<\/p>\n
Mark Cuban at TechCrunch Disrupt via Wikimedia Commons <\/p>\n
For many new millionaires, the first splurge is easy to predict: a sports car, a waterfront mansion, or a watch with more diamonds than common sense. Mark Cuban<\/a> had something else in mind. He wanted to make airports feel a lot smaller.<\/p>\n The billionaire entrepreneur has long said time is life\u2019s most valuable asset, and one of his earliest millionaire purchases reflected that philosophy. Speaking on the \u201cClub Shay Shay\u201d podcast in 2024<\/a>, Cuban recalled how celebrating the $6 million sale of his software company, MicroSolutions, led to one of the most memorable investments he ever made.<\/p>\n \u201cMy buddies and I [were] going out, just got destroyed,\u201d Cuban recalled. \u201cWe went to one of these old-school steakhouses\u2026 They\u2019re like, \u2018What do you think you\u2019re going to do with all this money?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n His answer surprised everyone at the table.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t care about cars or houses, but boy, I fly a lot for work. If I could get this lifetime pass\u2014I wonder if such a thing exists?\u201d<\/p>\n One Phone Call, One Hangover, One Lifetime Pass<\/p>\n Curious, Cuban asked for a telephone at the restaurant and called American Airlines (AAL)<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI called them up and just slurred my words, \u2018Do you guys sell lifetime passes?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The airline transferred him to its AAirpass department<\/a>. The next day, despite nursing a hangover, Cuban got the details and signed up.<\/p>\n \u201cI got all that information, hungover as hell, and I signed up,\u201d he said. \u201cInitially it was $125,000, and then I upgraded it. I forget how much I paid, but it gave me almost unlimited miles for me and somebody else for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than viewing it as an extravagant purchase, Cuban immediately did the math.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a deal, right?\u201d he recalled thinking, estimating the pass worked out to roughly 12 cents per mile based on how often he traveled.<\/p>\n The Return Was Measured in Time<\/p>\n For Cuban, the lifetime pass wasn\u2019t really about flying first class. It was about removing friction from his life so he could spend more time building businesses<\/a> instead of worrying about travel logistics.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be out in LA or wherever, Dallas, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Want to go on a road trip? Let\u2019s call American Airlines and see if they got any flights tonight. Let\u2019s go to Vegas. What\u2019s your name again? Doesn\u2019t matter. Let\u2019s go to Vegas,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Years later, he transferred the pass to his father, who used it until he passed away. Cuban later gifted the remaining privileges to a friend.<\/p>\n American Airlines eventually discontinued the AAirpass program after frequent travelers made the lifetime memberships too expensive for the airline.<\/p>\n For investors, the story offers a reminder that the best purchases aren\u2019t always the most glamorous\u2014they\u2019re the ones that create more opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cuban has repeatedly argued that entrepreneurs can\u2019t make more time, only use it more wisely. In his case, spending $125,000 wasn\u2019t about buying unlimited flights. It was about buying flexibility, efficiency, and the freedom to focus on building the next opportunity. Decades later, it\u2019s still one of the purchases he remembers most.<\/p>\n On the date of publication, Caleb Naysmith<\/a> did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Cuban at TechCrunch Disrupt via Wikimedia Commons For many new millionaires, the first splurge is easy to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,26044],"class_list":["post-744258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-n-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}