Product Description

As one of ten kids in a blue-collar family in Edgewater, New Jersey, Barbara Corcoran didn't have many material advantages. She shared her bedroom with five sisters and shared her socks in a communal sock drawer. Yet she grew up to have plenty of self-confidence, because her mother had an amazing gift for nurturing the unique talents in each of her children. Barbara's mom didn't know much about business, but she understood how the world works, and how to make the most of what you've got.

In the early 1970s, Barbara borrowed $1000 from her boyfriend to get her start in real estate. That led to the birth of The Corcoran Group, which today is New York's premier residential real estate brokerage, with over $1 billion in annual revenue. Her amazing rise to the top has become the stuff of legend and inspiration.

Barbara -- now nicknamed the Queen of New York Real Estate -- credits her success to not just to hard work and determination, but to her mom's enormously valuable advice. Not just the standard maternal wisdom, but real gems such as, "If the clubhouse is quiet, they're probably not making spaghetti."

In Use What You've Got, Corcoran illustrates her mother's wisdom and insight with twenty-five "how tos" for getting ahead in business. Each lesson is brought to life with real business scenarios, an outrageous childhood adventure story, and tips garnered from Corcoran's years in the most competitive real estate market in the world.

Her mother's winning advice includes:

¥ "There's always room for one more."
¥ "It's your game, make up your own rules."
¥ "You've got to bully a bully."

With a tell-it-like-it-is attitude, Corcoran offers her keys to success -- from dressing the part and overcoming obstacles to the nuts and bolts of hiring, firing, motivating, marketing, and much, much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #332859 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-10
• Released on: 2003-02-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 261 pages

Customer Reviews

Use What You've Got
If I was promoting this book, I would promote it around the idea that a young girl -- very much like any other young girl (although with life experiences that can only come from being in a big family) -- grows up and goes to the Big City and achieves a kind of greatness!

(And) Like many other women, during the course of the 30-year process of her business evolution she had little (yet hugely profound) realizations of her mother's wisdom.

It's inspiring! The book claims a positive history for women -- something our bookshelves lack! I'd like to read it to my children because it has lessons that are important to life -- things I would like to teach them! For instance, I love the chapter, "Offer The Bigger Piece And Yours Will Taste Better."

The stories remind me of my childhood, my parents and family -- though we only had 3 kids and a dog! As an adult woman with a business degree, and plenty of business experience, I enjoyed the business insight!

Bruce Littlefield did a stellar job of writing. A sense of humor (yet a firm intent) shows through in the writing style. When I read it, I looked forward to reading one chapter or "lesson" per day.

I cannot recommend it enough!

Common sense + chutzpah = success
If you're a fan of the novel Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford, this is the business book for you. Barbara Corcoran's rags to riches story of how she went from diner waitress to the Queen of Manhattan Real Estate reads more like a novel than a business book. And it goes to show - sometimes the best advice is plain old common sense. (But having a good sense of humor and a lot of "chutzpah" certainly doesn't hurt either!)

A book every real estae professonal should read!
I loved this book! Barbara's real estate lessons are entertaining and fun. Regardless of where you sell real estate the rules and the lessons are the same. I'll recommnend it to every new agent that comes to our firm.