Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban made an unusual decision after selling his first successful business in 1990. Instead of celebrating his newfound wealth with a luxury purchase, he took off his watch and decided he would no longer wear one.
Having control over his decisions and daily life mattered more. “I wanted to control my own destiny. That was a big thing, and I wanted to be able to control my own time. “They always were obligated to somebody else.
In a 2016 conversation with Thrive Global, he also described avoiding unnecessary meetings and calls as one of his biggest productivity habits .
The former Shark Tank star said the decision reflected something he valued more than money, which was the freedom to manage his own time. In a recent conversation, Cuban explained why he did not want to spend his life working according to someone else’s schedule. “The day I sold MicroSolutions, I took off my watch and I said, ‘I’m never going to wear a watch again because that means I’m working on somebody else’s time,’” Cuban recalled. He said becoming wealthy was not necessarily his biggest ambition. “I just thought I hated being broke,” he said. Cuban also spoke about how his parents had to work according to other people’s expectations and did not enjoy the same freedom. They had to show up at work,” he said. He said this helped him save several hours each day.
In 2000, he bought the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks for $285 million. He later sold a majority stake in the team in a deal valued at $3.5 billion in 2023. The deal took his wealth past the billion-dollar mark and gave him the financial freedom to pursue interests beyond business .
