| Net Worth: | $300 Million |
| Age: | 62 |
| Born: | March 21, 1958 |
| Country of Origin: | United States of America |
| Source of Wealth: | Entrepreneur |
| Last Updated: | 2020 |
It seems like there is another guru popping up daily promising unparalleled insights into any practice, hobby, job, or aspiration you could think of. Two of the most crowded fields are wealth creation and personal betterment. Many of the leading figures in these fields, such as Jeff Bezoz or Warren Buffet, possess expertise and experience worth relying on. Another such figure is millionaire Grant Cardone.
Consider this article your go-to resource on everything Grant Cardone. Here, we will explore Cardone’s life story and shed light on how he became the massive influence he is today, from his sales training company to his real estate acquisition firm and everything in between.
Table of Contents
Grant Cardone’s Net Worth
As of 2020, at just 61 years old, Grant Cardone’s net worth figure is a reported $300 million, and already has his sights set on the $1 billion mark.This comes from the many hats Cardone wears, including author, inspirational speaker, real estate investor, and sales trainer.
According to multiple sources, Cardone’s substantial million dollar income can also be attributed to his skills as a leader and his knowledge of real estate and investing. Another major attribute to his wealth is the fact that Cardone is the CEO of several successful companies (Cardone Capital, Cardone Enterprises, Cardone Real Estate Holdings, the Cardone Group, and Cardone Acquisitions), his popular social media and streaming platforms, and his sales and business programs and services as a leading authority in sales, marketing, real estate, investing, and personal development.
Perhaps most impressive about Grant Cardone is his real estate empire, worth more than $1.2 billion as of April 2020, almost entirely composed of multi-family units, true to his roots.
Real Estate Saved His Life
Grant Cardone was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States on March 21st, 1958. Far from coming into the world with a silver spoon in his mouth, similarly to other popular entrepreneurs like Tai Lopez and Dan Pena, Cardone grew up in Lake Charles poor with four siblings in a family that struggled to make ends meet, according to his best-selling book Be Obsessed or Be Average. Cardone’s father passed away at 52 years old when Cardone was just ten years old, which opened a massive void in his life. As a result, he started to study about the real estate process when he was was kid at age 15.
“Being average is the quickest way to fail.”
Grant Cardone
Cardone’s Teenage Years
As a teenager, Grant Cardone began heading down a risky path with little purpose or drive. Throughout high school he had difficulties staying engaged and interested in his studies, and found it even harder to stay out of trouble. Cardone constantly found himself receiving detentions and getting suspended, and began using drugs and alcohol as a method of fitting in and coping with the loss of his father. Fortunately, despite Cardone’s rocky teen years, he managed to graduate from high school.
In the absence of his father, the “provider” for his family, his mother rose to the occasion. Cardone credits his mother as one of his biggest influences and inspirations. While he believes she fell into a “middle class mindset” – thinking in terms of earnings instead of savings – his love for her is palpable. In an interview with CNBC, Cardone credits her with giving the best advice he has ever received. That advice being, “the best investment you can make is in yourself. It’s a no-lose deal. It will always give you a return.”
College and First Steps
At McNeese State university, Cardone graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting – a decision he now recounts as highly wasteful, spending significantly more time partying than studying. He regards the Bachelor of Science degree in retrospect as a highly useless piece of paper that gave him substantial debt and minimal knowledge.
He began trying to make something of himself after college as a salesperson in a variety of fields. Primarily, he worked as a car salesman. During this time Cardone fell back into the habit of associating himself with the sorts of people who held him back and resumed his alcohol and drug problem. This time around, Cardone’s dangerous habits cost him his job and landed him in rehab.
He had finally hit rock bottom with his drug problem. Despite that rock bottom status, however, Cardone was able to find a system to help turn his life around. With the loving support of his family, Cardone emerged from rehab, remembered his mother’s advice, and became determined to begin investing in himself.
Makings of a Mogul
Feeling invigorated at age 25, Cardone returned to his car sales job as a new man.
He committed to the idea of learning how to improve at his craft and cash flow. By his estimates, Cardone spent close to seven hundred hours in his first year as a car dealer in overtime, watching training videos to audiobooks on his commute. Cardone understood that if he focused on his own personal growth, he could have the achievements he knew he was capable of. This mindset turned Cardone into a millionaire before his 30th birthday, bringing in $40 million annually from e commerce alone.
Expanding in Self Growth
As a successful car salesman, Cardone grew an intense passion for sales and earning money. He loved it and was eager to expand his reach to other ventures to see what sort of fortune he was capable of. Cardone started out as a car dealer, then gradually became a motivation for those very car dealers he worked for. During that time, Cardone also began investing in real estate. Though his first real estate investments did not fair out how he hoped, Cardone saw real estate as a special place to channel his passion, as it had long been an interest instilled by his father.
He also began working as a consultant in the auto industry, hoping to help others replicate his victories as salespeople and business owners. In his time as a consultant, Cardone learned two important lessons. First, he discovered that he was capable of replicating his success and, secondly, was still hungry to continue to explore his potential. He also found another calling using his voice. Cardone found a knack for sharing his story and inspiring passion and persistence in others by means of consulting.
Building a Real Estate Empire
Five years after his first attempt, Cardone again dabbled in real estate. This time, he kept in mind what he believed played into his initial failing: Depending on a single family stream of income. In San Diego he found his greatest progress by investing in a multi-family complex. Not long after, he bought a second. Once the earnings from his two properties allowed for further expansion, Cardone bought his third property. In multi-family properties, Cardone found a way to expand while guaranteeing multiple streams of income through his sales strategies.
By biding time and replicating proven, reliable strategies, Cardone built the real estate empire he had originally set out to build five years prior. Over many years he patiently expanded across the United States and abroad alike with various small business and Fortune 500 companies. Today, with over 4,000 properties under control by Cardone Capital, his company’s portfolio boasts in more than a billion dollars in assets. His conservative strategy as a real estate investor has been widely praised, as has his genius as a marketer.
Grant Cardone’s Brand
With newfound success under his belt, Cardone saw an opportunity to use his growing platform to amplify his reach and influence. Along with his success as an author, he and his team began producing online business education programs that became best-sellers to current and up and coming business owners. He founded the Grant Cardone Sales Training Academy – commonly known as Cardone University – as well as Cardone On Demand.
True to his passion in sales, Cardone also possessed a happiness in helping others, and believes one of the major tools that has helped him succeed is replicable. He continued to build his name, and is a highly sought after speaker and trainer in sales and marketing. On top of his various training and sales programs, Cardone’s social media channels are flooded and frequented by disciples hoping to achieve goals in similar ways or simply people looking to find motivation. His current social media channels include Instagram – Nearly 3 million; Twitter – 500 thousand; Facebook – 6 million likes).
As he once found in video-based training on YouTube, Cardone also has extensive visual content. His YouTube channel is home to numerous videos with millions of streams and boasts over a million subscribers. Many of the videos Cardone posts have quick, impactful messages and clear steps for viewers to implement, aiding their popularity (one being instructions on how to make $20 million a year). He also produces original content on Cardone TV, dubbing it the ‘Entrepreneur Network.’ There, visitors can find dozens of shows, webinars, podcasts, reality series, and other sorts of content to help answer their many questions on entrepreneurship.
Along with his social channels, Cardone has also worked with widely known people over the years, people such as Joan Rivers as well as National Geographic where the TV channel aired a reality series centered around Cardone called “The Turnaround King”.
Philosophy for Success
Much of Grant Cardone’s achievements can be attributed to the strategies he practices and the way he looks at life. Much of what he rallies against is society’s gravitational pull towards mediocrity and an average life. According to Cardone, the world conspires to hold you back in ways bigger than just the doubts of a few skeptical friends. He views the traditional paths to wealth – of college, of relying on a 401k, of buying a home – as huge scams. Following these paths traps millions of Americans in jobs they hate and mindsets that lead them nowhere. Much of this can be credited to the savings-based mindsets that many are duped into believing is the practical way of building a stable livelihood.
Achieving your goals, according to Cardone, has more to its process than just thinking about earnings instead of savings. Much of what he advocates for in practice revolves around discipline, effort, and positivity. Cardone boils down his lofty earning goals, for example, into bite-sized chunks, and advocates for a moment-by-moment approach with the end goal in mind. By focusing on being the best you can be in every opportunity, triumphs multiply, and eventually goals are reached. Throughout this journey, maximum effort must be put forth. Working harder than anyone else after the same thing – even if that means the man in the mirror – is key to achieving your dreams. The difficulty is the point, and the beauty is in the struggle. Cardone believes that with the goal in mind and a love for the process, adversity can be weathered and prosperity will eventually belong to those who persevere. The most universal goal wealth provides is freedom, and Cardone believes that centering financial freedom, above all else, can liberate people from the ways society wants them to live and behave.
Best-Selling Author
Always looking for ways to spread his message, Grant Cardone can also add to his credentials “New York Times Bestselling Author“. He has written five books over the course of his career in addition to an extensive amount of training programs. Several of Cardone’s writings have been included in must-read lists, such as “Wall Street Journal”, for anyone looking to boost their sales or growth wealth, explore real estate, or invest in themselves.
His most popular novel is If You’re Not First, You’re Last: Sales Strategies to Dominate Your Market and Beat Your Competition, hitting #1 on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles. Taking its title from the popular film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Cardone’s best-selling novel borrows the philosophy of the film’s main character’s: Winning is all that matters. It was written during the economic recovery following the 2008 financial crisis and provided readers with strategies to sustain periods of economic uncertainty. Cardone had a close proximity to the crisis since he was in real estate during a crisis largely caused by financial deception and predatory mortgages. Cardone used this close proximity as well as his other expertise to build his case for a persistent, unrelenting commitment to meeting sales objectives. If You’re Not First, You’re Last helped Grant articulate his philosophy of full-throttle, no-excuses effort, and served as a building block for his influence as a motivational sales and marketing thought leader.
With The 10x Rule: the Only Difference Between Success and Failure, his second novel, Cardone further translates his philosophy into actionable advice. The “10x Rule” simply boils down to being all about putting forth more effort than other people (or what you were willing to dedicate previously) are willing to to reach any goal in mind – whether that goal is professional, personal, or trivial. Cardone believes achieving is all about taking action, and defines four different sorts of action people are willing to take: No Action, Retreat, Normal Action, and Massive Action. Consistently putting forth Massive Action is the key to goals, and Cardone’s second book teaches readers how to do so. Along with a book built on this philosophy, Cardone also hosts a conference where various speakers come together to speak on this rule.
Cardone’s third book, Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and Your Life, offers a more clear prescription for those specifically looking to improve their ability to sell. The “principles of selling” are fundamental to getting your desired result in any endeavor – whether you are trying to sell yourself, a plan, or a product. With a focus on centering positivity, self-confidence and persistence, Cardone’s book has been heavily relied on by readers for its inspiring message.
His latest book, Be Obsessed or Be Average , seeks to clean up the stigma of obsession. While normally used in a negative way, to be obsessed with a goal, in Cardone’s mind, is the only way anyone achieves substantial success. According to Grant, when you are obsessed with your goal – be it building a business, being a better partner, or solving social issues – you will not allow anything to stop you from achieving it; you keep your goal in mind, remain committed, sustain setbacks and shortcomings, and truly love the process. Being average is a trap set by the people around you, and in this book, Cardone seeks to convince his legions of fans that it is possible to break away from the status quo.
Personal Life
Family
Grant Cardone, among all his other successes, has managed to become an exceptional family man. He has two daughters, Scarlett and Sabrina, with his wife, Spanish actress and model, Elena Lyons, now known as Elena Cardone. The two were married in 2004 and have managed to balance individual success and their beautiful family. Elena, once on MAXIM’s Hot 100 (2004), has appeared in a number of films and television shows and has been featured extensively as a model. She is a top-ranked shot with a rifle in the state of California in clay and trap shooting, and also works with Cardone in a variety of capacities for his businesses, including a web series called “The G & E Show”. The web series covers everything from business talk to relationships and family. The Cardone family has properties all over the country but presently calls Sunny Isles Beach, Florida their home.
Grant also has four siblings, one of which is twin-brother Gary Cardone, who has been widely successful in his own right. Gary (who also attended McNeese State University) is the founder and CEO of Chargebacks911, a company focused on risk management. Gary lends his expertise as a consultant and motivational speaker much like his twin-brother, and often appears on Cardone’s streaming content and social media platforms.
Possessions of Grant Cardone
While Cardone has developed a reputation for being flashy, he concurrently advocates for those looking to grow wealth to avoid owning homes and possessions. Cardone considers these traditional American metrics of success and pathways to wealth as being part of the middle class trap, where too much focus is placed on savings and not on earnings. In spite of his conservative philosophy, several cars, planes, and properties are included in the calculation of his net worth. Cardone also reportedly owns $500 million worth of investment properties.
Scientology Beliefs
Emerging from rehab at the age of 25, revitalized and eager to live life the way he saw fit, Cardone credits a book on Dianetics as a central influence to his newfound vigor. It was not long before Cardone became a dedicated Scientologist. Scientology is a religious movement that emerged in the 1950s and was created by the science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Followers of the religion believe that human beings are immortal souls trapped within the human body that will be set free by a “common series of events.” According to the practices of Scientology that Cardone follows, human beings have lived an innumerable number of existences all over the universe, and those existences incorporate many different extraterrestrial theories and ways of being.
The most specific philosophy from the religion that stuck with Cardone and aided him in his emergence from drug and alcohol abuse was the concept of the reactive mind. Scientologists believe that the reactive mind hardwires human beings to respond to trauma. In this cycle, human beings are bound to the pain and suffering of their worlds and are barred from seeing the truth. The religion seeks to shift consciousness toward the possession of an analytic mind, where truth can be vetted through scrutiny, rigor, and discipline. Cardone claims the teachings of Dianetics he interacted with early in his life galvanized his emergence from drug and alcohol dependence, and fueled much of his initial success.
At the age of 45, single but successful with three businesses, Grant claims to have met a man in the bond industry that brought him fully on board as a Scientologist. Cardone credits much of his success since then to fully committing to the practices of the religion, and believes it has given him a better understanding of who he is as a person. This personal revelation is what Cardone says has allowed him to find peace in life. Cardone is unconcerned with the controversy and skepticism surrounding the religion. He believes when looking at the religion from a practical what-can-this-do-for-me perspective, the principles can fundamentally alter one’s prospects, as it did for him.
Scam Accusations
With any success comes skepticism. Just as any successful entrepreneur finds themself at some juncture in their career, Cardone has also been the target of scrutiny by those wondering if what he espouses is too good to be true. Critics have dogged him ever since he began sharing his philosophy with the world, claiming that he is no more than a snake oil salesman.
Followers of his teachings have found mixed success, but Cardone and his disciples believe that those who emerge from his tutelage unsuccessful failed to thrive because of their implementation. Abiding by the principles Cardone calls for – that massive action and obsessive dedication to success require – takes a ton of effort. Cardone encourages anyone who fails to analyze their own shortcomings, and welcomes them back to his programming when they are ready to give it their all.
No stranger to a sense of humor, Cardone has had fun with his followers by faking his bankruptcies multiple times. Most recently in April of 2020, Cardone took to Instagram Live to share news of his “bankruptcy.” He spent the early few minutes of the clip walking around an empty office, lamenting that he would have to sell his investment properties, cancel the purchase of a yacht, and take the watch on his wrist to the pawnshop around the corner. Before long it became clear that his bankruptcy had been a stunt. He quickly transitioned to a lighthearted tone, claiming to love his haters more than anyone in the world, and launching into a rant about the differences between those who are successful following his methods and those who are not.
Conclusion
Grant Cardone has come to epitomize the concept of the American dream. From humble beginnings he has achieved seemingly impossible success in a challenging economy, boasting a $300 million net worth, a billion dollar real estate empire, several multi-million dollar businesses, highly successful business programs and sales training platforms, and consistent demand as an influencer in sales, marketing, real estate, investing, and personal development.
Best of all, Grant Cardone has committed a large portion of his life to helping others replicate the success he has found in today’s economy. Through his social media profiles, best-selling books, and extensive sales programs and platforms, Cardone has laid the blueprint for anyone looking to take their dreams and transition them into reality. All that is left to do is put in the work.
Image Credits: GC Russia / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
