Billionaire Mark Cuban advises teen not to skip college for business in ‘Shark Tank’ show

Mark Cuban. Image: Facebook/@markcuban

US reality TV show “Shark Tank” gives entrepreneurs a chance to receive the much-needed funding they need—but only after impressing the “sharks,” or investors.

The judges include successful businesspersons such as tech businessman Kevin O’Leary, business consultant Barbara Corcoran and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

On its ninth season, the show’s most recent episode featured 17-year-old Ehan Kamat, who eagerly pitched the Solemender, a self-invented device that treats foot pain caused by condition plantar fasciitis.

Kamat said he started the business when he was 12 and made $25,000 (around P1.3 million) in sales in less than a year.

When asked where he planned to go to university, he said without a beat, “If I can get the Solemender where I need it to be, I’m a hundred percent committed to it.

Cuban immediately interjected, “Bad idea, bad idea.”

“Learning accounting, learning finance, learning marketing, the more you can pull together, the quicker you can make decisions, the more competitive you can be,” he said.

“You remind me a lot of me… You have the same type of drive,” added the businessman.

“But I would be devastated if you didn’t go to college.” 

He advised Kamat that he didn’t have to leave his business in the lurch while studying, suggesting that he run it online, just as he ran his own small business from his dorm room.

“As I learned things in college, I applied them to business ideas, and I got better and smarter and got greater advantages for myself.”

“Learn, learn, learn. The greatest competitive advantage is knowledge,” he said.

Cuban previously told Bloomberg TV in February that in-demand job skills would come from liberal arts, even if graduates from those courses are “starving” now. 

He said that most skills would soon be automated, including software skills. “Having people come in and have a social impact and making it a real job is what we’re gonna need.”  Niña V. Guno /ra

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