Barbara Corcoran has seen many career wins.

The 76-year-old sold the real estate company she founded, The Corcoran Group, for $66 million in 2001, and has appeared in all 16 seasons of "Shark Tank." It was in a 2017 episode that she made a $50,000 investment in blanket company The Comfy.

"They made me $468 million in three years," Corcoran later said on an episode of podcast "The Daniel Mac Show."

When it comes to finding that continued success, Corcoran couldn't have done it alone. And there's one relationship she cites as crucial to pushing her forward. "I never had a traditional mentor in business," she tells CNBC Make It. "Instead, my mom was my role model."

Here's how Corcoran's mother helped make her the businesswoman she is.

'I learned to build my business on systems that worked'

First, Corcoran learned some core organizational skills.

Corcoran's mom "raised 10 kids and ran our two-bedroom house like a boot camp," she says of her New Jersey upbringing. More specifically, "my mother had a system for anything she had to do more than once." That kind of methodical thinking made an impression.

When Corcoran started building her own company, it was a lesson she took with her. Like her mother, "I learned to build my business on systems that worked," she says.

'She never let me feel like I wasn't smart'

Second, Corcoran learned that talent shows up in unconventional ways.

Corcoran has dyslexia, which made academics difficult. Regardless, her mom "believed everybody had a talent and made sure we knew it," she says. "I wasn't good in school, but she never let me feel like I wasn't smart. She told me my gift was my imagination, and that it would take me farther than any report card ever would."

It's a lesson Corcoran has carried as a boss. "In business, I always look for a person's true talent and help them build their career around it," she says.

Corcoran's mom "was a phenomenal role model for hard work," she says. "I could've never built my business as big as I did without my mother's lessons guiding me."

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Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank."