从女招待到地产女王

    最大的挑战是现金流。一切顺利的时候，我会很快把钱投入到公司当中。但在1980年，我欠了很多钱，还需要10,000美元来维持公司运营。当时正值经济萧条，我差点就把公司50%的股份卖给一位与我有过业务往来的法国人。我已经不记得他的名字。当时我们已经握过手，但他却改变了主意。几个月后，市场有所改观。我终于挺了过来。

    我从来不知道收入是何物。我把这个问题留给了艾斯特•卡普兰。她是我离开雷之后招聘的第一位业务员。后来，她成为柯克兰集团的合伙人，持有10%的股份。艾斯特负责公司的开销，非常擅长提高我们在银行的信用额度。她会进行现金预测，如果她知道我们在八月份会有一笔80,000美元的额外进账，她肯定不会告诉我。事实证明，她这么做是正确的。因为如果我知道了，肯定会把这笔钱花光。

    1993年，我们开始在线销售房地产，比竞争对手提前了两年。我还抢先注册了有商标的竞争对手的所有URL，等他们需要的时候，就不得不来找我。当然，我并没有利用URL向他们收钱。我只是想让他们打电话来讨要，这样我就能知道竞争对手开始在线销售的时间。最先打来电话的是那些不得不在创意上下功夫的小公司。最后打来电话的则是大公司。

    1988年，我嫁给了比尔•希金斯。他当时正在经营父母的房地产公司。经过八年体外受精治疗，我在46岁的时候生下了我们的儿子汤米。那是我一生中最大的挑战，我终于美梦成真。这也是我出售公司的原因。当时还没有多重房产挂牌服务，我每周都要密切关注房产挂牌情况。2001年的一天，我发现公司各个类别房产的挂牌数量都超过了竞争对手。我已经实现了成为纽约最大房地产经纪商的目标。当我身在办公室的时候，我意识到自己希望拿出全部时间陪伴家人，尤其是汤米，我做不到工作和生活两不耽误。于是，我决定卖掉公司。当时公司有850名销售员，收入约为9,700万美元。

    NRT（目前已被住宅房地产巨头Realogy收购）是当地的一个大买家。我聘请了一位了解NRT公司董事会的律师，告诉他我有意出售公司。当然，他去了NRT。后来，他打电话说可以出价2,000万美元，我说：“告诉他们，我要求的价格是6,600万美元。”66是我的幸运数字。我们在911事件之前一个星期五的晚上签署了合同，两周后交易完成。我让NRT董事长亨利•西尔弗曼相信，他购买的是一家前途无限的业内最棒公司。

    然后，我开始自我反思，并决定写第一本书【《利用你拥有的一切》（If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails）】。离开前呼后拥的生活一年以后，我几乎要抓狂。我发现自己喜欢被人关注。担任柯克兰集团领导人的时候，我经常接受电视采访。因此，我成为福克斯电视台（Fox TV）的一名政治撰稿人。可惜，这份工作并不适合我，于是我成为《早安美国》（Good Morning America ）的一名房地产撰稿人。2007年，我加入了《今日秀》节目。我想我应该再也不会离开这个节目。

    The biggest challenge was cash flow. When things were good, I spent money quickly to invest in the business. But in 1980 I owed a lot and needed $10,000 to keep going. In a moment of desperation, I almost sold 50% of my business to a French gentleman I'd done some work for. I don't remember his name. We shook hands, but he changed his mind, and a couple of months later, the market changed. I was able to hang on.

    I never knew what the revenue was. I left that to Esther Kaplan, the first agent I hired after leaving Ray. She eventually became a 10% partner in the Corcoran Group. Esther had her finger on the overhead and was a genius at increasing our credit lines with the banks. She'd do cash projections, and if she knew that we'd have an extra $80,000 in August, she wouldn't tell me. She was right, because if I knew it, I'd have spent it.

    By 1993 we were selling real estate online, two years before our competitors. I also registered all the URLs for my competitors who had a brand so that they'd have to come to me when they wanted the name. I didn't charge them for the URL. I just wanted them to call and ask for it so that I'd know when the competition started selling online. The little guys, who had to be creative, called first. The largest companies called last.

    In 1988 I had married Bill Higgins, who was running his parents' real estate firm at the time. After eight years of in vitro treatments, at age 46 I gave birth to our son, Tommy. That was the biggest challenge in my life and a dream come true. It also led to selling my company. Back then -- before there were multiple-listing services -- I kept tabs on listings weekly. One day, in 2001, I saw that we had more listings than all our competitors in every category. I had reached my goal of being the No. 1 broker in New York. I realized I wanted to be there 150% for my family in the office, and 150% for Tommy, and I couldn't do both. So I decided to sell. I had 850 salespeople, and revenue was about $97 million.

    NRT [now part of residential real estate giant Realogy] was the big buyer in town. So I hired an attorney on its board and told him I was interested in selling. He, of course, went to NRT. When he called and said he'd gotten me $20 million, I said, "Tell them I'll take $66 million," and hung up. Sixty-six is my lucky number. We signed the contract on Friday night before 9/11 and closed two weeks later. I convinced Henry Silverman, the chairman of NRT, that he was buying the best company poised for shooting forward in the industry.

    I started reflecting and decided to write my first book [If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails]. After a year, I was going crazy with no people around me. I realized I love attention. Since I'd been interviewed on TV a lot as head of the Corcoran Group, I became a political contributor for Fox TV. It wasn't a good fit, and I went to Good Morning America as a real estate contributor. In 2007 I moved to the Today show. I think I'll die with my boots on there.