Mark Cuban sold garbage bags door-to-door at 12 to buy Converse shoes. He bought boxes for $3 and sold them for $6, making $20 a week. The job taught him that sales is about helping people, not convincing them.
I remember one day my dad was playing poker. I was like, Dad, I need a new pair of Converse, right? And he's like, I see those shoes on your feet. They still work, right? And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, well, when you have a job, you can buy whatever you want, but until then, those shoes still work. I'm like, Dad, I can't get a job. I'm 12 years old. And one of his poker buddies speaks up and goes, I got a job for you. I've got these boxes of garbage bags, and you can go sell them around the neighborhood. I'm like, cool. I would go to our neighbors, and I go, hi, I'm your neighbor, Mark. Do you use garbage bags? And of course, everybody uses garbage bags. Right. So I'll never forget, they cost me $3 for a box. I would sell them for $6 and I would just take them to them every couple weeks, right? Whenever they needed more garbage bags. And I'm making $20 a week, which was like big time. I got my shoes in, but that taught me to be confident and that taught me that selling was helping, not convincing.
