Mark Cuban Says These are The Dumbest Things Entrepreneurs Do, Entrepreneur

 These are the Dumbest Things Entrepreneurs Do, According to Mark Cuban.

Do not, under any circumstances, attempt the first item on this list. Alternatively, the second. The third is definitely not the case.

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Entrepreneurs are intelligent, passionate, and ambitious people by nature. However, just because a business owner has a lot of intelligence and drive doesn't imply they always make the best judgments. Hopefully, the blunders aren't significant enough to cause the company to fail.

We reached out to Mark Cuban, the tech millionaire, to find out what it is about entrepreneurs that drives him insane. As a veteran investor on ABC's famous TV show Shark Tank, Cuban has seen his fair share of entrepreneurs make major blunders.

Whether you're looking for investment capital or quietly expanding your firm, Cuban advises that you avoid the following blunders at all costs.

Not grasping the fundamentals of business.

When entrepreneurs lack the fundamentals, it drives Cubans insane. Entrepreneurs who "don't know the difference between a product and a feature," he says, are a prime example. This fundamental understanding is required before an entrepreneur begins looking for investment money, developing a product, or even conducting research and development.

To put it another way, if a competitor only sells blue shirts and you sell blue and red shirts, you've just developed a feature. Problems are solved by products or services.

According to Cuban, successful businesses are built on products rather than features.

Competition, in my mind, is affirmation.

It's not easy to make something out of nothing. It can be difficult to persuade people that you're providing a worthwhile service and that they should buy your products. It's a massive error, according to Cuban, to believe that a major competitor entering your industry validates your company.

What it does—or should do—is make clever businesspeople very uncomfortable. "Unless you can out-innovate and outsell them, you're in big trouble," Cuban warns.

Putting all of your hopes on one'superstar' employee.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket, as the old adage goes. The same may be said about team building and hiring.

According to Cuban, many business owners feel that "their next hiring will fix their biggest problem." Hiring the best marketer in the business doesn't guarantee that you'll figure out how to sell your products and that everyone will live happily ever after, he adds.

Everyone else suffers if your star employee quits or fails. To grow a successful business, all hands must be on deck, which means that everyone on the team must be carrying their weight—together.