Back in school, a nun told Barbara Corcoran that she was "stupid"

Barbara Corcoran, the founder of the Corcoran Group, revealed the best thing that has happened to her in her life wasn’t selling the brokerage that bears her name for $70 million. It was when “the nun from hell” told her at age eight that she was “stupid,” she told the Daily Beast.

“She labeled what was wrong with me, right then and there. She was a tough nun, and at eight years old, I believed her, and became the quietest kid in school,” Corcoran recalled. [more]

From left: Architect Costas Kondylis and Princess Katherine Karadjordjevic, developer Donald Trump, the Corcoran Group’s Pamela Liebman, Town’s Andrew Heiberger and wife Robyn, and marketing guru Louise Sunshine (credit: Clint Spaulding of patrickmcmullan.com). Click the image to see more photos.

Developer Donald Trump, who spent weeks courting the fringes of American politics in a possible presidential bid, stuck to real estate last night in brief remarks at the premier of a documentary produced by The Real Deal about the prolific and aging New York architect Costas Kondylis. (See more photos after the jump.)

Trump, who traveled the United States questioning President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, praised Kondylis — born in Africa to Greek parents — as a “great design architect.”

Kondylis was the architect on many of Trump’s buildings such as the Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza and an imposing row of residential towers that were critically panned called Riverside South, which face the Hudson River. [more]

The Real Deal chats with Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group, inside her Upper East Side apartment, in the second of a two-part series with the “Today” show real estate contributor. She talks about her TV show “Shark Tank,” her newly released book “Shark Tales,” and her relationship with the Corcoran Group today. She even does an imitation of Corcoran broker, Carrie Chiang. Click here to see the first part of the series. [more]

By Sarabeth Sanders and Amy Tennery

The Real Deal  attended an event celebrating the launch of Barbara Corcoran’s new book, “Shark Tales: How I turned $1,000 into a billion dollar business,” last night inside 15 Union Square West’s apartment 5B, which Brown Harris Stevens is currently marketing for $8.1 million. The party was chock full of nautical delights — including shirtless, so-called surfer boys, twin retro bathing suit ladies and a bathtub mermaid — and awash with mai tais and champagne, as well as custom sushi rolls. It drew both real estate bigwigs and Corcoran’s other business buddies, including several co-judges from her entrepreneurial reality show, “Shark Tank.” [more]

Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group and an investor in the second season of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” gives The Real Deal a tour of her three-bedroom apartment on 94th Street and Park Avenue, that she bought for $3.5 million in 2000, in the first in a two-part series. Corcoran, a real estate investor and author of recently released “Shark Tales,” lives with her husband William Higgins and two children, 17-year-old Tommy and Kate, who the couple adopted five years ago. She shows us her favorite spot in the 3,500-square-foot apartment, talks about a lack of sex in the bedroom and demonstrates how her son wedges himself into his airplane-size bathroom to shave. [more]

From the March issue: In 2001, given the choice between money and fame, Barbara Corcoran chose money. The self-made Queen of New York Real Estate cashed out — selling the Corcoran Group to NRT for $66 million — but quickly regretted losing her personal brand.

In “Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business,” out last month, Corcoran writes of her post-business period as “secretly miserable” and without purpose. She missed, she writes, her legions of “adoring brokers.”

Now a “Shark Tank” judge, Corcoran — never one to miss a publicity opportunity — timed her book’s launch with the beginning of the TV show’s second season. The “Today” show contributor shares her best self-branding tips in “Shark,” co-written by Bruce Littlefield and published by Portfolio/Penguin.

The Real Deal combed the new sections (the book was previously published as “If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails” in 2004) for gems. [more]

The millionaires are back for a new season of “Shark Tank,” a reality show featuring Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group, and other tycoons, as they face entrepreneurs looking for capital. In a preview trailer from Entertainment Weekly, Corcoran appears to be a mediator among the other sharks, as they fight over investment opportunities with robots and other gadgets. The team is joined by comedian Jeff Foxworthy and eccentric businessman Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Click here to see the trailer.

Barbara Corcoran, who is currently off taping the second season of ABC’s “Shark Tank” in Los Angeles, was almost passed over for the gig in its debut year, before she wrote a strongly worded letter to creator Mark Burnett that shifted the tides in her favor, the Post reported. The Corcoran Group founder-turned-media personality now appears on the show as a panelist helping to discover young entrepreneurs. ABC executives announced in August that they would bring back “Shark Tank” for another eight episodes — after Corcoran submitted a 340-page pitch arguing for its renewal. “Wordy causes have really paid off,” Corcoran’s publicist said. [Post]

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Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group, has revealed the name of her new book: “Shark Tales — How I turned $1,000 Into a Billion Dollar Business,” after receiving 1,731 suggestions. Since three people suggested the same title, Corcoran said on Twitter: “I’m taking the $1,000 reward and splitting it three ways — $333.33 to each person (keeping the extra penny for myself!).” The book will be released in January 2011, the same time as the airing of new season of the weekly ABC reality show “Shark Tank,” on which she appears as a judge. Corcoran called for submissions for the title Sept. 23, asking for one that is “both motivational and inspirational.” The “motivational book [will be her] own rags to riches story of growing up in a house with 10 kids, and the unconventional way I turned $1,000 into my $1 billion real estate business, the Corcoran Group. It’s also the story of finding young entrepreneurs on ABC’s ‘Shark Tank.’” TRD

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Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group, has revealed the name of her new book: “Shark Tales — How I turned $1,000 Into a Billion Dollar Business,” after receiving 1,731 suggestions. Since three people suggested the same title, Corcoran said on Twitter: “I’m taking the $1,000 reward and splitting it three ways — $333.33 to each person (keeping the extra penny for myself!).” The book will be released in January 2011, the same time as the airing of new season of the weekly ABC reality show “Shark Tank,” on which she appears as a judge. Corcoran called for submissions for the title Sept. 23, asking for one that is “both motivational and inspirational.” The “motivational book [will be her] own rags to riches story of growing up in a house with 10 kids, and the unconventional way I turned $1,000 into my $1 billion real estate business, the Corcoran Group. It’s also the story of finding young entrepreneurs on ABC’s ‘Shark Tank.’” TRD

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