Barbara Corcoran’s Rags-to-Riches There are a lot of rags to riches stories in America. It’s the American dream, after all. One of these success stories is Barbara Corcoran, business woman, author, and TV personality. She is particularly famous for her role as a “Shark” investor on ABC’s Shark Tank. The big question is: how did she go from straight-D student to multi-billionaire? Well, it’s not quite clear. We have the skeleton of the story, but there seems to be quite a lot missing. Most of her online biographies explain that she was a young, energetic, yet unsuccessful student that scraped her way through high school, made it through college, and worked 20 jobs by the time she was 23. After graduating college, she borrowed $1000 from her rich boyfriend and started her own real estate business. Next thing you know, boom! She’s a billionaire. While an inspiring and a classic example of the American Dream, all the good stuff is missing.
A Walking Mystery Her story is kind of like those fairy tales where prince meets beautiful girl and boom! They are in love and married. What ever happened to dating, courting, or even talking? Two people work to find each other and once they do, that’s it? The struggles are over? Hardly. Now, logically, something happened in-between meet and marriage. We just don’t get to know because it’s not that interesting. Or maybe there is a magic secret they want to keep on the down-low? Or it’s too complicated? Or it takes too long to explain? Whatever the reason (we won’t judge) it’s important to realize that something is missing. This goes for lovely Barbara’s story too.
A Personal Story Somewhere between the “thanks for the thousand bucks babe,” and “hello ABC” something significant happened. We get pieces of the story here and there. We can assume most, if not all, of the advice she gives comes from personal experience. It’s also clear from her book and other interviews that she learned a lot from her mom. Barbara also mentions her struggle through school and her imaginative nature as contributing factors to her success. Of course, it’s not like Barbara is obligated to share every detail of her career with the world. Actually, at one point or another, she probably has. The only thing is, it’s all a jumble - one piece here and other there. But maybe that is a good thing. For those motivated enough to piece together her story, there could be a prize at the end of the line. Besides, everyone knows (or should learn) that there is no magic formula for success. What works for someone may not work for another. There are a lot of things left to chance or fate or unique circumstances that helps or hinders people along their way.
So Barbara, if you’d like to share a little more of what happened between that $1000 and the five billion you have now – awesome. If not, that’s ok too. We still think you’re pretty cool.