"Never had a boss I liked" - When Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran revealed how her father shaped her business mindset

Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran is a business mogul in the New York real estate industry. During the Diary of a CEO podcast, filmed two years ago, Barbara revealed that her father always had an entrepreneurial mindset, which also affected her and her nine siblings.

She talked about how her father struggled with authority and was unable to hold down a job because of his views on employment, leadership, and control.

The Shark Tank investor grew up in a big home where financial stability was a foreign concept. Despite that, her father's attitude towards work had left a strong impression on his children.

Barbara revealed that in her family, "nine out of ten kids have their own business," which is ultimately an effect of how his father viewed the job market. He used to work as a printing press foreman, and she says he was excellent at his job.

However, he had trouble when it came to being managed and someone telling him what to do, and thus, he was fired from his job again and again. However, instead of viewing these moments with fear, the Corcoran children admired their father's defiance. Barbara explained:

"My mother, of course, would have no idea how we were going to be fed until he found a new job. But he was a hero. So when we grew up, even though he never worked for himself, we knew we wanted to work for ourselves. We didn’t want to work for a boss. Honestly, I never had a boss I liked, even though I had so many. I’m sure they were perfectly fine people, but I didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t the boss.”

Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran revealed how her father's mindset about jobs changed hers as well

Barbara Corcoran, the Shark Tank investor, expressed her natural inclination towards leadership and a distaste for being managed. This led her to create her path in the world and found The Corcoran Group.

Ultimately, Barbara became one of the most influential figures in real estate. Talking about her journey in one of her Instagram videos, she shared about starting the company with a loan of $1000 from her boyfriend, Ray Simone, at the time.

Barbara says that she was excellent in sales and knew how to capture the attention of buyers in real estate, which led her business to grow. However, she separated from Ray when he left her for her secretary.

Talking about the same in this podcast, she revealed how he had told her she would never be successful without him, and thus, Barbara set out to prove him wrong and became a multi-millionaire. She says criticism was her biggest motivation.

Another facet of her life that was influenced by her father was the need to have control. The Shark Tank investor talked about how his father was a social drinker, and whenever he got drunk, he would turn into someone unrecognisable.

However, the next day, he would be the sweetest man, and this created an unpredictability in her mind about the lack of control over her father's behaviour. This is why she always wants to be the leader, or the one in charge.

Even though this factor has helped her in the business, she acknowledged how it stems from a deep-rooted fear of uncertainty from her childhood.

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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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