Now that mass layoffs are the order of the day – more than a dozen major companies like McDonald’s, Meta and Lyft have announced cuts this month alone – the story of Barbara Corcoran and how she got her job back with a simple email has resurfaced.
After a stint as a waitress and failing at more than a score of jobs, Corcoran founded residential real estate company The Corcoran Group in 1973, at just 24 years old with $1,000 she borrowed from her boyfriend. Gradually, she built the company into a $6 billion business, according to her Forbes listing.
Three decades later she was already a well-known investor and a respected real estate mogul, but she still couldn’t dodge every professional’s worst nightmare: landing her dream job only to have the offer rescinded two weeks later.
Before the first season of ABC’s “Shark Tank” aired in 2009, a producer’s secretary approached Corcoran, then 60, and asked him to become one of the show’s investment “sharks.” Excited, she signed the contract without looking at it and mailed it back.
Her joy didn’t last long, she said in a recent episode of the New York-based digital media company Barstool’s “Chicks in the Office” podcast. A week before the show was to be filmed, Corcoran received a call informing her that the producers decided to choose a different investor.
She didn’t take the rejection as final
“I was embarrassed. I had told all my friends I was going to Hollywood,” recounted Corcoran, now 74 and with an estimated net worth of $100 million. “So I sat down and wrote them an e-mail and directly told them, ‘You’ve made a mistake.'”
Corcoran sought to keep the message as brief as possible and asked the producers to “invite both women to compete for the seat.” The producers agreed and she got the job. She has been an investor on “Shark Tank” for 14 seasons.
Although her per-episode salary amount has not been verified, according to a 2016 Variety report, it is believed that each of the “sharks” on Shark Tank earns an estimated $50,000 per episode. Thanks to the four-time Emmy Award-winning ABC show, Corcoran has invested in more than 80 businesses.
She has since become one of the most inspirational motivational speakers in the world of finance.
She is a frequent contributor to small business and real estate, as well as author of the best-selling “Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Multi-Million Dollar Business” and host of the podcast “Business Unusual with Barbara Corcoran.”
Shark Tank has grown to become a sort of American Idol of entrepreneurship. Each year, tens of thousands of small business owners compete for the chance to pitch their products to a national audience of millions and close a deal with one of the show’s high-profile investors.
About two-thirds of the nearly 100 entrepreneurs who go on the air each season walk away with a handshake and big expansion plans outlined by their investor, though about half of those deals never close and another 15% end up with different terms, according to Forbes.
Layoffs after signing a contract?
It’s unusual for job offers to be terminated after the contract is signed, but not impossible. Last year, amid fears of an impending recession, large companies such as Coinbase, Twitter and Redfin withdrew job offers before some employees could start their first days.
It was mainly a reaction to inflation, the co-founder and CEO of recruiting firm WizeHire, Sid Upadhyay, told CNBC Make It in June. “The economic environment changed a lot,” Upadhyay said at the time.
Tech companies went from being “incentivized to grow at all costs” to focusing on “resilience” virtually overnight. So Corcoran’s approach may not be the most reliable way to re-secure a job.
The Lacy Employment Law Firm, a Pittsburgh-based firm, says some employers rescind an offer after checking a candidate’s background or after a credit check.
“Basically, they do it because you failed some contingency. That is, the employer had some legitimate reason to withdraw the job because something didn’t add up at some step in the process,” explain the firm, which recommends asking the employer for all the contingencies you need to go through to get your offer accepted.
Alternatives to a risky mailing
Upadhyay, on the other hand, believes it’s best to seek out job opportunities from your network of friends and colleagues, as well as review other offers and contact former employers. “You can even seek legal advice if you believe your offer was rescinded for a discriminatory reason,” she said.
Corcoran’s experience didn’t make the billionaire “go soft” as a boss: she prefers to fire and do it in person, she recently told the business podcast “The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett.”
Before selling her real estate firm The Corcoran Group for $66 million in 2001, she was especially fond of firing employees on Fridays, often without explanation, she said.
In statements that received negative reactions from the public, he claimed he enjoyed the activity because it meant weeding out underperformers and “chronic complainers” from his company’s ranks.