, there’s always someone working 24/7 to outperform you.”
For Cuban, that hard work is real. Not a fan of meetings, he reads between 700 and 1,000 emails a day on his three mobile devices.
That unrelenting routine makes his advice about having fun seem almost self – contradictory. But Cuban’s point isn’t that hard work isn’t important—it’s that AI can’t replace real – world experiences or relationships.
The advice Cuban would give his younger self
Although Cuban is worth billions today, his career started with small – scale hustles.
At the age of 12, in one of his first sales jobs, he bought boxes of trash bags for $3 and then sold them for $6 in his neighborhood—all to save up for a pair of sneakers.
That experience laid the foundation for his work ethic. By the time he became a more serious entrepreneur building his first tech company, he managed to get by by living with five roommates and never taking a vacation.
Looking back, if he had to start all over again, Cuban said he wouldn’t change a thing.
“Don’t stress. Don’t change anything. Just have fun,” he said in 2015.
“You don’t have to know what you’ll be when you grow up,” Cuban added. “You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to choose the perfect major. You don’t have to pick the perfect job. You’re allowed to make mistakes.”
Business leaders like Richard Branson and Satya Nadella agree: not everything has to be so serious
Cuban isn’t the only one arguing that life and work don’t have to be so serious.
When [missing name] became Microsoft’s CEO in 2014, one of his messages to employees was simple: “Have fun, communicate well, and achieve great things.”
This is an idea long echoed by the billionaire [missing name], who believes many businesses take themselves far too seriously and says it’s up to leaders to show that it’s okay to have fun.
The 75 – year – old British owner of the Virgin Group said at the University of Pennsylvania’s [missing event] that “it’s the responsibility of the person running the company to be willing to relax, to be the first one to dance on the table at a party, and to be the first one to jump into the swimming pool fully dressed to liven up the party and make sure everyone has a good time.”