By Samantha Yardley
Photography: Ray Kachatorian
Larger-than-life billionaire Grant Cardone oozes charisma from every pore. Love him or hate him (and we love him) he certainly provokes a strong reaction from everyone who crosses his path. Is it a case of hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard with the infamous visionary?
Best-selling author and salesman extraordinaire, Grant Cardone has a real estate portfolio that puts the Monopoly man to shame, and he owns his own private jet to boot. Grant’s unapologetically forthright views, divide the masses but the numbers don’t lie, and millions of devoted followers and billions of dollars of assets evidences he has aptitude for business, or at the very least the tenacity and grit to achieve a level of wealth that most can only dream of. How has the famous Grant Cardone mindset helped him win at life? Let’s see…
“When I was ten years old, my dad died and I kept waiting for him to come back”
Just what is it about Mr.10X that saw him rise to the top from humble beginnings? Muscle and Health’s Editor-in-Chief, Danni Levy had to find out for herself.
“When I was ten years old, my dad died and I kept waiting for him to come back,” recalls Grant solemnly. “When I realized he wasn’t going to return, I waited for my uncles to help and guide me as a young boy. I wanted a dad, a mentor, somebody to show me the way, I wanted somebody to encourage me that I was going to grow up to be a successful man. But nobody ever stepped up and did that for me. That caused tremendous pain that I believe generated my fundamental purpose in life, which is to help people.”
“Maybe I’ll run for president if I have enough money, who knows?”
Despite facing such turmoil at a young age, ultimately it was grief that acted as the catalyst for his journey to a higher purpose, and Grant set about amassing a legacy of abundance for himself and his family. Paradoxically though, the more luxury he afforded himself, the more he came to understand that it was helping and educating people that became his true driver for obtaining success and notoriety.
“At the end of the day, I just want to help people” he reveals. “Do I want to make money? I used to have ‘billionaire in the making’ printed on my t-shirt, now it’s ‘trillionaire in the making’. I’d love to hit a trillion dollars,” he says. “Maybe I’ll run for president if I have enough money, who knows?”
With the refreshing honesty that Grant has become famed for, he openly confesses to not always enjoying his entrepreneurial endeavors.
“If the only thing you’re going to do in life is the shit you like to do, you’re going to be a very unhappy human being”
“I don’t always enjoy my work,” he admits. “I might enjoy 20% of what I do. I do stuff every day I don’t want to do. I get up in the morning and I like to work. I enjoy getting things done. I didn’t enjoy taking the trash out this morning, but once I’d completed the activity, I felt better about myself, and I felt better about my kitchen. If the only thing you’re going to do in life is the shit you like to do, you’re going to be a very unhappy human being who’s depressed, disappointed, and discouraged.
“When I was much younger, my passions ended up addicting me to drugs”
“If you’re unsure what to do with your life, don’t look for passion,” he insists. “This is another thing that people say, ‘Follow your passion’. When I was much younger, my passions ended up addicting me to drugs. You can’t expect to love everything you do and for that to be the thing that’s going to make you money. If you’re barely getting by, you need to go do the shit nobody wants to do and get great at it. I don’t seek to do things I’m passionate about. I seek to bring passion into the things I do, whether I like them or not. To me, that is control. I have discipline and control over my emotional condition.”
The industriousness Grant demonstrates to excel in the boardroom certainly doesn’t seem to have taken its toll on his vitality though, as his youthful appearance at 64 leaves our Editor in awe.
“I don’t seek to do things I’m passionate about. I seek to bring passion into the things I do”
“I think good looks can actually push people away from listening to you and stop taking you seriously,” Grant explains after being quizzed for his secret. “I take care of my physique and my conditioning, but certainly not for the benefit of others. I do it for me. It does make me feel good when I like the way I look, because it gives me confidence. When I’m carrying ten or twelve pounds more than I want to, I make fewer calls and I become an introvert. When your health is right and you feel good about how you look, you’re going to go into situations with a lot more confidence.”
Evidently, Grant approaches his fitness and self-care regimen with the same 10X methodology that saw him achieve such awe-inspiring levels of success in the business world.
“I’m not the perfect person,” he reveals. “I try to beat the sunup every day, but I did not do it today. When I wake up early and get to the gym, I feel great. When I don’t put a lot of sugar into my system, I feel better. When I use my superhuman protocol, which is infrared light and 900 cubic liters of oxygen, I just feel awesome. I’m probably consistent 80% of the year to be honest. Some people are one hundred percenters, they never miss a day. I’m like, ‘Okay. Well, good for you.’ I’m not that person, but I’d like to be.”
On meditation, the subject of many a dichotomous debate at Muscle and Health HQ, Grant is uncharacteristically against the practice, an outlook antonymous with the majority of eminent CEOs to have graced our pages in the past.
“I tried meditation for a long time and then I had to quit because it was screwing me up so bad,” Grant admits. “My problems were getting worse, because I was sitting there by myself focusing on them. I was like, ‘I’m supposed to be getting rid of my problems and all I’m doing is thinking about my damn problems’.
“If you want money, no money is going to come to you during a meditation”
“That did not work for me. I became more introspective and more introverted. I know some people say they find peace and tranquility when they meditate, but I’m not looking for peace and tranquility; I’m looking for production, I’m looking to improve the quality of my life, the quality of my experiences and the quality of my friends. I’m looking to travel the world and meet people” he says. “I’m not trying to get away from something, I’m trying to get into stuff. I want to go get life; I don’t want to check out from it.
“If you want the right relationship, you can meditate on it all you want, but you’re going to have to go out and meet somebody. If you want money, no money is going to come to you during a meditation” he muses.
“So, what’s next for the trillionaire in the making himself?”
“In January 2023, we’re going to have over a million people on a live training stream and in February 14-16th in Las Vegas, we’re hosting a large event called the 10X Growth Conference for over 15,000 guests.
“I’m trying to buy a billion dollars’ worth of real estate In America right now. And when I become a trillionaire, I’ll get new problems.”
@grantcardone
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