Episode 482: Mark Cuban's 5:30 AM Success Formula: How a Billionaire Structures His Day for Maximum Impact

0:01Hi, guys. It's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits & Hustle. Crush it.

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1:56Like your schedule between the Shark Tank, all those companies doing like these things. I mean, like what time are you waking up in the morning? Six, 5.36. Like what's the day? Like give me a day in the life of you. You probably should admit this, but like I'll get up at 5.36, particularly during the school year when my kids are going to school. You have three kids too. 12, 15, and 18. Yeah. Are you involved? Do you see these kids? Yes. How are you able to do all of this? I don't travel that much unless they're out doing stuff. Really? Right now, my middle daughter, Alyssa, is at camp. My wife and my youngest son, Jake, who's 12, are in Iceland right now.

2:29They went on a trip because while I'm shooting Shark Tank, that's when they all know to go do their trips. That's a good idea. Yeah. And then my oldest is on a trip as well, or class. And so while we're shooting, they're gone. And so that's when I pack everything in. And then you do everything. But otherwise, you know, I can do one day trips here and one day trips there because, you know, I'd rather spend time with my family. So you are like you spend a lot of time with yourself. Yeah, of course. You can have both. Yeah, that's the best part of my life. Okay. So tell me the day. Give me your day.

2:56You wake up at, you said six o 'clock. Yeah, I wake up. Yeah. 536. Do, you know, say hi to everybody. Gives everybody going to school if that's what's up. And then do my email and typically get back in bed. Do my email. Get through any emergencies. Go back. Take a nap. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So you do the emails first before you do anything else, right? Yeah, yeah. Just to get through. I saw that you'd said that a bunch of times. You know, I've got an iWatch like you, right? So I look at my sleep, right? Yeah. So I wear it while I sleep. Do you wear an Oura ring or anything? No. Yeah, I didn't get the feedback.

3:25I'm surprised because you love all the technology. I love all the technology and stuff. Yeah, but I just didn't get the feedback. You know, I tried a Whoop and just the data. I didn't like that either. It was also cumbersome. Yeah, it was a pain in the ass, right? Terrible. Yeah. Sorry. I get good data with this. And yeah, whoop wasn't awful, but I already had this, right? So you don't, exactly. Like then you're just constantly like looking at all these different things. Right. And it's not just exercise stuff. I can get stock prices and all that other shit. Right. Absolutely. And so I'll see how much sleep I got, you know, cause you don't really, you might feel okay.

3:57And you don't, you know, when you didn't sleep, but sometimes you don't know how much sleep you got. 100%. Exactly. And so like, if I got my 200 deep, deepest sleep, right. my two hours rather, then I'm usually pretty good. Right. Right. So wait, what time do you go to bed at night? Typically anywhere from midnight to 1.30. Okay. And then you wake up around. Okay. So you get like, you're in bed for five, six hours. Yeah. And then if I didn't really get good sleep, then I get my email done. And go back to bed. Go back to sleep. Yeah. Really? Yeah. I am so shocked. Yeah. So I get an hour. Like I'm not one of these people that's just like, oh, I just got to slug it out, whatever.

4:30Yeah. Because remember, everybody's got to kiss my ass. Yeah. Right? Exactly. I love you so much. Yes, they do. You know, they might say not, right? And I might not like it because I hate that. But everybody works to my schedule. Yes. You know, it's like - I love you. Tomorrow? Yeah, sure. Okay. Can you come over now? Sure. Now, and I don't really do meetings or calls. I really, really don't because - Waste of time. Yeah. And plus, like, there's no record of it. I can't, it's not searchable because I have so much shit going on that I want to be able to go back and look and say, okay, when did Jen hit me up last?

5:03and what were we talking about? What was the topic? So you like to have it in writing. Yeah, I like to have it so it's searchable. Which is different than that dust thing that you're involved with. Yeah, dust is like a real-time version of a face-to-face conversation. So with dust, it's important because there's certain business things that I want to talk about that we're not going to be face-to-face, but I don't want it to be an email. I don't want there to be a record of a phone call. Exactly. Because let's say we're getting ready to fire somebody or there's a lawsuit that I have - You get sued a lot?

5:32No, hardly ever. Really? Yeah, hardly ever. At your level? Yeah, less than 10 times my entire life. And, you know, half of them were garbage. Yeah. That's incredible, by the way. Yeah. I've never heard of such a thing. Yeah, I mean - With your kind of like wealth and success? Yeah, and I never see people either. It's just not worth the hassle. I know. It's probably like it's worth, it's like the time and energy and the money that it actually takes. It's not worth it. But yeah, so I use Dust all the time. You can hit me up on their blog, Maverick. I answer questions just because I want to support the platform.

6:03But it's just because I want some things to be private. And with Dust, when you send a message, you can delete it when you want it or it auto deletes, but it's never stored on a hard drive anywhere. And so there's just no way to retrieve it, period, end of story. So I never even heard of this before I started digging deep into your life. I mean, I didn't realize this is like a thing. Like people are using it and it's, I mean, did you even know it existed? Oh, sorry. Well, it's been around like eight years. Genius. That's why you know, but like, but it sounded like Snapchat to me when I look. But Snapchat still keeps everything, right?

6:39It might disappear, but it's on their server somewhere. That's right. Right. Same with Instagram and vanish mode or whatever. Right. Or the other ones, right? Telegram. You can set it to delete so the other people don't see it. But, you know, if there's a subpoena because you were doing some business deal and somebody wants to get those records, it's still possible to get them. Oh, wow. Okay, so go back to your schedule. So you wake up at 6 o 'clock, you do your emails. Take a nap if I'm tired. How long is the email part? Like a half an hour, an hour? No, an hour and a half, two hours. Oh, my gosh.

7:06Okay. So that's from like 6 to 8 p.m., right? In bed, you're doing it. Yeah, just laying in bed, whatever. Okay. And then go get my list of cookies. Yes. Some water. How about coffee? Do you drink coffee? No, I'm not a coffee drinker, no. Tea? Sometimes I'll drink tea, but usually just water. and then if I have anything to do, then I'll just go do it. If it's Monday, Wednesday or Friday, I try to set time to go play basketball. Then back about 2 p.m. and back to my email and no matter where I'm at, if I'm eating, whatever, I'm always doing my email. Always. Yeah. I cannot believe how accessible and easy, it's unbelievable.

7:41If I email you, I will get it. If I don't get a response in like the five, 10 minutes, I would think, I think, oh, he's just gonna like, he doesn't care. Yeah. That's probably true. Typically that's true. I was going to say, either he just deleted my email or like something was actually wrong with you because you were so accessible, like unbelievable. Yeah. I take pride in it because, you know, unless someone's just like being annoying or pitched me or whatever, when I just block them, um, which is a great feature that Gmail added, you just hit block. It's a great one. You're right. But yeah, then I'll try to respond.

8:12So then, okay. So you go back to bed. If not, then you have basketball. When'd you work out? Because I thought like, well, so I set my move points to try to get a thousand move points a day. Okay. And that typically gets me to 3 ,000 calories a day. Really? Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. What else do you eat besides the list of cookies that I know you're obsessed with? I've got a woman who makes me natural foods, right? Because you're a vegan, right? Just vegetarian. Vegetarian. Yeah. So I like eggplant. So I'll put cheese on eggplant. Oh, okay. So my little version of eggplant parmesan. But I use my fitness pal to track everything that I eat.

8:43So I try to keep it to 2 ,000 to 2 ,200 calories. Okay. And so you can never get the calories exactly right. I know. And the tracking is never exactly right. It's around. Yeah, so it's a close enough approximation that it works for me. Right. And it keeps me good. I try to make sure that I get enough iron because I'm vegetarian. So I'll typically at lunch or maybe after the cookies, I'll get one of these little cups of Rice Krispies. Yeah. And that is one serving plus a little bit, 140 calories, but it's got like 70 % of the iron. Right. And then iron is absorbed better if you have it with vitamin C.

9:20So I'll drink a glass of orange juice with it. Oh, so you're doing all – so basically, when did you become a vegetarian? Like four years ago. Is it because of a health situation? No, not an issue, just because I wanted to feel better. Supposedly, it reduced inflammation. I've had both my hips replaced. I'm still playing basketball, so I'm going to be sore. So it makes me feel better. Do you feel better? Oh, yeah. It's night and day. Really? Yeah. Yeah. And I don't eat meat or – sometimes I'll eat fish. like if I'm starving, I have no choice. Yeah. But typically I won't. And then, you know, I won't eat fried foods and I try to avoid sweets, which is almost impossible.

9:55So my strategy is to always have a thing of Alyssa's cookies out. So when my kids have all the garbage on our counter, then I can grab an Alyssa's. So you really are like that obsessed with these cookies because I've heard you talk about them too. Like that's how I was for like a good year about these cookies. They are that good though. That good, yeah. Do you eat mush, mush, whatever you want to call it? Mush in the fridge too. You have that too. And then, okay, so let's get back to the exercise. So you're an investor maybe in Rise Nation or you're not an investor? Yeah, an investor in Rise Nation.

10:22I love Rise Nation. Yes, it's a hard workout. Yeah, you get to go your own speed, right? Right, but the VersaClimber is like, it's also like - But the beauty of it, one, it's low impact. Yeah, it's true. So you're not going to feel your joints. You're not going to hurt that at all. It's full body too. Yeah, and it's full body, right? Because you're moving legs and arms. But when you first start in a 30-minute class, you might get 1 ,000 steps. Yeah. And then you build it to 1 ,500. Then you build it to 2 ,000. Then 3 ,500. Then 4 ,000, right? And then the superstars can do more. But your cardio, like I don't get tired when I play basketball anymore.

10:54Right. Because it's great. I can go on a Peloton bike and just crank through 30-minute class or 45-minute class. Do you do Peloton then too? Yeah. Okay. So you do everything. You're very versatile. Well, it's just accessibility, right? So if I'm on the road, sometimes there's not going to be a rise nation there. So I'll do Peloton, either the treadmill or the bike. And lots of times when I'm doing the bike, you know, I try to go, if I'm just cruising, I try to hit the 180 average output or 190. And if I'm really pushing, I'll try to do 200, 210. And then, you know, just, you know, but, you know, it's great.

11:28It's a great workout. I want to show you something. There's like a thing. Have you seen the HIIT axle before? I'm going to show this to you. You're going to love it. A lot of the athletes are using it and sports teams use it. I'll show it to you. It's like a side thing. But so you're doing, how many times a week would you say you work out besides the basketball? Six. You know, basketball is a workout. It's a huge workout. Yeah, yeah. It's a great workout. But so one or the other, six times a week, sometimes seven. Do you still work out at Lifetime Fitness? Yeah. You do? That's why I play basketball.

11:54Yeah. In Dallas. That is so funny. We don't have any here in LA. Really? No. And they should bring it because it's the best gym. It's nice. As long as they have a basketball court. It's a huge basketball. And they have every piece of equipment. Yeah, they got everything. I'm telling you, the West... And I take Zumba classes on Saturday morning. You really? Hell yeah. Oh my God, that is so fun. And you know, because way back when, when I started, it was like three guys and 80 women. And so it's just the ultimate distraction. That's actually a great, that's a great place for guys to go to meet girls.

12:24That's where I met my wife. At a Zumba class? No, no, no, playing basketball. Oh, you were going to say, Zumba class? That is, how, you've been married for what, 20 years? 20 years, yeah. Wow. And so, okay, so let's get back to the, since this is with entrepreneur, Let's ask some more entrepreneurial questions since we should probably do that. So would you say the number one, not to pivot that hard, but like, would you say the number one reason why people are failing then is because their lack of ability to work hard and to kind of dig in? What would it be? No, I'd say they're misguided and they sell themselves.

12:58They lie to themselves when they start, right? Oh, I think this business is good. Everybody goes through that same process with a new business. You know, hey, what do you think about this idea? Right. Then you go on Google and you look at, oh, I don't see it. It's great. Of course, no one tells you that it's not there because 50 companies have failed doing the same thing. Right. And there's nothing left to show that they died. But then you get excited. You check with your friends. And then they try to raise money. Yeah. That's what screws them up, right? Raising money is not an accomplishment.

13:24It's an obligation. Yeah. If at all possible, you want to start just organically with sweat equity. Those are the best businesses because you get to retain 100 % of it. Right. You know, and there's no rush. And then the second mistake people make is they push the top line instead of the bottom line or gross margin dollars. Yeah. You know, it's like, oh, I'm a million in sales. Like that's an accomplishment or 10 million. Where like if you've raised funding, you have your quote unquote KPIs, right? Yeah. Right. Or what's the new one? QOKs or something. There's something ridiculous that QKP, I don't know.

13:57They always come up with these acronyms. What is it? I don't know. Just the one I started seeing. And so everybody's like, oh, yeah. And they think it's an accomplishment if you're doing, I went from$1 million to$5 million in sales. Okay, that's somewhat great, but what matters is what's your gross margin. Right. Because if you're in that hamster wheel where you're growing, but you need to keep on raising money to grow. Right. That sounds good. No. You see what's happening now when people can't raise money, you're done. And while others have said, well, I've raised$30 million or$50 million or$100 million, dollars, unless you have a really good reason, you know, your relativity space and you need to raise money because you're building, you know, 80 foot tall 3D printers.

14:41Yeah. Right. You're not going to do that out of your basement. But for most entrepreneurs, it's something where they're, it's an arbitrage on their time. Yeah. Right. Here's, I can do this more efficiently than Jan or Mark can. So it's worth it for Jan or Mark to buy this product or service from me so that they can use their time more efficiently. So you'll pay. So, you know, effectively, I'm so efficient that my cost to do this is$10. You value it at 25. I sell it at 18. We're both happy. Yeah. Right. Most people sell an arbitrage on their time. And, and, but they don't, that's basically what their product or service is, but they don't look at it that way.

15:20They look at it say, okay, I'm creating this, you know, I'm going to open up my own training facility, right? Because I'm a personal trainer and I have 40 clients and I need a place to take them. Why not open my own? I'll get six others or I have a beauty salon and I'll get, you know, I'll have slots for eight other stylists to come in and rent a spot, right? They don't think it through that you got to make money at this stuff, right? It's not just about top line, it's bottom line. And I think that's where most entrepreneurs make their mistake. and you know you get caught and if you get caught up in growth you can grow yourself out of business yeah and most people don't realize that that's true i also do think that people like i feel like it's become like the sexy thing to do now the word entrepreneur is like i hope so sexy i hope so right because of you actually shark tank has made it much more shark tank it has definitely but you know if 90 percent fail 10 could change the world yes and look like the cost plus it's going to probably change the world yeah you know i always tell entrepreneurs you know or when i talk to kids, I always tell them, just ask yourself a question.

16:23Why not me? Why can't I be the one that just changes everything? Because one of them is going to. And even though some might feel entitled, some might not do the work, some may be lazy and not realize how much work is involved to be an entrepreneur, that happens. You're going to find the same thing if you're a carpenter, a videographer, an editor, where some people don't do the work and the great ones do. Yeah. And, you know, but, you know, this is cliche now, but I say it all the time. It doesn't matter how many times you fail. You only got to be right one time. You have a lot of these. Yeah, I know.

16:56I know. I love them. Like, well, how you do anything is how you do everything. Yeah, that one I stole. Yeah, that one I stole. That one really wasn't yours. Hold on. I have one here that I really liked. Hold on a minute. Which one was it? Because you have so many good ones. Most people don't put the one. Which one was it? Practice Until You Can't. Well, that one, I'm not sure. I stole that one. Yeah, I stole that one. Nick Saban, actually? No, that's been around for a long time. Yeah, that's been around a long time. Oh, which one's selling? You have one on selling? Oh, Sales Cures All. Yes. Yeah, that one's mine.

17:23That's yours? So basically what you mean is like, as long as you can, if you can sell, then that's all it really matters, right? Then you're gold. Yeah, you're good. Right. Because no company's ever succeeded without sales. Right, you need sales no matter what. Otherwise you're out of business before you start. Exactly. Sales Cures All. So does that mean that like, you have to be a good salesperson as well? Yeah. Yes, because if it's your baby and you don't love it enough to be able to sell it or figure out how to sell it, it's awful tough. Well, look at you, right? Like you're already established and you're going on all these things, promoting these companies that you're involved with.

17:55Like most people don't have that kind of ethic to do that work ethic. They get bored. They think they're too good for it now. They don't want to do it. I don't do a lot of these, but - Not a podcast, but you're out there like talking about whatever. Whatever, yeah. I mean, look, I've got a platform that most people don't have. Well, yeah, for sure. Yeah. But it brings up - And I need more dollars than most people. Yeah, right. That's a whole other story. But I wasn't always in that position. Right. And so even back in the day when I had Micro Solutions, my first company after I got fired, one of the things I learned, I learned a lot from companies I got fired from.

18:26Most of them, it was like what not to do. I had a boss that my boss had fired me, a guy named Michael Humecki at the software store. And H-U-M-M. Exactly. At the software store. I love it. Yeah. Anyways, that went out of business three months later. You fucked up, Michael. Yeah, he sure did. Yeah, thank you for doing it. Yeah. But like, he would never go on sales calls. He would never, see? He probably thought he was too good for it. He was the CEO. Yeah. And I had another job, same thing. Guy named David, I forget his last name now, but he told me where to buy a suit when I was buying my suits too for$99.

19:05Oh, that's great. You know, and I was, my shirts, I would wear button-down shirts, but I bought them. at this place called the clothes horse, which is all resale. So like I went five years before I bought my first business shirt that someone hadn't worn before. Oh, really? Wow. I learned, you know, you got to sell because the, in my experiences, the, the CEOs, the owners, the founders that didn't sell, they all failed with no exceptions, a hundred percent of them failed. And you know, when you're just starting and it's just you, who else is going to sell? Nobody. And that leads to another mistake entrepreneurs make.

19:45They try to hit hiring home runs, right? So the minute they hit a roadblock, I'll just hire a new marketing person, right? Or I'll hire a new head of sales. Thinking that, oh, this person's amazing. No one's ever hired somebody and said, they suck really bad. Of course not. Right? Oh, I found the most amazing person. Why'd they leave the last five jobs? Oh, they were amazing, but, right? That's such a good point. See, that's what I love how your brain works. It's like exactly, it's so true. It's so practical and common sense. It's pragmatic, yeah, right? Common sense, but common sense isn't so common.