If you're going to build something from nothing, you've got to know what really works.

I took a thousand dollar loan and built a five billion dollar business, and now I make smart investments in new businesses on Shark Tank. This is Barbara

Corcoran and you're listening to Business Unusual. On this episode I'll tell you

why the only business guru who ever mattered to me was in fact my mom.

But first, what do you do when people stop returning your calls?

You reinvent yourself. Here's how I did it. Never think you're too old to reinvent yourself. I spent 25 years building a real estate company in New York City and then I sold it and I was lost.

What I realized was that leaving your old job is hard.

I missed terribly the people I worked with.

When I walked into my business I I had everyone saying good morning.

I now only had my husband and kids saying good morning.

I instantly felt old thinking that nothing really exciting was ahead of me because the best was behind me.

And of course I faced my worst in securities that I'd be a nobody for life.

But then one day I realized, no, I didn't sell my golden goose, which is what I was thinking at the time,

but instead I realized all I did was sell one golden egg, and I would lay another.

And so here's how I reinvented myself.

I decided I was going to find my next perfect career

by thinking about what I did well and what I did poorly.

I took a piece of paper, I drew a line down the middle, and I wrote on

one side everything I liked about every job I ever had, and on the other side I wrote a

long list of what I didn't like. Then I looked at the list and tried to figure

out which occupations would utilize the stuff I really love doing and wouldn't have much of what

I didn't like at all.

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