Ryan A Graves.com

Mark Cuban recently wrote the most cliche title for a blog post ever, “How to Get Rich”, and I loved it! Unlike many $100k per year authors who write the get rich quick books and pump them out as fast as possible with little value add, Cubans post is no frills, and honest. Not to mention the guy actually walks the walk.  More than most people I can think of, Cuban has the authority to talk about how to get rich.

I took three words away from Cubans post and they are Prepare Wait Pounce. Saving money and learning/studying are the first part of getting rich. The old saying is true that, “you need money to make money”so first start saving your money as much as possible. Eat only cereal, split one meal into 3, drink less (or no) beer…whatever it takes to SAVE MONEY. While you’re doing that study everything you can about your business. Be relentless with this…Cuban talks about having the “knowledge advantage” this is where good old ‘hustle’ can get you ahead of your competition. That’s the prepare part.

Next, something Cuban didn’t touch on to much, the WAIT. Opportunities are going to come and go but great opportunities are much more seldom. If you’re always looking for opportunities you’ll probably fall into the mouse trap. Wait for great opportunities to show themselves.

(clear throat…opportunity?)

The last part, and the most fun part is this…the Pounce. But the key to the pounce is that someone who is not prepared cannot try to pounce. You have to prepare like crazy and wait for the pounce opportunity. But for those who have take a hard look around, because it may be here.

Now, if you’re in my position it is likely that you don’t have the bank role and are not yet prepared to pounce. So, enjoy the preparation. The working hard, studying, reading, blogging, and putting yourself in good places at good times is the fun part. At least for me. The impatience that goes along with this process is all part of it. My experience with the impatience was eerily similar to Cubans. He talked about how he used to drive around looking at the big houses and nice cars and wonder what “they” do for a living…let that feeling feed the fire!

The toughest part is the saving part. You have to continually deny the desire to live it up now. Live cheap, be broke, save cash…and be ready. One way to save better is to not dump your money into the stock market only to watch if fade away when times get “unexpectedly” tough.

Cuban was asked in an interview in 2004, “Do you have any general saving/investing advice for young people?”

Cubans response:

Put it in the bank. The idiots that tell you to put your money in the market because eventually it will go up need to tell you that because they are trying to sell you something. The stock market is probably the worst investment vehicle out there. If you won’t put your money in the bank, NEVER put your money in something where you don’t have an information advantage. Why invest your money in something because a broker told you to? If the broker had a clue, he/she wouldn’t be a broker, they would be on a beach somewhere.

Prepare Wait Pounce