Before he was a sports fanatic, Mark Cuban was "just another billionaire. Born July 31, 1958, in Pittsburgh, his first attempt in the business world was a salesman of garbage bags and powdered milk in his neighborhood. He paid his way through college by writing chain letters and offering disco dancing lessons, attending Indiana University because the cost was so much lower than other business schools in the nation.

Even in college, Cuban made a name for himself as a controversial figure, already gaining a reputation for being very outspoken. He was known as a ruler-breaker, taking advanced courses his freshman year, and his advisor talked him out of getting his MBA after completing his bachelor's degree.

After completing college, in 1982, Cuban founded a system integrator company in Dallas called MicroSolutions, which was a reseller for several computer service companies, like Novell, Apple, and Sun Microsystems. The company also adopted technology like Lotus Notes and CompuServe ahead of the mainstream. In July of 1990, Cuban sold his company to CompuServe for $6 million.

This was only the beginning for Mark Cuban as he started a legendary life and later to become owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Even in the basketball realm, Cuban is known for being controversial.