Brian J. Roberts
Business and sports greats think alike. When I spoke with Barbara Corcoran last week, I thought about the parallels between her and the journey of the late great Wilma Rudolph. Together, they reveal timeless traits for success in business, sports, and life.
The role of sustainability
When Rudolph was a child, she suffered from polio and doctors said she might never pass, while Corcoran faced challenges with dyslexia.
One could not walk, the other could not read.
The athlete’s inability to walk parallels the entrepreneur’s struggle to read and write; both seem like paths to inevitable failure.
In third grade, Corcoran’s teacher, Sister Stella Marie, said that if she didn’t learn to read or write, she would “always be stupid.”
But Rudolph’s mother, Blanche, insisted that she would walk one day, while Corcoran’s mother, Florence, assured her that she would “fill in the blanks.” Well, Rudolph wasn’t just walking. She ran and won 3 gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
Barbara Corcoran
Corcoran excels in her own right. She sold the Corcoran Group for $66 million in September 2001, and according to CNBC reporter Celia Fernandez, Corcoran wrote 650 to 700 over 14 years on ABC’s Shark Tank, earning a third.
Both credit their mothers – and resilience.
A 2019 Mayo Clinic study highlighted the importance of resilience in high-pressure roles. Kermott, Johnson, and others. found a direct relationship suggesting that higher resilience among executives means improved well-being and performance.
Their findings echo the experiences of figures such as Barbara Corcoran and Wilma Rudolph, illustrating how resilience is critical to mental health in high-stakes environments. This is an obvious conclusion, but the next one may not be.
Self-talk in business and sports
I asked Corcoran about Sister Stella Marie’s words: what effect did someone so influential at the time have on you, saying you would always be “stupid?”
What conversations did you have with yourself in the following years? What did this self-talk consist of?
She said, “I’m safe now,” with a laugh.
“Because I’ve replaced that talk a hundred times with positive self-talk, and I think you have to do that with old conversations that haunt you. You have to remove them, not just forget them.”
“You have to replace them with great conversation. And the more you say it, the more you believe it. So I make good comments about myself inside. It’s easy now, which isn’t when you’re much younger,” Corcoran said.
“But something strange happened. She also did me a favor in a funny way because I’ve spent most of my life proving that I’m not stupid. Without that negative conversation, I wouldn’t have gone in this direction.”
“I would agree to not always prove, always prove. And in business, it’s so helpful to feel like you always have something to prove,” Corcoran said.
Adding depth to our understanding of self-talk, a 2021 study by Kim et al., published in Scientific Reports, used brain imaging to examine its impact on cognitive function.
The research revealed that while positive self-talk improves cognitive performance, negative self-talk also has benefits, surprisingly increasing intrinsic motivation and attention.
These findings show how both types of self-talk alter brain connectivity and reflect experiences such as the use of such negative self-talk as motivation by Barbara Corcoran.
Self-talk was vital to the success of both Corcoran and Rudolph. They believed the claims of the supporters and used the negative feedback from the detractors to spur them on.
“My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother,” the famous Rudolph said.
Characteristics shared by each species of shark
In a 1997 Nike ad, Michael Jordan said, “I’ve failed over and over and over in my life. And that’s why I succeed.” Outstanding athletes and business leaders share this mindset.
While resilience and self-talk are common traits among the greats in business and sports, so is an acceptance of inevitable failure.
Pictured: The cast of ABC’s Shark Tank.
Barbara Corcoran
In his book, How to win in business sportsentrepreneur and fellow Shark Tank star Mark Cuban wrote, “It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve failed. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost got it right. No one will know or care about your failures, and neither should you.”
Corcoran shares this view. “I wasn’t very confident, but you develop confidence by constantly getting up and trying again. Eventually, something will work,” she said.
The Corcoran’s “Barbara In Your Pocket” community, which launched in January, will delve into contemporary business topics with members like this one.
“If I had one trait that I would choose in any entrepreneur, or that I value most in myself, it would be the ability to overcome obstacles. This is so important in business. This is an obstacle game. You have to skip it and find a way to get right back into the game. This is essential,” said Barbara.
Parallels: Athletics to Boardroom Deals
In the stories of Corcoran and Rudolph, the quotes from Jordan and the words of Cuban and others, there is a pattern of resilience, self-talk and unwavering dedication to overcoming obstacles. Their experience underscores the importance of these traits not only in sports or business, but in any competitive endeavor.
They also reflect a larger truth: When we pursue a goal, whether in sports or business, our responses to adversity and the conversations we have with others and with ourselves about it will affect the sequence of outcomes in our lives.
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