Time billionaire: How Mark Cuban redefined success by valuing hours

Mark Cuban, a well-known American entrepreneur, considers time one of life's most important values. At the SXSW conference, Cuban recounted how, after selling his first startup for CAD 8 million in the 1990s, he took off his watch, symbolizing that no one would "own his time" anymore.

This decision came after MicroSolutions was sold. Thirty-two-year-old Mark Cuban felt financially secure and could pursue his dreams.

- Time is the one asset you can never get back. You can never truly own [it] – Cuban stated. – I wanted to be ... in a position where I get to call my own shots [and] spend time the way I wanted to spend time. That was always my motivating factor – he added.

CNBC Make It reports that Cuban came to these conclusions by observing his father, who worked 60 hours weekly at an upholstery company near Pittsburgh. Cuban recalled visits to his father's workplace, which made him realize that such work does not provide control over one's own time.

In the late 1990s, Cuban sold another business for CAD 7.7 billion. The same year, he made a record e-commerce purchase - the Gulfstream V business jet for over CAD 54 million. The billionaire claims this purchase allowed him to "buy him time."

Currently, a sixty-five-year-old Cuban wears an Apple Watch only to monitor his health. He is active in the Shark Tank program, runs a pharmaceutical company, and manages the NBA team, Dallas Mavericks.

– "I wanted to make enough money so I didn’t have to respond to anybody else. I could make my own schedule and live my own life the way I wanted to do it – he explained in his MasterClass course.