Dallas Mavericks team owner Mark Cuban speaks to a member of the coaching staff standing near by at half time of an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies in Dallas, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

MILFORD – The Milford Rotary had a special guest last week as American billionaire Mark Cuban joined their Zoom meeting.

Cuban is a well-known television personality, appearing on “Shark Tank.” He’s also a media proprietor (he owns the NBA basketball team the Dallas Mavericks), investor and entrepreneur.

Longtime Milford Rotary member Joe Raczek attended Indiana University with Cuban and during the meeting, Cuban was razzed for his modern hair styles of the day and after his team won the NBA championship in 2011, he was purportedly attached at-the-hip to the massive championship trophy.

There was much banter and laughter among the jovial members as Cuban entered the meeting.

“I’ve always dreamed of being with the Milford Rotary Club,” Cuban said in jest.

“I don’t believe you,” Rotary member Tim Finan said. “This is where you have to tell us all the secrets before Joe gets here.”

Of the stories, Cuban said, “They are all true and I’m going to deny them all.”

Raczek was late for the meeting and Cuban joked, “He’s probably nervous.”

After the official welcome, the Pledge of Allegiance and a blessing, the meeting proceeded with a Rotary song that featured video of the Three Stooges and the movie “Caddyshack,” and then Cuban offering his views on being in the entrepreneurial business world.

“First of all, any introduction that features the Three Stooges and ‘Caddyshack,’ is a first class video all the way,” Cuban said.

Cuban recalled something that his dad used to say.

“The most valuable asset that we don’t own is our time,” Cuban said. “Today is the youngest day we will ever be, so you have to live like it.”

With the group that Raczek and Cuban put together in college, Cuban noted how quickly time flies. The two met more than 40 years ago as friends at Indiana University playing rugby together.

“It’s fascinating that over the years, you just pick up these lessons that I think, probably a lot of you could teach me better than I can teach you,” Cuban continued. “But as we go through our business lives and our personal lives, things always evolve. And I always go back to the sayings that my dad always gave me.”

Cuban said his father did upholstery on cars and was in the military in WWII and in the Korean War.

“He always brought them down to the simplest things,” Cuban said. “As I started to get into business, he used to just shake his head at me. ‘I have no idea what you’re doing, but keep on doing it and I’ll support you.'”

Hitting certain milestones, Cuban said, like hitting 50 years of age, “seems so old until you hit 60.'”

Cuban said one of the great things about the rotary club is that it gives people energy and excitement.

“The other thing my dad used to say to me was, ‘You don’t live the world you were born into,'” Cuban said. “And that was his way of saying, things change. “

Cuban talked about technology and changes and the difficulties some people face when trying to comprehend them.

“I think one of the greatest skill sets we can have in business is no matter how old or how experienced we are, or how successful we are, we have to continue to be agile and adaptive,” Cuban said. “There is no end to change.”

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