The Secret to Building Wealth from Nothing (It's Not What You Think) | Barbara Corcoran

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Real confidence comes from knowing you'll get back up, not from winning

  Barbara Corcoran, an original Shark Tank investor who built The Corcoran Group in New York real estate, says success never built her confidence; most of her ideas flopped. What made it 'rock solid' was knowing she could outwork and out-try anyone and would always stand back up. You might fail again, but you trust that the next one will be a win.

• 02

  How fast you bounce back separates top performers from average ones

  Her worst salespeople stayed home for about a week feeling sorry for themselves after losing a good customer. Her best lost customers constantly, dusted off and got back in the game. She says that habit alone divided people earning $3–4 million a year from the average salesperson earning about $60–62,000.

• 03

  Being underestimated can be an advantage

  New York real estate was owned by well-connected men, and she hired 'everybody that nobody else wanted'. For about 10 years 'none of the big boys watched me', which left her free to try marketing ideas until she 'crept up on them'. She sees not being taken seriously as cover.

• 04

  She credits dyslexia with her success

  A third-grade teacher told her she'd always be 'stupid' because she couldn't read, and it took her about 8 years to get past it. She was diagnosed late, as Mel was, when their sons were diagnosed. She says dyslexia gave her a different way of thinking: she daydreamed six hours a day in class and now 'can think of an idea a minute'. It also makes her over-prepare, about 7 hours for a 1-hour speech.

• 05

  Act like the person you want to be before you are her

  At 23 she declared she'd be 'queen of New York real estate'. She then embodied it: she spent $330 of her first $340 commission on a Bloomingdale's coat to replace a ratty one and wore it for six years. 'You look and feel like a million bucks, you're going to act like a million bucks.'

• 06

  Your opportunity is in your own chest, not your boss's hands

  Some people blame their 'cards' (bad leads, an unfair boss); others play bad hands fast to get a new one, or leave. She says employees are fooled into thinking the job defines their opportunity, when they could leave any day they chose.

• 07

  The one trait she fires for is complaining

  She says she can fix ineptitude and even low effort by inspiring people, but not a complainer. She calls complaining 'a cancer' that is contagious and attacks positive people. Her company had about 1,000 staff, yet in an industry with roughly 60% annual turnover, she says no one left unless she fired them.

• 08

  It's never too late; count the years you have left

  Corcoran plans to live to about 105 and counts forward, asking how many more lives she can pack in. She became a mother at 46 and had her biggest success in her 50s, 60s and 70s. She says hesitation comes from fear of failing in public, and the fix is to get moving on something, anything, and let the idea shape itself.

• 09

  Women undersell themselves and need to open their mouths

  She says women do the climb, feed everyone and then credit the team, and rarely ask for help or money. 'Opening my mouth got me everything I got.' Mel adds a reframe: a friend asked why her goal was to be the number-one female podcaster rather than simply number one, and the show then hit number one for 81 days.

• 10

  Entrepreneurs need to enjoy risk and take a hit

  If you're the type who says 'hit me again', you may be suited to running a business; if you hate risk and can't take hits, she says you're better off working for someone else, and she thinks the trait is hard to develop. On Shark Tank she mostly sizes up the founders, not the businesses.