As Artificial Intelligence takes over the world, one of the main ‘Sharks’ and businessman Mark Cuban has opened up on side hustles that he would undertake to earn some extra money if he was 16 years old again.
First, he’d learn how to write prompts for artificial intelligence language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. Next, he’d teach his friends how to use those prompts on their school papers. “Then, I would go to businesses, particularly small- to medium-sized businesses that don’t understand AI yet,” said Cuban during a recent interview. “Doesn’t matter if I’m 16, I’d be teaching them as well,” he added.
The ‘Shark Tank’ judge’s choices for side hustles are different from his actual first job, selling garbage bags door-to-door to his neighbours outside of Pittsburgh at age 12 to save up for a new pair of basketball shoes. He further continued to earn extra cash as a teenager by selling collectibles like baseball cards, stamps, and coins, eventually helping him pay to attend Indiana University. There, he bartended, hosted parties with cover charges and even picked up work as a dance instructor. “I was a hustler…I have always been selling. I always had something going on. That was just my nature,” said Cuban in an episode of ‘Shark Tank’ in 2016.
After a brief career in banking following college, Cuban fully transitioned into entrepreneurship. He sold his first company, a software startup called MicroSolutions, to CompuServe for $6 million in 1990. His second venture, the audio streaming service Broadcast.com, propelled him to billionaire status when he sold it to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999.
Today, Cuban’s net worth is estimated at $5.7 billion by Forbes. He dedicates much of his time to advocating for his online pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs, which aims to make a range of common prescription medications more affordable by selling them at cost plus a 15% markup.
