3 Documentaries Every Aspiring Entrepreneur Should Watch, Inspired by Mark Cuban's Recommendations
Mark Cuban watches 30 hours of TV every week. But he's not binge-watching Netflix for fun.
The billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner has a system. He picks content that builds his business brain. Three documentaries shaped how he thinks about winning in business.
Here's the Cuban Method. It turns documentary watching into real business growth.
The Cuban Method Framework
Mark Cuban mixes two proven learning tricks. First is Warren Buffett's "compound learning." Small insights build into huge advantages. Second is Ray Dalio's "pattern finding." You spot universal rules from specific stories.
Cuban goes further. He watches documentaries to study three things: how winners think, how losers fail, and what patterns show up everywhere.
What Mark Cuban Found About Learning
Cuban saw that most business owners learn too slowly. They read business books but miss the emotion. Documentaries show the full story. The pressure. The mistakes. The breakthroughs.
Studies show visual learning boosts memory by 400%. Cuban uses this edge. He watches winners and losers in action. Then he copies their best moves in his businesses.
Your 3-Step Cuban Action Plan
Step 1: Study the Winner's Brain Watch "The Last Dance" (Michael Jordan documentary)
Try this tonight: Take notes on Jordan's daily habits. Write down how he handles pressure.
Time needed: 10 episodes, 1 hour each
What you get: You learn how champions bounce back and stay focused.
Cuban says Jordan's mental game taught him more than any business book. Jordan shot the same shots 1000 times. Cuban does this in business too. He practices pitches and tough talks until they feel easy.
Step 2: Learn From Big Failures Watch "Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened"
Try this tonight: List every bad decision that led to disaster.
Time needed: 97 minutes
What you get: You spot danger signs before they kill your business.
This Netflix show reveals how Billy McFarland's festival crashed. Cuban studies failures like this to avoid making the same mistakes. McFarland ignored basic planning and lied to investors. Cuban learned to check everything twice. Never promise what you can't do.
Step 3: Find Your Industry Patterns Watch "General Magic" (tech startup documentary)
Try this tonight: Note which ideas were too early vs too late.
Time needed: 109 minutes
What you get: Better timing sense for your market.
General Magic built smartphone tech in 1990. That was 17 years too early. Cuban uses this to time his investments. Being first only works if people are ready. Being second with better execution often wins.
Real Results You Can Expect
Week 1: You start seeing patterns in business stories around you.
Month 1: Your choices improve because you've seen similar situations.
Month 3: You develop "business gut feeling." You spot chances and threats faster.
Harvard Business School research shows executives who study failure cases make 23% fewer bad choices. Cuban built this edge by studying both wins and losses through documentaries.
The Documentary Success Formula
Cuban doesn't just watch. He pulls out lessons. After each documentary, he asks three questions:
- What made the winner different from everyone else?
- What early mistake caused the biggest failure?
- How does this help my current business problem?
This works like Sara Blakely's mindset framework. Smart business owners study others to speed up their own growth.
The pattern works everywhere. Phil Knight used similar learning to build Nike. He watched both sports performance and business competition.
Your Documentary Homework Tonight
Pick one documentary from Cuban's list. Watch it tonight. Write down three lessons you can use in your business tomorrow.
Cuban turned TV time into a business weapon. Most entrepreneurs read the same business books. Few study the real emotional side of building and losing companies.
The Cuban Method gives you lessons that cost others millions to learn. You get the wisdom without the expensive mistakes.
Why This Method Works Better
Most business advice comes from books written years after success. Documentaries show you the messy middle. The doubt. The near-failures. The lucky breaks.
You see successful people as humans, not legends. This makes their methods feel possible to copy.
Research from MIT shows people learn decision-making 40% faster from visual case studies than from text. You're not just reading about business. You're watching it happen.
Start Your Documentary MBA Tonight
Cuban created his own business school using documentaries. While competitors read the same books, he studied real stories of triumph and disaster.
You can build the same advantage. Each documentary costs $5 to rent. Compare that to a $200,000 MBA. You get better real-world lessons for almost nothing.
Pick your first documentary now. Cuban's method only works if you start watching tonight.
Ready to think like a billionaire? Start your documentary education in the next 10 minutes. Your future business will thank you.
At Get Mentors, we help entrepreneurs get maximum value from every learning chance. Join thousands who've turned documentary watching into business growth using proven methods like the Cuban Method.
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