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Barbara Corcoran, the Shark Tank investor and a real estate mogul, has built a fortune over the years. However, she dedicates all of it to the lessons on money she learnt from her mother.
In a conversation during The Diary of a CEO podcast, Barbara revealed that she grew up in a household where finances were quite constrained, but money was never a major concern in her family. The biggest reason behind this was the fact that her mother believed worrying about money was not a productive thing to do.
The Shark Tank investor talked about how, even though there were financial struggles at home, her mother had never let it dictate the atmosphere around the kids.
Now that she is looking back, Barbara said that her mother "should have worried about money," along with her father, but instead of doing that, they embraced a philosophy of resilience and positivity.
Even when she was deep in a dark period of her business, her mother's advice changed how she viewed money. She recalled being on the brink of failure and was convinced that she would have to sell her company. She said,
"But I remember many junctures along the way where I thought I’d be going out of business. At the 11th hour, I had tried everything and didn’t think I had any more angles to work to stay in business for another month."
During that time, she received a call from her mother, who noticed there was something off about her. This is when Barbara expressed her fears to her mom, thinking that she would be "going out of business." She also revealed writing a goodbye speech to let her employees go.
However, her mom's advice played a pivotal role in changing her mind. Barbara's mom told her not to "worry about money" because "it's an awful waste of time."
Those words struck a chord with her, who said,
"You know, I stopped worrying about money when she said that. I thought of a new idea, and it kept us in business for another two months."
Appreciating her mother, she added,
"My mother’s attitude toward money was that it was meant to be spent. As a kid, I guess I would have liked to have a new coat instead of hand-me-downs. That’s always better for a girl to feel like she looks pretty. But we were a happy bunch, and money didn’t weigh in on our happiness."
Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran shares the lessons her mother taught her about money
The moment when the Shark Tank investor's mom said those money words, it shifted her mindset. She was able to focus on innovation and action instead of having financial anxiety.
Another key takeaway from her childhood, which Barbara had learnt from her mother, was that money was supposed to be spent. She acknowledged that she would have preferred a new coat as a child and not hand me down but despite that, the 10 siblings lived happily with each other.
Shifting their focus from money, the Shark Tank investor says that her mom and dad taught them to see the kindness in the world. She says that as a result of this, she and her siblings grew up with the "satisfaction of helping people out, not with money, but by simply doing nice things" for them.
This idea in their mind reinforced the belief that wealth is not the ultimate measure of success or contentment in life.
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Shark Tank season 16 episodes release weekly on ABC at 8 PM Eastern Time on Fridays. They are later available to watch on Hulu.
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