'Shark Tank' star Barbara Corcoran: How I went from a 10-kid household and more than 20 jobs to become a real estate mogul

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'Shark Tank' star Barbara Corcoran: How I went from a 10-kid household and more than 20 jobs to become a real estate mogul

Before finding fame on "Shark Tank" and before building her New York real-estate empire, Barbara Corcoran was one of 10 kids in a working-class New Jersey family.

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"We watched my father get fired and hired and fired and hired - he must have interviewed well," Corcoran said on Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It." "He would always come home and tell the story as to why he was fired, and it always came down to the same bottom line: He would tell Mr. Stein where to take that job and shove it up where the sun don't shine, and we'd go, 'Yay, Dad!'"

If nothing else, she learned how to take a risk. She started with a $1,000 loan from her then boyfriend to go into the real-estate business.

They broke up, then the company broke up, and she built her half into the Corcoran Group, a real-estate behemoth that she sold for 66 million dollars in 2001. From there, she landed a spot co-hosting the hit reality-TV show "Shark Tank."

Corcoran discusses all this and more in the episode, including how she stands out in a competitive field. Her advice was pretty controversial:

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"I wore bright-colored suits, short skirts, I had great legs - that was my best asset. I flaunted them, no doubt about it."

You can find the full interview transcript here.

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