Mark Cuban is an American billionaire entrepreneur most famed for being the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team owner. Winner of GQ magazine's 'Men of the Year' and included in the New York Times 'Year in Ideas,' Mark is among the most influential personalities in the business industry. This powerful business magnate was born on 31st July 1958 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mark was just twelve when he entered the business world by selling door-to-door goods to buy expensive basketball shoes for himself. He attended the University of Pittsburgh as a full-time student and moved to Indiana University in his final year. In 1981 he graduated with a BA in business administration. The following year he went to Dallas, Texas, where his first job was as a bartender. He also worked at 'Your Business Software' as a salesman, where his career lasted for less than a year. He started his own company 'MicroSolutions' that he sold for 6 million dollars in 1990. In 1995 Mark started a webcasting venture combining it with his basketball interest. This website called 'Audionet' had just one server and one ISDN line. During the dot.com boom, he changed its name to Broadcast.com, and in 1999 it expanded to 330 employees and generated revenue of 13.5 million dollars. Yahoo bought Broadcast.com for almost 6 billion dollars in its stock. In 2000, Mark acquired the Dallas Mavericks for 285 million dollars to become part of his favorite sports. The club, which had faced its share of bad decisions and poor choice of players, now started moving towards success under the enthusiasm and determination of Mark Cuban, who proposed new ways to run the club. He was the most prominent promoter for the club that soon responded positively to Mark's zealous techniques. Consequently, the Dallas Mavericks qualified for the playoffs in one year and set a record of 57 wins the following year. They qualified for the NBA finals in 2006, losing it but eventually succeeding in 2011. One of his clever and highly appreciated tactics was to launch his blog, where he shared his insights on the game. His other venture includes purchasing the HDNet, a high-definition TV network, and producing two hit movies, namely 'Goodnight and Good luck' and 'Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.' He bought the Landmarks Theater chain in 2003 and has a share in Lions Gate Entertainment. He owns Magnolia Pictures and Magnolia Home Video, leading several social software and Distributed Networking ventures. He invested in many other businesses and internet startups, such as Sharesleuth.com and Bailoutsleuth.com. He recently wrote an e-book comprising 30,000 words called 'How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It.'