Mark Cuban Said Billionaires Who Claim They Could Do It All Again Are 'Lying Their A** Off' — You've Got To Have 'Luck And Timing' To Get Rich

Mark Cuban has made billions, built companies, and basically turned being blunt into a brand. But if there's one thing he's not doing? Pretending it was all part of some master plan.

In a 2023 GQ interview, Cuban stripped the gloss off the billionaire success story. "Anybody who has a ‘B' next to their name, and they tell you they could do it all again, they're lying their ass off," he said. "You've got to have luck. You gotta have timing."

That wasn't self-deprecation. It was precision.

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Cuban isn't saying success is impossible or that everyone with money just rolled the dice right. What he's pointing out is that there's more to the story than grit and genius. He had a solid idea, sure. He worked hard. But he also happened to understand networking right when the internet stock market blew up. That timing? Out of his control. "If I would have been born three years earlier, three years later, we probably would not be having this conversation," he said.

It's a rare kind of honesty in a world that loves to package ambition as a blueprint. Cuban doesn't buy into that fantasy—not for himself, and not for everyone else trying to make it.

He's not alone in this thinking. Warren Buffett has often spoken about winning the "ovarian lottery," acknowledging that being born in the right place at the right time played a significant role in his success. Similarly, Bill Gates has recognized the role of luck and timing in his journey. In Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers," Gates discusses how having access to a computer at a young age was a rare opportunity that set him on the path to founding Microsoft.

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Elon Musk, while emphasizing hard work, also admits to the challenges and uncertainties in entrepreneurship. Speaking at a town hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin last month, he said, "It is true that most businesses that start do not succeed."

But that doesn't mean Cuban plays it safe. He's the same guy who called diversification "for idiots," though he now says that line came from a different time and market. "The only constant in life is change," he told GQ. His philosophy isn't about being right forever—it's about staying sharp while everything else shifts.

That same instinct led him to launch Cost Plus Drugs with Alex Oshmyansky. It wasn't Cuban's idea, but he knew a system worth breaking when he saw one. Now they're undercutting pharma giants and drawing praise from The Wall Street Journal for it.

So yes, Cuban got lucky. But he also knew what to do when that luck showed up. The myth that success comes from a perfect plan? He's not buying it. And if he's being honest—neither should anyone else.

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