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- Barbara Corcoran, a real estate mogul and Shark Tank investor, almost didn't hire her business partner.
- Corcoran said Esther Kaplan was too introverted in an interview and she had "no intention of calling her."
- It was only when Corcoran took a peek inside Kaplan's purse that she decided to hire her on the spot.
Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran opened up about how she almost passed over her best employee and future business partner because she felt they were too quiet for a sales position at her company.
The 74-year-old, who is the multi-millionaire founder of luxury real estate company The Corcoran Group, shared some wisdom on her TikTok account where she has over one million followers.
"Get ready with me while I tell you how I almost missed hiring the best person I ever met," Corcoran said in a recent video.
"One day Esther Kaplan walked in to apply for a sales position. She was a petite woman dressed in a little knit suit with little pearl buttons and spoke so softly I could barely hear what she was saying.
I had already learned that great salespeople were typically loud and enthusiastic. So I handed Esther my card and told her I'd call her if something opened, having no intention of calling her," she said.
Corcoran went on to explain that it was when Kaplan opened a small purse to put away the business card that she decided to hire her.
"She had the tiniest, tidiest filing system I ever saw with partitions that were labeled all inside her purse.
With a mind like that, I knew I wanted my business in her purse. I opened a position for her on the spot and told her I was eager to take her under my wing and teach her everything she needed to know to sell," she said.
Kaplan would go on to run the company with Corcoran side by side and become a long-time president of The Corcoran Group, partly because she had strengths that Corcoran didn't possess herself, she said.
While Corcoran specialized in advertising, PR, and marketing, Kaplan took charge of personal filing systems, finance, and legal.
Introverts can often be overlooked at work or passed over for promotions because American culture is hyperfocused on loud and extroverted people, Susan Cain, the author of the popular introvert book "Quiet," previously told Insider.
"The people who tend to be groomed for leadership positions are often more extroverted, even though there is also research showing that introverts who take on leadership positions do very well and have results that are as good as, and in some cases better, than extroverted leaders," Cain said.
Still, there are plenty of examples of introverts who are in top leadership positions. This includes Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, Steve Wozniak, and Larry Page, who are either self-proclaimed introverts or possess some of the key traits.