Shark Tank's Mark Cuban Identifies One Of The Worst Traits In An Entrepreneur

The panel of investors on ABC's popular reality series "Shark Tank" can decide to fund or pass on a business for reasons as grandiose or as petty as they so choose. For example, Mark Cuban once described a candle company as the worst pitch he's heard on "Shark Tank" in large part due to the smell of the sample its owner provided him.

In Season 14, Episode 5, an entrepreneur named Amy Leinbach pitches the Sharks a company she runs in collaboration with her daughter called Big Bee, Little Bee. She predominately highlights a marker holder shaped like a honeycomb, which is one of multiple home products with disparate uses the business sells. After hearing Leinbach out, Cuban initially praises her before identifying what he believes is one of the worst possible traits an entrepreneur can exhibit.

"One of the great traits of any good entrepreneur is resilience, and you certainly have shown that. But you also have 'inventor-itis,' which is one of the worst traits an entrepreneur can have. Because you lost $77,000, you've got to solve the problems that are in front of you first," Cuban says before passing on the company. In context, he's referring to the fact that Leinbach moved on to a new product before ensuring her older products were capable of making a profit, effectively defining "inventor-itis" as a tendency to prioritize new things over business sustainability.

While during "Shark Tank" Mark Cuban called what he describes as "inventor-itis" one of the worst traits a business owner can develop, he likewise revealed during a visit to Lewisville High School in Lewisville, Texas what he thinks is among the foremost ingredients in successful entrepreneurship.

"The key to starting a business when you're young is doing things that you can do yourself," he said. "Things that you can do with your own time. If it's a product, do something that's easy for you to get and easy for you to sell. By learning how to do that, it really comes down to one simple thing: the best businesses are things you can control and do yourself. That's what being an entrepreneur is all about."

This line of thinking tracks with his "inventor-itis" comment given that developing new products at the behest of profitability effectively renders a business out of its owner's control. While entrepreneurship requires more than just avoiding "inventor-itis" and maintaining a DIY mindset, these are nevertheless two key insights straight from one of the foremost business-minded celebrities.