Barbara Corcoran, a real estate mogul, is known for her entrepreneurial mindset as she founded The Corcoran Group and scaled it into a business empire. She is also an investor on the reality show Shark Tank, and her influential journey bestows career advice for people who are looking to grow as an entrepreneur.
However, in the dynamic business world, even classic career tips change over time and lose their weight.
In one of the recent articles by Nasdaq has highlighted some of Barbara’s greatest and outdated advice and analyzed whether it still applies in the business world. Here is a breakdown of each piece, analysis, and whether it still holds value for entrepreneurs.
Work Long Hours: A Relic of Hustle Culture?
One of Barbara Corcoran’s most prominent pieces of advice is that working long hours is essential for building a business. She most often gives credit to hard work, especially in the early phases of growth. Consequently, it implies that more time spent equals more results.
Why It’s Considered Outdated
It is considered outdated because the narrative around productivity has changed drastically over the years. Recent research indicates that productivity is not linearly related to the number of hours worked and does not scale accordingly.
While extended work hours frequently lead to reduced cognitive productivity, burnout, and bad long-term results. Artificial intelligence and automation systems are helping people achieve more results in less time. Thus, giving them space for more essential work, including strategic thinking.
In today’s era, the modern workforce, especially the productive workers, now bets on working smarter, rather than longer. Also, productivity is precisely measured by impact on the quality of work, and not by clocked work hours.
There are issues that corporations and employees both take seriously, such as the emphasis on mental health, flexible work hours, and work-life balance. Basically, prominent trends like the four-day workweek are being adopted globally, highlighting that fewer hours of work can yield great results.
Does It Still Work?
Though long hours of work might be a necessity during big product launches, business crunch time, or early startup stages. Nevertheless, making long workweeks a default expectation for entrepreneurs is not productive in today’s time, when flexibility and efficiency are most significant.
Modern professionals and entrepreneurs must focus on strategic effort rather than logged time. Rather than working for long hours, focus on aim-setting and using tools like AI to accelerate the process of growth.
Social Media Is Essential: Mandatory or Optional?
Barbara has emphasized on the significance of social media for building a business empire and scaling it. As per the reports, she only invests in businesses that grasp the power of social media and its capacity to connect with target audiences.
The Case for It Being Outdated
Marketing on social media is a powerful tool for engagement, advertising, and brand building. But in an era where word-of-mouth marketing works strongly, it’s not the universally important channel. Even now, there are industries that scale and grow through social presence, search engine optimization (SEO), and SERP rankings, leveraging networking and local outreach.
With the advent of AI tools, the social media landscape has been transformed dramatically. Algorithms now value short-form videos, AI-generated video or content, and visibility patterns that are hard to predict.
Hence, in such a business environment, not every business benefits from social media platforms. Particularly in scenarios where the customer base responds better to traditional or classic communication channels.
Does It Still Work?
It does work. However, the context of customer interaction matters, as social media must be integrated into personal brand building. Undoubtedly, it is a handy tool for highlighting business expertise, building trust, and fostering a powerful community.
Furthermore, startups in their early stages of growth can drive sales and visibility through social media channels. For solopreneurs, social media is indispensable.
Besides, as stated above, it is not universally significant as modern careers are diversified and more niche. So, it should be viewed as one significant tool for many but not a necessity for every business.
Do More Than Required to Get Hired: Loyalty Before Skills?
One of the hottest pieces of advices given by Barbara is to ask interns to work more than what their job demands. Her belief stems from the fact that to build loyalty, it is important to prove your skills through your work.
Why Is It Now Seen as Outdated?
In the meantime, this advice stems from the fact that loyal employees provide stability and growth. But according to the labor market, job hopping can lead to faster salary hikes and skill set diversification.
Also, even permanent or loyal employees are mainly laid off due to market shifts, cost-cutting, and restructuring. Young employees and professionals prioritize work-life balance and career shifts over blind loyalty. Thus, loyalty expectations in return for job security are a lost trend of the mid-20th century.
Does It Still Work?
Doing more work beyond the requirements of your job demonstrates enthusiasm and work ethic. These are the two most important qualities that entrepreneurs value.
Irrespective of the fact that loyalty cannot alone guarantee career growth, or impact and results matters the most. Career growth is fast-tracked by joining communities, building specialized skill sets, and showcasing measurable results.
Conclusion
Barbara Corcoran’s outdated tips about business and entrepreneurs works in part, when it can be adapted to fit the modern professionals and employees. Long workweeks without a strategy, social media visibility, or loyalty without any outcome can be counterproductive. Henceforth, professionals in this era win by becoming intentional, and results-driven.
