How do you pursue success if you don't think you deserve it?

Real estate entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran frequently asked herself that question early in her career, she recently said in a live Q&A on her Patreon platform.

"When I started my business [at 23], I guess I should have realized [that] I had the right to be there," said Corcoran, adding: "[Success] wasn't in my background. I didn't know a rich person. My family was lower-middle class. So for me to really talk about my aspirations and feel OK dreaming them was difficult."

Instead, she internalized the pressure she felt. She said she'd tell herself, "I have the right to be rich. I have the right to desire the most for myself. I have the right to create something out of nothing, to employ people, to go on expensive vacations."

"I didn't [believe it] until I was in business maybe a dozen years. But I wish I had been a little bit easier on myself," Corcoran said.

About 70% of people experience bouts of impostor syndrome during their lifetime, which can cause anxiety and depression, research shows. One way to deal with it, executive coach Christina Helena wrote for CNBC Make It last year: Use the people around you for support.

"Sometimes people see potential in us that we ourselves are not yet able to recognize," wrote Helena. "If you find yourself feeling undeserving of something, ask a trusted colleague or friend what they see as your strengths. Or get feedback about why you were chosen for a particular project, and take them at their word."

If you don't feel comfortable disclosing your feelings with others, try doing mental check-ins with yourself to stay positive when self-doubt creeps in, Helena suggested.

"Ask yourself: "Why do I believe I don't deserve this?" If the answer is because your goals don't align with someone else's blueprint for success, acknowledge that feeling, and then let it go," she wrote.

In Corcoran's case, she grew up one of 10 kids in a two-bedroom New Jersey home. Her mother was a homemaker while her father bounced around between jobs. She didn't excel in school, and has said she held about 20 jobs by age 23 before finally starting her company, The Corcoran Group, with a $1,000 loan from her then-boyfriend.

At her company, she found additional people to rely on — like her longtime business partner Esther Kaplan, who applied for a sales position and ended up spending years as The Corcoran Group's president. "She had all the needed traits I didn't have, and two years later, we were running the business side by side," Corcoran said in a TikTok video last year.

Twenty-eight years after launching her business, Corcoran sold it for $66 million.

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank," which features Barbara Corcoran as a panelist.

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