Mark Cuban's biggest professional challenge was "to be nice"

“I thought I was nice, I got along with everybody. It turns out my perception was different." Mark Cuban once believed he was an approachable boss. But one blunt conversation with his cofounder forced him to rethink how he ran his companies. “People are afraid of you,” Cuban recalled his Broadcast.com business partner Todd Wagner telling him years ago. “We don’t get as much done because people are afraid of you.” Speaking on the Trailblazer Podcast with Erica Wenger last month, the billionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank star, who turns 68 today, explained how his leadership approach has evolved over time.