In 1973, struggling waitress, Barbara Corcoran, received a $1,000 loan from an ex-boyfriend to open a real estate business selling apartments in Manhattan—and The Corcoran Group was born. By the mid-1970s, Barbara was publishing The Corcoran Report featuring real estate data developments in New York City, landing her a position as one of the top real estate experts in New York. Over the next two decades, Barbara Corcoran would turn that that $1000 loan into a billion dollar empire, eventually selling The Corcoran Group for $66 million, just days before 9/11.
With the sale of The Corcoran Group, Barbara’s worth as a real-estate expert skyrocketed. She’s now NBC TODAY’s real estate contributor; the host of CNBC’s The Millionaire Broker with Barbara Corcoran; she’s a columnist for The Daily Review, More Magazine, Redbook and the New York Daily News. She’s appeared on Larry King Live, travels around the world as a speaker and as a business consultant. She’s the author of 3 books including If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons in Your Pigtails, and Other Lessons I Learned From My Mom. But perhaps Barbara Corcoran is best known today for her savvy investment skills on the hit NBC series Shark Tank where she invests in start-ups and businesses of new entrepreneurs in exchange for an equity percentage of that company, like that of food truck, Cousins Maine Lobster or online bakery, Daisy Cakes. In the first season of Shark Tank alone, 8 of the businesses that Barbara invested turned a big time profit.
“I had the perfect childhood for making you ready for life.”
“I got practice at being a team player being one of ten children.”
“When you only have two parents to go around and ten kids you don’t get a lot of attention. I think that’s why I went into TV. More attention.”
“My dad worked two jobs his whole life to support us.”
“My mom was incredibly accurate. She said my brother was going to be a ballet dancer the day he was born—and he grew up to be one.”
“The only goal my parents had for us to grow up to be nice people.”
“It’s freeing to have nothing to lose and nowhere to go but up when you grow up poor.”
“All us kids were working by the time we were 11. My mother demanded that we give 50% back to the household.”
“’The Power of Broke’ is such a great title.”
“The only job I hated was as a nurse’s clerk. I liked the uniform.”
“My first job was a playground supervisor. My last job was a waitress at a diner in Jersey. I had my own territory.”
“By the time I got to be a boss at 23 I was a good boss because I had the experience of 22 jobs.”
“You learn from every job the same way you learn what cut of pants look good on you.”
“The first day in the brokerage business I was that waitress again working sales.”
“I never thought of myself as a woman. I thought of myself as a worker.”
“I did get upset when I was filled with a room full of men and if someone talked down to me.”
“All the real estate firms in NYC are run by men and worked by women.”
“I would make it my point to schmooze anyone who told me I couldn’t do something. My duty was to show them I could do anything.”
“When I would go into a male meeting in short, bright skirt. I have great legs. I’d play up asset I had.”
“Take whatever your assets are and exaggerate them. It gets you over your shyness too.”
“I noticed I had 15 female managers before I hired one man.”
“Females don’t take credit the way a man does. I learned to brag early on. It’s nothing more than raising your hand.”
“For two seasons on Shark Tank the men would talk over me. I learned to speak up.”
“ I was doing work as a Fox News political consultant. Thank God I’m not doing that now, I’d be a drunk.”
“Shark Tank wanted to see financial statements to make sure you could afford to fund the businesses.”
“I bought three new suits, two for signing autographs.”
“The sales business is all about rejection. Rejection is my sweet spot.”
“When Donald Trump said I wouldn’t see a penny of the $5 million he owed me I got all of it in federal court.”
“Over the years I’ve developed a huge muscle to stand back up and take another shot.”
“I work my ass off, get to the alter and not get it. But it’s that ‘one more time’ attitude that seals the deal.”
“The only thing the best entrepreneurs have in common is that ‘get back up mentality’.”
“The minute they cast the blame on someone else I know I don’t have a winner.”
“Really successful people take less time feeling sorry for themselves.”
“I don’t care so much if their product is the next best thing. In fact I’m afraid of it. I want that fighter personality.”
“When investors go astray they believe too much in the numbers. I don’t believe numbers. I make numbers up. I believe in the person.”
“People who talk too much want to be heard.”
“There’s a lot in a name.”
“I know what makes a great agent and what makes a pretend great agent.”
“NYC is a miracle town. Real estate keeps going higher.”
“I’m always asked the same questions about who’s succeeding and why, so I told the whole story through Shark Tales.’”
“No one wanted to live above 79th street when I first started.”
“Daisy Cakes, a dollar a cake. My first business I made a profit. She was 40 and sexy. Her website crashed. Her phone was ringing off the hook.”
“My first year I saw I was going to make a profit I bought a new car for my mother and one for my father. Nothing ever measured up to that feeling again.”
Read more about Barbara HERE
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