Mark Cuban explains how he spent his first big payday on genius idea

Multi-billionaire Mark Cuban has revealed how his first major payday led to a rather genius idea.

Picture this - you're 29 years old. You've spent much of your early 20s broke, only to then build your knowledge in tech before finally launching your very own computer systems company.

The venture proved such a success, you've now sold it to a major online service provider for the cool sum of $6 million. Now the question is, what are you splashing out on?

This was the situation facing the now 64-year-old entrepreneur back in 1990. He had sold MicroSolutions off to CompuServe and overnight turned into a multi-millionaire.

While he made some seriously smart moves after that (did we mention he's now worth $4.6 billion?), he of course wanted to spend some of that hard-earned cash.

Speaking at a conference, Cuban explained: "Obviously, I was 29, I went out with all my buddies and we drank too much."

But when it came down to it, Cuban didn't want to go with the traditional route of buying a car or a house, as he's not into cars and he was happy with where he lived at the time.

Instead, he came up with the genius idea of buying a lifetime pass with American Airlines.

"I travelled so much with my company that I wanted to just be able to relax and go have fun," he said.

You can't argue with that, right?

So the Shark Tank star called the airline up and sure enough they sold air passes - without hesitation, he sunk $250,000 for two passes with 125,000 miles per year for the rest of his life. That's one for him and one for his pal.

Whipping out the card, he said: "I would go out with friends and we'd go drink in LA, fly to Vegas, fly somewhere else, you know, 'let's got to Moscow'."

In short, the world was their oyster - which I think most people would agree is a fantastic way to spend your first big payout.

Plenty of people thought so, with one writing: "Very smart move right here, this is why love Mark Cuban."

"Lifetime fly Pass. That's my fu.... Dream," said another, while a third wrote: "Those American Airlines lifetime unlimited passes that they started it the 1980s were one of the best deals in existence."

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Topics: Money, US News, Travel, Technology

Daisy Phillipson

Daisy graduated from Kingston University with a degree in Magazine Journalism, writing a thesis on the move from print to digital publishing. Continuing this theme, she has written for a range of online publications including Digital Spy and Little White Lies, with a particular passion for TV and film. Contact her on [email protected]

@DaisyWebb77