Mark Cuban Just Gave the Ultimate Pep Talk on Staying Positive in Crazy Times

Feeling exhausted after all the craziness of 2024? You are not alone. After so much election craziness, weird weather, brutal wars, and an endless parade of bizarre online trends and AI slop, a lot of us are ending the year feeling so mentally burnt out that the Oxford University Press named “brain rot” the word of the year. 

The billionaire co-founder of the Cost Plus Drug Company, former Mavs owner, and Shark Tank star certainly took his share of hits this year. A prominent advocate for Kamala Harris to the business community, Cuban definitely didn’t get his preferred election result. And as a power Twitter/X (now Bluesky) user, he’s seen plenty of online nastiness.  

But speaking as part of Wired’s The Big Interview series just a few days ago, Cuban retained his usual profanity-laced positivity. How does he manage to retain hope and energy when so many of us feel like we’d rather crawl back into bed and hide under the covers? 

Cuban, an entrepreneur to his core, kicked off his case for optimism by noting the deep-rooted entrepreneurial bent of America. In this country, when you have an idea that you think is really cool, you talk to your friends about it, you research it, maybe you write a business plan (with the help of genAI, Cuban suggests), and then you go, “Oh my god, I can do this!” 

“We may be in weird times right now politically,” he concedes, “but that doesn’t change who we are as Americans. We can be afraid, we can be aware, we can be concerned, but what you do and who you are, that’s what makes us different.” 

America continues to be a country of entrepreneurs. And our entrepreneurs — broadly defined as people who build new, needed things — are continuing to do their thing and create innovations that are the envy of the world, Cuban insists. 

The weather may be terrifyingly weird, but as Bill Gates pointed out on his blog, while “climate change is staring us in the face. … What’s harder to see, unless you know where to look, is growing evidence that we’re making real progress in the fight against it.” (Check out this chart showing the price of solar panels if you need convincing.) 

Political turmoil is exhausting, but it’s helpful to remember that big upsets have historically spurred political parties to regroup in ways that are productive for both them and the American people. 

As New York Times political writer Ezra Klein has pointed out, George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004 “was not the beginning of a Republican realignment.” It was the kickoff of the Obama revolution. Whatever your political preferences, remembering that nothing ever stays the same for long is calming. That’s how progress gets (slowly, haltingly) made. 

America’s continued appetite for creative destruction and new innovation is at the heart of Cuban’s pep talk. “That’s why I am bullish on the United States of America. No doubt about it. It’s not like people aren’t showing up,” he says, resting his case for optimism.    

Addressing her supporters after her loss, Kamala Harris made the case that the best way to respond to disappointment is to continue to believe that, despite the challenges, what you do makes a difference. This kind of hope through action, psychologists agree, is what makes people the most resilient. 

Cuban apparently agrees. The reason he’s not demoralized right now is because so many people are out there doing things, big and small, to make the world a better place. If you feel brain rot and exhaustion creeping up on you, remembering their efforts, or better yet joining them, is likely the best prescription.