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, stop striving for work life balance.

It just doesn't exist.

But first, perception creates reality.

You've got to look successful and get people to believe in you before you can become successful.

Let me tell you a story.

I'm sitting at my desk running the courtroom group way back when,

when my salesperson from hell burst into my office, demanding that I do

more advertising for her so she could get leads to sell apartments to. Well, of course I had no

money and didn't want to tell her that, and she complained so much.

I thought if I had a gun on my desk, I would just take it out and kill her.

But instead, I decided to do something about her complaints.

When she left the office, I took my 11 sales company wide for the year, added them up, divided by 11, and came up with a $54,000 sale price.

I decided to turn that into a report. I named it the corporate report and I type next to that average price, average New York City apartment price.

Thinking the report looked a little lonely on the page, not a lot of typing, I put in a byline

that said, conditions and trends in the greater New York City marketplace.

And I mailed it out to every reporter who wrote for the New York Times that day,

sports writers, news writers, hoping something would come of it.

Well, at first, nothing did. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

But a week later, I opened up the New York Times real estate

section and the headline reads, New York City prices hit all time low and

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