‘It was life-changing money’: Mark Cuban turned 300 employees into millionaires when he sold Broadcast.com, gave $35M in bonuses to Mavs employees — here’s why

“It ended up being a lot more actually, but I’m not there without them,” he told ESPN analyst Shannon Sharpe on a recent episode of the “Club Shay Shay” podcast.

“I did it with MicroSolutions, you know, we had 80 employees, they all got paid. I did it with Broadcast.com — out of 330 employees, 300 became millionaires. And I wanted to do the same thing with the Mavs. You know, they were there for me the whole time … for those who were there 20 years or more it was life-changing money.”

Cuban isn’t the only billionaire with this philosophy. On the eve of wrapping up the U.S. leg of her “Eras” Tour in 2023, musical phenomenon Taylor Swift gave each member of the tour’s trucking staff $100,000 each, according to CNN.

“These men and women, they live on the road. They sleep during the day and work all night,” said Michael Scherkenbach, founder and CEO of Shomotion trucking company, told CNN. “It’s a grueling task. They leave their families, young children for weeks. For Swift’s tour, they’ve been away from home for 24 weeks.”

Swift and Cuban’s generosity demonstrates how the windfall effect can be harnessed for positive outcomes.

The windfall effect

Behavioral economists have observed the impact a sudden influx of cash could have on a person’s spending habits and their ability to make risky decisions. “We find a clear and systematic pattern that windfall gains increase risk tolerance,” says a study published in the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty last year.

Put simply, a quick and sudden increase in your spending power could prompt you to abandon the financial guardrails that have protected you from reckless spending.

Nearly three quarters of Americans (72%) lack the financial confidence needed to manage a large influx of money on their own, according to a Citizens survey.

Being aware of the windfall effect could perhaps help you tackle it. But the next step could be to harness this effect to do some good for others and show your appreciation.