Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Grant Cardone: Reinventing at 50 to Build a Multi-Billion Dollar Business from Rock Bottom
Tue, 04 Mar 2025
At just 10 years old, Grant Cardone lost his father. This moment flipped his world upside down. He spiraled into teenage addiction, hitting rock bottom in his mid-twenties. Determined to change, he got clean, mastered sales, and began building wealth. It wasn’t until his fifties, during the 2008 financial crisis, that he realized survival meant growing bigger. That’s when he went all in. He scaled Cardone Capital, grew his brand, and turned his hard-earned lessons into a multi-billion-dollar business. In this episode, Grant joins Ilana to discuss overcoming adversity, embracing reinvention, managing fear in high-stakes investments, and his strategies for building wealth and a powerful network. Grant Cardone is a serial entrepreneur, equity fund manager, real estate investor, and bestselling author. A global authority on sales, investing, and personal development, he influences millions through his books, events, and online content. In this episode, Ilana and Grant will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:48) Reinventing After Facing a Career Crisis (03:01) Childhood Struggles After Losing His Father (05:52) Battling Addiction and Near-Death Experiences (08:17) Stuck in a Sales Job but Crushing It (10:35) The Birth of the 10X Movement (15:02) Building a Highly Influential Brand at Age 52 (17:38) The Secret to Never Getting Laid Off (20:13) Taking a Loan to Launch His Real Estate Empire (21:33) Navigating Fear, Doubt, and High-Stakes Risks (27:04) The $58 Million Loan Call That Shook Him (30:35) Turning Small Investments into Billion-Dollar Deals (35:00) The Future of the 10X Growth Conference (38:54) Grant’s Real Estate-Bitcoin Investment Strategy (40:19) The Most Overlooked Shortcut to Success Grant Cardone is a serial entrepreneur, equity fund manager, real estate investor, and bestselling author. He is the founder of Cardone Capital, a real estate investment firm managing billions in assets. He also created the 10X movement, which includes the 10X Growth Conference, the largest business conference in the U.S. A global authority on sales, investing, and personal development, he influences millions through his books, events, and online content. Connect with Grant: Grant’s Website: https://grantcardone.com Grant’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/grantcardone Resources Mentioned: Grant’s Book, The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure: https://www.amazon.com/10X-Rule-Difference-Between-Success-ebook/dp/B004X75OES Grant’s Book, Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life: https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Be-Sold-Your-Business/dp/B00JV3YVHU Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW way for professionals to Advance Their Careers & Make 5-6 figures of EXTRA INCOME in Record Time. Check out our free training today at leapacademy.com/training
Chapter 1: How did Grant Cardone reinvent himself at 50?
Grant Cardone, CEO of Cardone Capital, from building a multi-billion dollar real estate empire to teaching millions how to sell, how to scale businesses,
I didn't come for money. I didn't have connections. And unfortunately, I did not spend the first 50 years of my life getting connected. My dad died when I was 10, and everything changed. Drifted into a drug problem when I was 15, overdosed three times, and I should not be where I'm at today. The biggest hack on this planet is to change the network you hang with.
And the fastest way to change the network is to write a check.
I love that, and I keep buying my way in.
And I really, really appreciate you supporting us on the Grant Cardone Foundation. You're in transition right now. It's not too late. I was 51 years old. The economy had collapsed, and I was like, what did I do wrong? What I had done wrong was...
Oh, my God. Today I have such a treat. Grant Cardone, who was also a mentor and somebody that helped me, is a fund manager. He's the CEO of Cardone Capital. He's the CEO of Cardone Training. Serial entrepreneur is an understatement for you, Grant. But he really, he's like a real estate investor. He's a private equity fund manager.
From building a multi-billion dollar real estate empire to teaching millions how to sell, how to scale businesses. Seriously, Grant, the 10X movement is not just a slogan. It's your way of life.
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Chapter 2: What childhood struggles did Grant Cardone face?
Yeah, and it's actually, I wrote a book in 2012, maybe, called The 10X Rule, and that thing really hit. It wasn't my first book. And it was a very significant book for me because I was 51 years old at the time, and I had plateaued in my career. I was in transition. My industry was in transition. 2008 came. Economic collapse had lasted way longer than anybody wanted it to.
And it really drained me of resources, energy, focus. And I found myself almost in this mid, you used the word already, late stage career. I was in like this crisis. And you're 50 years old and you're like, hey, I'm running out of time. I'm running out of energy. I've already worked 30 years. I don't want to do this again. Like I'm going through my money, burning through resources.
A lot of people are going through the same cycle right now. And so I had to kind of reboot. I didn't come for money and I never, I didn't have connections. And unfortunately, I did not spend the first 50 years of my life getting connected.
Yeah, let's go there for a second because your story is phenomenal and you weren't born to wealth. And I want to make sure everybody understands that. Let's just take back in time to the kid in Louisiana.
Look, I grew up where there was, we had air condition and heater and we had a three bedroom house for five kids, mom and dad. My dad died when I was 10 and everything changed. The whole world got flipped upside down.
Take us there for a second because you talk a lot about that also in Undercover Billionaire. That was a pivotal moment for you, for your mom, for your family.
Yeah, because if you're a parent, you know, kids are always watching and they're always learning. And for me, I was learning throughout the most traumatic moment of a kid's life, which is the loss of a parent. And I'm also watching my mom, which I'm very connected to spiritually. I'm watching her go from what should have been grief to fear. I could see it on her face.
I don't need a class in fear to know what it looks like. Like, I'm like, shit, she's scared. I didn't know what she was scared of, but then I kept hearing the money thing. Got to sell the house, got to sell the cars, got to downscale, got to move us, got to get closer to the schools. When a human being should be in fear, right?
Now, I'd also heard 10 years of how we were doing well and how my dad had got us into the middle class and he'd finally bought his dream home. Boom, next day, all that's unwinding. So once pronounced to me, I'm learning. I'm becoming who I am today.
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Chapter 3: How did Grant Cardone overcome addiction?
And you're only 10. I mean, you're at that point, you're 10 years old. That is traumatic.
But I'm learning about money. This is all personal finance 101 and a grief class all combined. These two messages are coming. You lost your dad and your mom's scared. And so this conflict comes into like sell everything. I learned a house was not an asset. The house was paid for, by the way. So it should be an asset based on what we're told. But my dad's savings got sucked out of savings.
The life insurance got sold. The stocks in the market that were paying a slight dividend every quarter. All these things start becoming pieces of data for me to later use in my life. So all I'm telling your audience is we have $5 billion worth of real estate under management. I've never taken any money from a major bank.
We have, I don't know, I've raised a billion six over the internet without advertisers, promoters, or middleman. I've sold $2 billion worth of products. Some people say I'm a grifter because I'm selling products on the internet. Educational products, by the way, because I don't believe the education system is good for us anymore, for the most part. Not completely, but for the most part.
And I did all this without connections and without a great education and without any money, no credit, no debt. I didn't code anything like the geniuses in Silicon Valley.
So take us there. We'll fast forward in a second, but I think it's important. You've been in this trauma. Age, I think, 15 to 25, you were still kind of lost, right? What was it like, Grant?
Yeah, drifted into a drug problem when I was 15. You know, I start drugs at 15, 16 years old, smoking weed. And the next thing you know, I'm doing pills. And then I'm, you know, everything, dude. Like any drug that was available, next thing you know, for the next 10 years of my life, I go, I'm a middle-class kid that falls right off the charts.
I overdosed three times, you know, have 70 stitches put in my head and face from a guy that came in and beat me up. It was terrible. It's awful. My family almost lost me. I lost three friends. Nasty. I should not have been there, and I should not be where I'm at today.
What changed? How did you decide to take control of your life?
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Chapter 4: What is the 10X Movement and how did it start?
Wow. Again, I want people to hear this because people are right now going through really tough times. There have been layoffs. I mean, people are going through a lot. California had this fires. There's a lot of crap going on in the world right now. And there's a lot of suffering.
So I want them to hear that you can control your life, that you can decide that you want massive success no matter what. And you are a hustler. Grant, I think of myself as somebody that is hardworking and I can outbeat almost anyone, but you put a shame on me. So you outwork me any day.
You think about that in relationship to me, and I think about me in relation to Donald Trump and Elon Musk. So I get shameful because thinking about how hard those two guys work, because I know they're maniacs.
So tell us, what shifted and suddenly you learned that you love sales and you take that as a gift?
Look, I've never loved sales. I still don't love sales today. But a lot of people say, oh, you love selling. You're a great salesman. I'm like, I hate fucking sales. Okay. I hate sales, but I do like hitting my targets.
Okay.
So I am very target driven. It's why I hated college so much. is because the targets were too long. It took too long to get there. I hated school because I'm like, I gotta be here 17 years or 12 years to get anything done or three years or a whole semester or whatever. I can do anything over short periods of time. And then my interest in the work or the effort of the target goes up.
And the bigger the target is, as long as I'm trained or educated to believe that I can actually hit the target, If I actually believe it's attainable in a short period of time, I'll do almost anything. That's what changed for me. I was in a sales job. I was 25 years old, and the only people that were hiring me was a sales company. And I had to take it. I didn't have a choice.
It was the only job I could get, and I had ruined my reputation where I lived. And look, my reputation was even ruined with me. So I had to rebuild that, and I had to learn how to be a salesman. I didn't want to be a salesman. They offered the job. It wouldn't have mattered. It could have been carrying urine. It could have been digging a ditch. It could have been whatever.
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Chapter 5: How did Grant Cardone build his brand at age 52?
It took three hours to write that book, but it took 26 years to decide to write it. Once I decided to write it, it took three hours. So it was this 26 years I spent studying this one little sector. Every day, hours a day, After hating it, by the way, after hating this thing called sales, studied it, and then it became a business for me.
I would end up being known as one of the top three sales consultants in the world, blah, blah, blah, with the names of like Brian Tracy and some of these freaking icon guys that I used to study. So the 10X rule was born out of another book, was born out of the 2008 global collapse of After working for 27 years or 26 years, whatever the number was, I was 51 years old.
The economy had collapsed and I was like, what did I do wrong? I spent some time looking at it. What I had done wrong was I did not have 10 verticals to work in. I had one vertical. The vertical got cut in half. I had not scaled. I sat down and wrote a book, The 10X Rule. I basically figured this formula out. Had I done 10X, I would have gotten cut But I wouldn't have failed.
I would have actually punched through a crisis and benefited from it. Instead, my family suffered from it. And I wrote the book called The 10X Rule. That book took me like, I don't know, three weeks to write. I didn't think much of it. Put it out. It was my sixth or seventh book that I wrote. Put it out. Told my wife I finished the book. What do you think? I said, eh, it's all right.
Boom, book took off, went crazy. And then out of that was born the 10X movement, which is all these 10X events. And it was really an accident, just so you know, to know the truth. It was humbly, it was an accident. The 10X rule, I stumbled across. Now, the branding of who I am, that was very much planned, including my wife came from an audition one day.
And by the way, for those who don't know, that's Elena.
Yes. She comes back from an audition. She's in Hollywood. She comes back from an audition. She's like, oh, my God, their job's terrible. And she's crying. I'm like, babe, what's happening? She's like, this audition went terrible. And the same time, I was invited to go on some TV show. And I drive, I don't know, 45 minutes to the interview. The interview was like 45 seconds long.
I'm driving home 45 minutes pissed off out of my mind. Like, you have no idea how angry I am. I feel like an idiot. I'm like, I just drove an hour and a half to answer a bullshit question for 45 seconds. These people act like they're doing me a favor. I think it was Fox News or something. Same day, my wife got rejected. I came home and I said, this will never happen to us again.
And she's like, what do you mean? I said, I am going to make sure everyone knows our name. And that was really the start of the branding. I said, I am never going to be humiliated like this. You don't deserve to be humiliated like this. And we're going to build our own audience. And now we have, there's about, I don't know, between us, about 20 million followers online.
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Chapter 6: What is Grant Cardone's approach to real estate investment?
And there's people at the airport at 1230, one o'clock in the morning. I'm just saying that because it's cool because if people know you, they can help you. If people know you, they can feed you. If people know you, they can find you. We ended up in a hotel that night. I've never, I hadn't told this story. I don't think ever. We ended up in a hotel that night.
We hated, it was a last minute booking. We hated the hotel. I called the people that I met at the airport and said, can you help me? And boom, they got me in a different hotel. So the value of being known is so important. And I'm sure Vaynerchuk talked about this.
The value of being a brand trusted, that people value or think enough of you that they would stop what they're doing and go to the airport and say hi to you.
That's incredible. I think it's so important for our audience. A lot of them are giving a thousand percent to the workplace, which is really important to be loyal. And I do believe in this, but you can't have all your identity attached to one title, one company. You need to have your own brand to stand on its own because the minute they lay you off, you're a nobody.
And I think this is just something that sometimes we just don't understand that we also want to build our own brand and that safety net for ourselves.
Well, let me just say that if anybody lays you off and they stay in business, you weren't that valuable. There's going to be hundreds of thousands of people, by the way, that get laid off right now because of Doge. If you guys get laid off and somebody else doesn't pick you up, it's because you're not valuable. End of story. Okay. The last job that I ever lost... I was 29.
Then there's another job I lose after that. I lose this job. The company literally goes bankrupt 10 months later. That's how valuable I was to that company. And I think that that's what an employee should do. You should be so valuable to the company. They're dependent upon you. You're not dependent upon them. I left that company at 29, went to work for another guy.
In 15 months, I am producing more revenue for that next company than the company produced. The position for an employee to be in is you should be so productive that the company is dependent upon you. I posted on X yesterday, hey, I'm hiring federal government employees. We're offering free training and education to all government employees.
The first thing I want to teach you is how to work again. Second thing, how to sell. Do your own startup. Grow and scale your business. I'm going to teach you those things for free, by the way. Not charge the government anything. No taxpayers involved. If you guys want, come register for this free event. You're a government employee, except we will not allow anyone from the IRS.
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