Barbara Corcoran: If You Want to Be Rich, Follow These Rules

Entrepreneur

16-07-2025

Real estate pioneer Barbara Corcoran says the most successful people she knows all have one thing in common.
Barbara Corcoran famously sold the real estate company she founded for $66 million in 2001. Since then, she became an original investor on ABC's "Shark Tank," which is now filming its 17th season, and now makes about $4.5 million a year from her investments.
On Tuesday, Corcoran posted on Instagram that, despite accumulating millions, there are some "rules to being rich" that she wishes she had known sooner.
Related: Barbara Corcoran Did 'Crazy Things' to Retain Employees, From Hot Air Balloon Rides to a Free Bentley: 'We Had No Turnover'
"If you want to be rich, follow these rules," the post begins. Then she lists 11 "rules" that she lives by when building her businesses.
Some rules, Corcoran has talked about before, such as not hiring "fancy degrees" and opting for hustle and attitude, instead. Corcoran famously "doesn't look at resumes." Others are new, like what Corcoran says is the "most important part of your budget," what she calls "mad money," or the money "you spend on yourself to feel like a million bucks." Corcoran recommends setting money aside to look the part — in 2023, she told viewers that she spent her first-ever commission check on a $320 peacoat at luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman, despite not being able to afford it. She said it was the best purchase she ever made.
Here are some other rules to being rich, according to Corcoran.
Spend less than you make.
"You can't grow wealth if you're always playing catch-up."
Learn to love rejection.
"The most successful people I know all have one thing in common: They spend little time feeling sorry for themselves, and they get right back up. Keep swinging!"
Related: Barbara Corcoran Needed to Make Job Cuts. Here's Why She Fired Her Mom First.
Start before you're ready.
"The best time to move on an idea is the moment you think of it. You don't have to get it right, just get it going."
Have a vision of where you want to go.
"I saw myself as the queen of New York real estate, clear as day, and that's what I became. If you can imagine it, you can build it."
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