- Real estate millionaire Barbara Corcoran said she’s grateful that her ex-boyfriend and former business partner left her, as she wouldn’t have launched her property empire otherwise.
When Barbara Corcoran thinks back to the ex-boyfriend who left her for her secretary, she has a simple response: “Thank God.”
The Shark Tank star recently told a podcast that businesses founded by couples are often sound investment opportunities.
That being said, the real estate mogul knows firsthand what can happen if the relationship turns sour—having been dumped herself by her former business partner and boyfriend.
“Very often they [companies owned by couples] prove very good businesses. Don’t stereotype it,” Corcoran told ‘The Way Up’ podcast last month. “I had a situation where I had a boyfriend and business partner for seven years and then he married my secretary. That’s a bad ending.
“That was going to blow up the business and it did. But what happened then [was] fine: They fell in love, they went off and had a bunch of kids and I was feeling sorry for myself.”
Corcoran was referring to her former co-founder Ramone Simone, with whom she launched The Corcoran-Simone real estate group in 1973.
Yet when the duo split, the now 75-year-old took the personal calamity as a career opportunity, she added: “I stated the Corcoran Group—without that departure I never would have started the Corcoran Group. So bad things happened but I learned the business in seven years solid before I had a go out on my own.
“So I don’t think it’s so bad.”
In hindsight Simone did her a favor, she added: “That’s what my boyfriend Ray did. He pushed me on to a second marriage—that didn’t work out so well either—but also onto a new business that I was able to build into an empire.
“Thank God that happened.”
Of course, it was The Corcoran Group that crowned its founder as the queen of New York real estate.
The entrepreneur sold the 1,000-person strong business for $66 million back in 2001, having built the company up from a $1,000 loan.
Past bosses fall into a similar category as past boyfriends for Corcoran: They also pushed her on to better things.
“I love when people are fired—I was fired from like four jobs. I really still don’t know what I did wrong,” she explained. “But you know what about endings? They force you on to a new beginning.
“That’s what each of my bosses who I didn’t like did, they pushed me on to something else.”
No such thing as work-life balance
Corcoran, a mom of two, shared the anecdote about her prior relationships following a conversation about work-life balance—a concept she says doesn’t exist.
When asked if her personal life had suffered because of her work ethic, Corcoran responded: “I didn’t have much of a personal life, I’ve worked since I was 11.”
She continued: “Everyone who worked for me was my best friend, maybe you’re not supposed to say that anymore, but I had 1,000 people. I hired them all, I trained them…we adored each other. I did whatever I could for them, they were my family before I had a family.
“I treated them as though they were my kids in every way…and then once I had kids I still supported them in every way that I could but it really became sibling rivalry in my heart. To have kids and to try to raise kids, and try to raise the kids that you work [with]—it’s a difficult thing to balance. That’s why I say there’s no such thing as balance.”