2005: I was living in Harrisonburg, and working at a small local radio station that ran talk programming all day and night. I was there to monitor the boards during the day and answer the phones, with various other duties included every so often.
Everyday, at 3pm, The Don and Mike Show would come across the airwaves, with some cool interviews, and a high level of afternoon-drive hilarity generated by a group of close friends getting paid to shoot the shit in a radio studio just outside of D.C. every day.
One afternoon they had Mark Cuban call in for an interview and some radio pub for his recently-acquired television network, HDNet. He sounded like a decent guy, and he kept the guys in a solid bantering mood for a decent-length interview.
At the end of the interview, for reasons I can’t remember, but most likely hoping to generate and gauge the interest in the network, he gave out his email address for anyone who wanted to get in contact with him.
So I wrote him an email.
I had just moved to Harrisonburg, and completely changed my life in every way (new school, legitimately out on my own for the first time). So the email had a “what should I do?” quality about it.
I sent off the email without much hope for a response, but what the hell right?
But here’s the kicker… I got a response.
Within an HOUR.
He wrote back with the one-line response:
find something you love to do and be the best at it.
m
And there it was. The billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks read my email and offered up some advice.
He’s a man of the people.
That’s why I love Mark Cuban. And that’s why I listen to the things he has to say.
I read his blog every now and again (blogmaverick.com) and, while some of the things he writes about are over my head, I’m a sucker for a convincing argument. If you can sell me, hook line and sinker, I’ll believe you until someone else can change my mind with an equally passionate and seemingly informed argument.
And he’s constantly selling me.
I wrote him one more time with a business question, this time at his official Dallas Mavericks email (which is listed on the Dallas Mavericks website, right out in the open), and again I got a response within an hour.
The guy is a decent, solid and smart human being.
So why not ask him to run for President? You think he’d be up for it?
Not saying he should join a particular party or even actively campaign. All he has to do is give the word and, through the genius of social media, we can do the work for him.
What the hell, right? Look at all the interest and support Ron Paul gained just by saying what he felt was right, trumpeting his consistent track record, and miraculously inspiring a seemingly-gigantic, technically inclined type of new demographic. The rEVOLution began.
The problem with The Good Doctor is that he’s not, sorry to say, that fit for live television, which is where most of the world is consuming the bulk of its information, and will for the foreseeable future.
Mark Cuban is.
He’s young enough, rich enough, photogenic enough, and adventurous enough to give it a go.
So why the hell not?
Let’s give it a go, Mark.