Decades of wisdom from Elsie Corby

Ms Corby was interviewed by Mark Whiteman, CEO of Ray White Western Australia, who commented on the astounding achievements she has achieved in her two decades of real estate.

“I just want to put a few statistics out there about Elsie’s career to date; 1,876 sales or $840 million in sales value, in a market where the average house price is less than $500,000),” Mr Whiteman said.

Before moving into real estate, looking after her children was the major focus of her life but she felt it was important to still dabble in the career world.

“I have always been competitive; I like to do my very best and I think everyone should aim to be number one,” she said.

“When we first came here from Africa, I got a job at McDonalds. I was about 25 years old. I was put on the drive-through because I was the fastest at serving customers. I always made sure I stayed number one, even with that!” she said.

Eventually Ms Corby moved into the world of real estate and was shown a desk, given a landline phone and not provided with much guidance.

“I took matters into my own hands. I would put my joggers on and go and drop off leaflets. I didn’t just sit and wait for the phone to ring. I was out there working from day one and within three months I was the top sales representative in the office,” she said.

Ms Corby said that one of her key tricks to succeeding was to simply watch how successful people do things and copy them, rather than reinventing the wheel.

“You get a lot of rejections in this job, you just have to push through it and eventually a nice person will come along and make your day. Pick yourself up, let things go and move on to the next,” she said.

Ms Corby said that she learned the skills of hard work and perseverance from her husband, who worked incredibly hard to provide for the family while she raised their children.