4 ideas
Early in her business, Corcoran had only a handful of apartment sales to draw on. She averaged their prices, published the figure as 'The Corcoran Report' on market prices, and mailed it to reporters. The New York Times quoted it, and her tiny firm became a cited source on Manhattan real estate, with the new visibility bringing in listings.
People sort into two kinds. Expanders generate ideas, sell, and create momentum but leave loose ends. Containers organize, follow through, and keep the operation steady. A business needs both, so an expander-founder should hire containers to run operations rather than hiring more people like herself.
Holding onto low-performing salespeople drains the leader's time and lowers the standard the whole office measures itself against. Regularly letting go of the bottom performers frees attention and resources for the top producers. It also signals that results, not tenure or likability, secure a place.
In 1973 Corcoran borrowed $1,000 from her boyfriend Ramone Simone to start a New York rental brokerage with him. Years later he left her for her secretary and told her she would never succeed without him. She split off, built The Corcoran Group into a leading Manhattan residential brokerage, and sold it in 2001 for about $66 million, later citing his dismissal as a driving motivation.