Staying fabulous in the face of failure

  • 11/04/2016
Ms Connors has been bankrupt, battled with depression and endured domestic violence
Ms Connors has been bankrupt, battled with depression and endured domestic violence

Nikki Connors, the self-crowned queen of the New Zealand property market, wants others to know how she bounced back from bankruptcy and depression.

Ms Connors has previously worked in advertising, TV and publishing, and presently runs Propeller Property Investments. Though it might sound like she's had a blessed career -- particularly from a financial perspective -- it hasn't always been that way.

She's been bankrupt, battled with depression and endured domestic violence. How she learned from and overcame these setbacks is the subject of her new book, A Fabulous Failure.

"Maybe I was a slow learner, I don't know," she told Paul Henry this morning.

"Sometimes you trust in other people to do what you should be doing. Other times you just take your eye off the ball."

The central theme of the book is getting on with life, no matter what it throws at you.

"I did do things that I needed to do -- I worked in shops, I waitressed -- you do what you have to do because you've got children. However there was still that drive, and that was the thing that kept me going."

Her success since going into property investment -- her book promotional blurb calling it the "key to her salvation" -- means she's now in a position to help others realise their financial dreams. The key is to not give up, and ignore people who define you by your failures.

"It is a New Zealand thing. In America of course, you've got to fail a number of times before people take you seriously."

Staying fabulous in the face of failure

Though Ms Connors calls him an "unpleasant man", she can't help but admire Donald Trump's bumpy road to wealth.

"He started with millions from his father… he lost it all and then made it again and lost it all, and his was a real rollercoaster. But it's because of that experience that people say 'right, you know what you're talking about, you know what you've missed out on and we're going to trust that'."

A Fabulous Failure is out today.

Newshub.