10 Success Principles from Barbara Corcoran, Real Estate Mogul and Entrepreneur Extraordinaire

It is amazing the things you can uncover when cleaning out piles of papers from over the years. While doing some New Year’s cleaning, I found some notes from the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce’s 2012 Business and Leadership Conference keynote delivered by super successful real estate mogul and entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran. I found that these 7 year old notes I took are still fresh and pertinent.

Someone who built a multi-billion dollar business starting from the ground up with nothing (no old family money, no super wealthy backers) but grit and her own business savvy is certainly worth listening to. Here are Barbara’s 10 principles to succeed:
1. Be great at failure, since success most often comes after trying and failing multiple times.
2. Perceptions creates reality – so don’t stray away from going after publicity.
3. Everybody wants what everybody wants – very important for marketing a product or service.
4. Expand before you are ready.
5. Shoot the dogs early. If something is not working, don’t drag it out. Stop!
6. There are basically two types of people – expanders and containers. Recruit skills that are opposite of yours since both are important.
7. Recognition often motivates people better than money. Be generous with your praise and recognition.
8. Fun is good for business. Creating fun in your business helps drive loyalty.
9. During bad times, stay positive and remember the best is ahead.
10. You have the right to be here. This was a particularly important message for LGBT and other minority owned businesses. We all have something to offer.

Yes – hearing from the super successful is certainly one of the best ways to learn skills and principles that can help each of us succeed. And every year, the National LGBT Chamber continues to offer their annual excellent conference with outstanding keynotes, workshops and networking.

NOTE: Consider attending this year’s NGLCC International Business and Leadership Conference in Tampa August 13 – 16th!

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Blog author Stan Kimer founded his own successful innovative diversity and career development consultancy in 2010 after a 31-year career at IBM. Check out my website and offerings … www.totalengagementconsulting.com and / or subscribe to my monthly newsletter.