From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Barbara Corcoran on tapping into your strengths

From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

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Barbara Corcoran on tapping into your strengths

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- I want to talk a little bit about your own personal journey. You started out as a waitress, but you want to be your own boss. And so that was how you found your way into real estate. Then you built this real estate empire, which you sold before, starting on the "Shark Tank." You've reinvented yourself so many times, and I feel like this might be an inflection point for so many people who have been laid off or who wondering what should I do next? What would you tell them in terms of how to approach that journey and figuring out how they can reinvent themselves amidst this pandemic - Probably the only silver lining to what's going on right now is we all have time on our hands. We have a break, a time out, and I think it's the absolute best time to ask yourself how happy you are? whether you're doing with most of your life, what you really want to be doing? Or would you wish to be doing something else? And now you actually have the time to re aim your guns at what you really want. And there's not that many excuses. I mean, a lot of people say, well, I have no time to take the course. Well, now you can. You could get them for all for free education online right now. Right? I don't have the time because I work two jobs. No, you're not doing that right now. You've got the time. And what I do each time I reinvent myself and I hope to get a few more reinventions in before it's over. I always sat down with the big legal pad, a lot of space, big world, big yellow, legal pad. And I would simply write down what I thought I was good at. Not what as good at so far as the job of waitressing that I had back then, I mean, I was in normally efficient waitress and I poured on the charm and I got the biggest tips, okay?. But I didn't put down as my skill, I'm a good waitress. My skill was I could charm people. I could persuade people. I could work efficiently and making a clear list of whatever your gifts are, gives you a very good heads-up as to what you should be doing with your life. Because people will inevitably do so much better making a fortune and a success for themselves if they tap into what they're naturally good at. And so I did the same thing when I sold the Corcoran group, I thought, ah, what will I do now? I had no idea. I mean, I should have given this early thought. And I got out of my old legal pad and I put what I love. I loved an audience. I loved public speaking. Cause these are the favorite parts of brokerage for me. It wasn't showing apartments. I loved marketing. I love campaigns. I love showboating. I go, well, what would be a good business for me? And there were only two on the list. One was public relations and the other was media. And so I picked media 'cause I didn't want to make some clients actually. That's basically why I got rid of that one. And that put me in the media business as simple as that. But why have I done well it is it taps into what I naturally do well in the same things I did well as a waitress, the same things did well while building a real estate brokerage firm. It's all the same stuff. You don't change. You can't hope to change your wiring, but you can certainly repackage yourself. And that's all reinventing is. It's repackaging the same old wiring to look different, smell pretty and apply to today's economy, how it could apply to today's economy. And a note on today's economy, what is phenomenal, phenomenal about when you have drastic change, once you through the dress you change is half your competitors are gone. You come out and everybody's open to new idea. There are new needs that have been defined by the crisis and you can choose what you want. You could get going in a whole different way. And that's what's wonderful about being on the heels of a catastrophe. Changes in the air and everybody's willing to accept change. And all you have to do is figure out where you want to fit in and how you can capitalize on it.

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