Who is Barbara Corcoran?
A diner waitress who took a $1,000 loan in 1973 and built a top residential real estate firm in New York City, eventually selling out for $66 million in 2001.
How did she do it? HARD, hard work, a LOT of risk, and a HUGE helping of moxie. Barbara’s book, “If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails” tells the full story.
What drove Corcoran? What motivated her?
After 5 yrs, in 1978, with 14 agents and annual revenue of just over half a million, her partner and then boyfriend announced he was marrying another woman. As they split the company, his parting words were “You will never succeed without me.” According to Barbara, “Those words branded my soul. I started the Corcoran Group to prove I could succeed.”
Her first solo year in business was tough but she did $350,000 of revenue, spending every spare cent and then some to expand, to build the business. Thrift was a necessity. The Corcoran Group never had a Christmas party in December, they celebrated the holidays in February because she could get a fabulous place on the cheap.
When Barbara sold her business, she had built it to 850 agents and just under a $100 million in revenue. Barbara took an insult and used it as a motivational supercharger, took a personal and business setback and spun it into gold.
Closing quotes:
“The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.” — Orison Swett Marsden
“Stepping stone or stumbling block, opportunity or problem, life is how you see it, what you make of it.” — Nathan S. Collier
“Whether you think you can, think you can’t, you are right.” — Henry Ford