Fame & Fortune: Realty diva Barbara Corcoran 'Jersey girl' trumped Trump with street smarts
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Bankrate: So school wasn't your path to success?

Corcoran: I didn't learn a damn thing in school. What a terrible shame. But what I didn't learn in school, I learned outside in the backyard with the kids in the neighborhood. I was the leader of the pack in my neighborhood. I was really in charge, and I knew that. You can't spend a day meeting people without learning, because I have found that the only really valuable things in life that you learn are about people. I still feel that way. If you're good with people, you can just about do anything.

Bankrate: You had a couple dozen jobs out of high school. What were the best and worst?

Corcoran: I had 22 jobs before I turned 23. I liked every job I had; I liked my jobs as much as I hated the classroom. It was, for me, a relief, where I could be someone else. The one I hated was nurse's clerk. I posted temperature charts at the hospital after school. The nurses would take temperatures and put them on charts and I would have to take them off their charts and put them on a master chart. And because I reversed numbers and letters, it was probably the absolute worst job in the world, plus the fact that the environment itself, this smelly ward with abrupt nurses, was personality-void. That was probably the only job I had where I couldn't use my personality, and I hated it. One hour felt like 10 hours. And with my imagination, I thought I was probably killing people with my mistakes.

Bankrate: You worked in men's and women's wear, right?

Corcoran: Yes, I worked in Schweitzer's Department Store in the men's department. A great skill I got from that was, I could look at a guy and tell you what his neck size, his inseam and his waistline is. That was my little gimmick. People were amazed. I sold a few more trousers and shirts over that. Then I got promoted to the ladies department, and these cotton paisley granny gowns were in fashion. I thought of a promotion and put a different gown on every hour and we sold those granny gowns like they were going out of style.

Bankrate: Did you make a decent living?

Corcoran: Oh, I always made money. I always had money in my pocket. Now in my family, because we had so many kids, we had to give half of what we earned back to my mother, and if you think about it, that wasn't so much. I had so many jobs -- I was also working at a bookstore with a senile nun and at a Greek diner -- but I always had money in my pocket. I always felt I was the richest kid in high school and college. I was always treating people to things.