"I want them to be themselves" — Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban on the path he wants his children to take 

Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban recently shared his opinion on his children's future and the direction he would want them to take. In episode 802 of the YMH Studios podcast, titled Dumbest Shark Tank Pitches w/ Mark Cuban, he discussed the plans for his three children and the extent to which he wanted his wealth to influence their lives.

"I want them to go on their own path... Whatever it may be I want them to be themselves. I don't want them to be Mark Cuban's kid for their entire lives," Mark said.

The Shark Tank panelist explained that although he wanted his children to be comfortable, he also wanted them to understand the "value of money" and not treat it as something that was "just there all the time."

Mark also spoke about taking steps and making decisions regarding his businesses to ensure his children would not "battle" over inheritance or other assets left behind.

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Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban discusses allowing a moderate impact of money on his children's lives

In one of the segments of the podcast episode, host Tom Segura raised the subject of inheritance and the complexities of wealthy people leaving behind billions of dollars for their future generations. When he asked Mark Cuban if he thought leaving behind a fortune felt like "throwing off someone's development," he jokingly said:

"Well, they're smart. They know how to do the math. My bigger worry is, 'Are they gonna knock me off?'"

He then admitted it was a topic he and his wife, Tiffany Stewart, talked about "all the time." On one hand, they wondered, "How much is too much?" and on the other, they wanted their kids to have enough to "be able to survive."

The Shark Tank investor then shared that when he sold the Dallas Mavericks in 2023, he organized the money received in such a way that his children would "be okay" but not to the extent where they could "just go buy planes and stuff."

"And then there's certain things that they have to do, you know, certain benchmarks. Graduate, you know, not do certain things and, you know, like that," he added.

Soon after, Tom mentioned that he often heard the news about wealthy parents leaving behind billions of dollars for their children and wondered what Mark thought about it. The investor noted it was a "scary" thing to do since he did not want a "battle" among his kids like the plotline of the HBO drama series, Succession, which he said he had watched.

Mark revealed that interpersonal tension over inheritance or wealth, in general, was one of the reasons he sold the Mavericks. He stated that it would upset him to watch his children take over one day and face "the backlash" like the Mavericks did after trading Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers on February 1, 2025.

Consequently, Mark said he wanted his two daughters and one son to chalk their own paths instead of following his legacy.

A while later in the podcast, Tom's wife and co-host, Christina, asked Mark what he did to "wind down." One of the things the Shark Tank investor said he did was "hang out" with his children and go to their games. Tom asked if he did "family trips," to which Mark replied:

"Not so much because they're [children] teenagers. They decide, right?"

He added that his children called such trips "forced family fun." Mark then mentioned "dad" as his "favorite word in the universe."

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Shark Tank season 16 airs new episodes every Friday at 8 pm ET exclusively on ABC.