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4. UNG Natural Gas ETF +25% YTD…Still Below 2024 Levels
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5. Crude Oil -7.5% Pre-Market on Tariffs
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7. EuroZone Unemployment Rate Dropping
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9. Mexico Border Crossings
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10. Mark Cuban’s Advice to His Kids on How to Be Successful Is 2 Simple Words
The research-backed advice doesn’t just applies to his kids, but to you too.
Via Inc: As a serial entrepreneur, former NBA team owner, long time Shark Tank co-star, and multibillionaire, Mark Cuban has certainly seen up close what it takes to make it big in life. When it comes to his three children, what advice does he give them on how to be successful?
You might think a guy with so much insider knowledge might point his kids to a particular professional niche or industry sector. But on a fun, free-wheeling recent episode of podcast Your Mom’s House, Cuban explained he doesn’t push his kids to take any particular path. Instead, his best advice to help them be successful is all of two words long: “Be curious.”
Mark Cuban’s top success advice to his kids.
The conversation kicks off when podcast co-host Robert Smith asks a perceptive and interesting question: When you’re super successful in a very public way like Cuban, how do you help your kids have their own identities and success beyond the shadow of their famous parent?
“It’s hard,” Cuban responds before walking through his thinking on setting his three teenage and young adult kids up for success and sanity. “You try to just let them be themselves. I try to not say you’ve got to go in this direction or that direction.”
Whether or not a young adult has wealthy or well-known parents, Cuban believes it’s OK for them to not know what they want to be when they grow up at first. That’s especially true these days when the world is changing so fast.
So if Cuban isn’t pushing a particular professional path, what is he pushing? Curiosity.
“Just be curious,” he advises his kids. “That’s what I try to get them to do.”
Research agrees with Cuban about the value of curiosity.
Cuban wants his kids to be continually learning and to view knowledge as strength to stockpile. He believes the route to lifelong learning and growth is curiosity. Turns out a ton of science agrees with him.
Curiosity, studies show, is one of the best predictors of how well a particular student will do in school, no matter what their IQ might be. The benefits of curiosity extend well beyond graduation. Other research links curiosity with increased memory, patience, empathy, creativity, and engagement.
Given all of those are traits that help people get ahead professionally, it stands to reason that more curious kids would tend to become more successful adults. And indeed studies show a link between higher curiosity, work, and better job performance.
That suggests Cuban’s efforts to inculcate curiosity in his kids will help them be successful in life independent of their billionaire dad. There is also evidence that focusing on curiosity will help his kids grow up to be happier too.
“Research has shown curiosity to be associated with higher levels of positive emotions, lower levels of anxiety, more satisfaction with life, and greater psychological well-being,” reports UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. “Of course, it may be, at least partially, that people who are already happier tend to be more curious, but since novelty makes us feel good, it seems likely that it goes the other direction as well.”
Nudge your kids to be more curious like Mark Cuban.
All of which suggests that Cuban is very much on to something in wanting his kids to be curious and hungry for learning. But how do you accomplish that?
Cuban doesn’t say so, but he’s clearly a great model of someone who is always exploring new possibilities and learning new things. You don’t have to be a billionaire to model curiosity to your kids. Explore the world and discuss and investigate new topics with your kids.
Actively talking up the benefits of curiosity as Cuban does can help too, according to science. According to a report from the BBC, Rachit Dubey, a cognitive scientist at Princeton University, found that reminding people of the usefulness of new knowledge can boost their curiosity when it’s lagging. Research suggests actively brainstorming questions you want answers to is another good way to become more curious.
Takeaways for entrepreneurs about curiosity.
If you’re a parent, consider being like Cuban and pushing your kids less toward a particular career path and more toward curiosity. You’ll probably help them get further and be happier if you value novelty and learning over certainty and consistency.
Second, curiosity is great for you too. Most of the science that shows curiosity is great for kids also applies to adults. Perhaps, you should also follow the tips above to nudge yourself toward greater curiosity.
Finally, curiosity helps people do better at work. As a business leader, is there anything you can do to nurture and support your team’s natural curiosity?
“Managers might consider giving their employees a little more independence … with various studies showing that a sense of autonomy increases curiosity,” the same BBC article suggests. “Where relevant, employers might also encourage workers to look beyond the narrow confines of their primary expertise.”
As Mark Cuban seems to have figured out, success usually isn’t about finding your lane early and sticking to it. It’s about being curious and continuously learning. That applies to his kids, but it applies to you too.