Mark Cuban says getting fired taught him how to be a better entrepreneur

Getting fired can feel like a career-ending setback, but it can also provide valuable learning. Mark Cuban said he was fired from early jobs because he clashed with managers and tried to do too much, believing he was too smart. He said he was not fired for lacking skills, but for behavior and attitude at work. Cuban grew up in a working-class family in Pittsburgh and held many jobs, including selling garbage bags, working at Isaly's, laying carpet, and working as a box boy. He treated even bad jobs as paid learning. After being fired, he started MicroSolutions, learned what he still needed to learn, and used his prior bosses’ feedback to avoid repeating mistakes.

"“I got fired from jobs and I realized I wasn't a very good employee,” Cuban said. Cuban said the problem wasn't that he lacked skills but that he often clashed with managers because he thought he knew better than they did. “I didn't get fired because I didn't know what I was doing,” he said. “I got fired because I was like, always trying to do too much, or I thought I was too smart.”"

"“I learned more from the jobs that I hated,” Cuban said. “As an entrepreneur, I learned what not to do.” Lessons from bad jobs Cuban grew up in a working-class family in Pittsburgh and spent his teenage years hustling through a long list of jobs. He sold garbage bags door-to-door, worked behind the counter at Isaly's, laid carpet, and worked as a box boy at a discount store downtown."

"“I always looked at it it wasn't a great job, but I was getting paid to learn, and I learned a lot,” Cuban said. That mindset became especially important after he was fired and decided to start MicroSolutions, the software company he founded in the 1980s and sold in 1990 for $6 million."

"“When I finally got fired from a job and started my first real company, MicroSolutions, I knew I didn't know everything, there was a lot I needed to learn,” Cuban said. “But I learned some things about what not to do from the bosses that fired me.”"

Read at www.businessinsider.com