Barbara Corcoran: 8 Strategies You Can Learn From Entrepreneurs for Financial Success
Barbara Corcoran is an expert on entrepreneurship. The self-made millionaire and star of Shark Tank has spent a lifetime learning how to succeed in business.
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The lessons she’s learned aren’t just applicable to entrepreneurs. Many can impact how you think about managing your personal finances. You’ll find nine of Corcoran’s financial strategies that anyone can learn from below.
Don’t Wait To Start
According to a comment on a Reddit post by Corcoran, one of her most relevant pieces of advice is not waiting to start. She said that entrepreneurs who spend too much time perfecting things tend to get stuck at the gate. She said you need to get into the race before you can win it.
This is true with personal finances as much as it is for entrepreneurship. You should get started with goals like saving for retirement now instead of waiting for the perfect financial conditions. That way you get into the habit and start making progress today.
It’s a rule you can apply to any financial goal you may have, including saving for a house, building an emergency fund or building a stock portfolio.
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Put Self-Doubt Away
Cocoran often talks about how self-doubt and a fear of failure hold entrepreneurs back. They keep people from pursuing their goals even when they have no other reasons not to do so.
This applies to personal finances, too. For example, maybe you’re worried you’ll never be able to buy a home, so you don’t start to save for a down payment. In this case, the fear of failure has guaranteed it.
Daydreaming Is Valuable
Corcoran wasn’t a great student growing up. She spent much of her time in class daydreaming about the companies she’d like to build. Today, she realizes how much value she got from that.
Daydreaming helped Corcoran learn how to bring a vision to life. She said this has been more important for her than having a rock-solid business plan would be.
You can bring the same energy to your financial life. By allowing yourself to dream about your biggest financial goals, you may start to take the first steps toward achieving them.
Whom You Know Only Takes You So Far
Corcoran also reminds us that whom you know only gets you so far in life. She said it can get your foot in the door, but if you don’t learn fast, you can still be thrown out.
The lesson here is that you can only rely on luck and natural advantages up to a point when creating your financial future. You still need to put in the work and learn if you want to achieve your goals.
Read as You Work
Someone recently asked Corcoran what books she’d recommended to an aspiring entrepreneur. She replied that you shouldn’t read any books before venturing out and trying what you want to do.
Her idea is that learning by doing is just as important — if not more important — than learning from others’ experiences by reading. So don’t put off making financial progress or picking up a side hustle until you feel like you’re an expert.
Get started now and read as you go, instead. This should help you learn whatever it is you’re trying to do faster.
Don’t Get an Ego
Next up, Corcoran said you can’t get an ego once things start going your way
In a YouTube clip by Business Insider, Corcoran shared that she deals with plenty of entrepreneurs who start strong, begin to feel invincible and then fall apart when turbulence arrives.
The reason is that you tend to stop working so hard to improve when you feel like you have everything figured out. So, if you start to feel too confident about your personal financial goals, that could be exactly when they slip away from you.
Only 1 Out of 3 Deals Is Successful
Corcoran said, in that same Business Insider clip, that only about one out of three deals that she does succeeds. The reason for this, she said, is that people tend to misunderstand what it takes to be a great entrepreneur.
You don’t have to be book-smart to achieve great things in business, Corcoran said. In fact, she said her best deals are with founders who are great at thinking on their feet and bouncing back quickly when disaster strikes.
This lesson gives some insight into the mindset it takes to achieve financial success. Corcoran is willing to invest in two deals that fail for every one that succeeds. Her willingness to embrace failure has helped her succeed.
Maybe you could become more resilient in your personal financial life. That might mean learning how to bounce back faster from unexpected expenses or become more adept at thinking on your feet to achieve your goals.
Opposites Can Attract
Finally, Corcoran’s path to financial wealth isn’t one she traveled entirely on her own. She partnered with Esther Kaplan, a longtime friend whom she said in a TikTok video is quiet as a mouse. That’s a very different personality from the highly outgoing Corcoran.
But the Shark Tank investor said opposites sometimes complement each other incredibly well in life. She highlights how opposite tendencies like introversion and extroversion work together as two distinct sets of strengths.
The takeaway here is that the people who help you most financially won’t always be the same way you are. In fact, there are advantages to partnering with companies, financial institutions and partners who can fill in for your weaknesses, just like you can do for them.
The Bottom Line
Corcoran took a $1,000 loan and turned herself into the queen of New York real estate. She did it by dreaming big, learning through action and cultivating the right mindset for her goals.
These are all lessons that the average person can apply to their financial life, though the best way to do so will depend on your situation. Still, some of these lessons could be just what you need to take the next step toward your goals.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Barbara Corcoran: 8 Strategies You Can Learn From Entrepreneurs for Financial Success
