Corcoran’s mother was skeptical of her daughter’s entrepreneurial ambitions.

“When I asked my mother if I should start my own business after graduation, she said, ‘No!’ It was too risky and I was too young!

“She was wrong,” says Corcoran. “It made me a millionaire!”

That’s why “Don’t listen to your mother!” is the advice she’d give to new graduates just about to start their careers, she tells CNBC. People need to believe in themselves and trust their own instincts.

It worked for her. Today, her namesake real estate office, The Corcoran Group, has become a $6 billion dollar business. And she’s gone on to become one of the investors on hit ABC reality television show, “Shark Tank.”

“Every one of my great successes … they were always the result of an insult,” she says.