Billionaire Mark Cuban Says His Credit Was So Bad, Radio Shack Denied Him – 'If You Use Credit Cards, You Don't Want To Be Rich'

Mark Cuban didn't become a billionaire by relying on credit cards – they were more of a roadblock than a tool for him. Despite his massive success today, worth over $5.4 billion, Cuban learned early on that credit card debt wasn't his friend.

Talking about his financial struggles, Cuban shared that the hardest lesson he learned was watching his credit cards get destroyed one after another. "For me, the hardest lesson I learned was getting my credit cards ripped up," he admitted. "I would charge something and think I could pay it off and then not be able to. I can't tell you how many credit cards I had ripped up."

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Cuban wasn't just bad with credit; his situation got so tough that he couldn't even buy a computer on credit to help start his business. He tried getting a computer at Radio Shack to teach himself and support his company's early days, but they turned him down due to his bad credit. Cuban said, "I had gone to Radio Shack to buy a computer to help teach myself and I tried to do it on credit – they turned me down."

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It was a low point, but Cuban wasn't the type to give up. He managed to get someone he knew to lend him $500 so he could buy the software he needed to get his first company up and running. And from there, things started to turn around. "They gave me 500 bucks so I could buy the software they needed and I took that and kept growing from there," he explained.

But it wasn't all smooth sailing. Three years later, even as his business grew, Cuban still lived paycheck to paycheck. He recalled a time when he went to the ATM thinking he had a couple hundred dollars, only to find out his account was empty. "Everything I had was going into the business … I thought I had 100 or 200 bucks, but when I went to take out cash, it was all gone," he said. That moment made him realize he needed to be even more detail-oriented and focused.

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Cuban's views on debt became much clearer over time. "Debt was not my friend," he said, emphasizing that borrowing money was more of a trap than a solution. On The Ramsey Show in 2014, Cuban reinforced this point with a philosophy he calls one of his favorite lines: "If you use credit cards, you don't want to be rich."

When asked about the best place to invest, he responded, "The best place to invest is to pay off all your credit cards and burn them." He explained, "If you're paying 15% or 20% interest, paying that down is like earning 15% or 20%. It's that simple."

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This experience shaped Cuban's financial approach. Instead of using debt as a tool, he focused on paying off what he owed and building his businesses by staying sharp and learning everything he could. "I really put the effort in and it went big," he shared.

Today, Cuban still emphasizes the importance of learning and staying ahead, whether in business or technology. He's built an empire by avoiding credit card pitfalls, constantly educating himself and putting in the hard work.

His message is simple: don't use debt to get ahead. Some fellow billionaires, like Robert Kiyosaki, author of "Rich Dad Poor Dad" famously use debt as a tool, a method that works for them. However, even Kiyosaki acknowledges that most people can't handle debt. 

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