Barbara Corcoran may be best known for her 17 seasons on Shark Tank, but the real estate mogul—who sold her company for $66 million in 2001—says one trait tells her instantly whether an entrepreneur will flop or succeed.
“I pay close attention to who takes responsibility and who plays the blame game,” Corcoran told the Wake-Up Call at Work newsletter.
“Six months after Shark Tank, something always goes wrong—the supplier didn’t deliver, the molds were wrong, an employee messed up. But the minute an entrepreneur starts blaming the next guy, I know it’s over and they’re going to lose my money.”
For Corcoran, accountability isn’t just a nice-to-have trait, it’s the ultimate red flag. And she would know—during her 17 seasons on the entrepreneurial pitching show, Corcoran invested in hundreds of companies, transforming many of her partners into overnight millionaires.
One of the most lucrative for her was a $50,000 investment for a 30% stake in The Comfy, a wearable blanket company that has since made more than $450 million. Still, she said what matters the most isn’t the product—it’s the ambition and attitude of its founders.
“I’ve invested in hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years, and I’ve learned the most successful ones have many traits in common,” she added.
“They’re not afraid of risk and they’re super competitive. They have wild enthusiasm and know how to bounce back from failure. If it’s a partnership—and the best entrepreneurs often are—the partners have opposite traits and complement each others’ strengths and weaknesses.”
Today, Corcoran’s net worth is estimated around $100 million.
Turning business flops into a fortune
While Corcoran admitted she had her fair share of investment busts, the 76-year-old said dwelling on mistakes is wasted energy. The real question is how quickly you learn and move forward.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in business, but I don’t regret any of them,” Corcoran said.
“All my best successes happened on the heels of failure. It’s the best way to learn and bounce back stronger. I learned that the harder the ball hits the pavement, the bigger the bounce. You just have to stay in the game long enough to see it come back.”
Early in her career, Corcoran sunk her first $75,000 in profits into what she thought was a brilliant idea: VHS tapes showcasing her listings. But her agents refused to let them out since they included rival brokers’ properties, and the tapes gathered dust in storage.
When the internet arrived, however, Corcoran uploaded the videos to her new website—and within a week, two homes sold sight unseen to buyers in London.
“The same idea that had failed miserably suddenly became my breakthrough,” she later wrote on Instagram.
Corcoran’s fellow sharks agree: don’t be scared by failure
Even Corcoran’s seatmates on the set of Shark Tank agree that failure is an opportunity to learn and pivot.
In fact, Kevin O’Leary, commonly known as Mr. Wonderful, said he doesn’t shy away from it. “I’m fairly lucky. I’ve made lots of mistakes in investing, but I’ve also had some extraordinary outcomes…I’m not scared to fail,” O’Leary told Fortune. “I never bet the farm on any one thing.”
Robert Herjavec acknowledged that failure is inevitable in business, but those that are best equipped to look at the bright side will be the ones succeeding on the other side.
“It’s not practical to think that we will float through our careers without coming face–to–face with failure at some point or another. But, not all failures are disasters,” Herjavec wrote for Fortune in 2016.
But in the moment, he recognized that viewing a failure as an opportunity can be easier said than done. His advice: strip out the emotion, ask the right questions, take ownership, and move forward rather than dwell.
“Failures that don’t sink your business or cost you money are blessings and will push you harder,” Herjavec added. “Don’t be intimidated by these moments because they will help you grow as a business leader.”
