Grant Cardone

Lewis: This is episode number 802 with New York Times best-selling author Grant Cardone. Welcome to the school of greatness my name is Lewis Howes, a former pro-athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today now let the class begin.

T.S. Eliot said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

Welcome to this episode where we’ve got the 10X king himself Grant Cardone NYT best-selling author, renowned international speaker, international social media influencer, and real-estate mogul who is close to building a billion dollar portfolio of multi-family properties from scratch. It’s amazing to see what this guy has done in the last 10 years alone from almost coming out of losing everything about a decade ago and building himself back up. He’s the author of 8 business books, 13 business programs and the CEO of 7 privately held companies. He’s a regular on Fox News, Fox business, MS NBC as well as Forbes business insider entrepreneur and many other sites and he’s got some incredible wisdom to teach you today. And also one of the most vulnerable moments I’ve ever seen Grant in my almost 10 years of knowing him.

In this interview we talked about how to switch your mindset to think bigger, how do you really think so much bigger than you could create the results that you don’t even dream are possible. How to build a cultural success with your team, Grant’s superpower and why he stands out as an entrepreneur against the rest. The power of decision making and why people are slow to make them and we discussed lessons he learned from his mom, his wife, and his kids. This one is going to be a game changer.

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Alright guys I’m excited about this one. Without further ado let me introduce to you the 10X king himself Mr. Grant Cardone.

We got Grant Cardone in the house he’s back.

Grant: I just had this really strong affinity and connection with you, and we’re so different but it just feels so good being around you.

Lewis: Appreciate it, man. You’re really good at acknowledging people too. I was watching you communicate with the people around you about how you’re acknowledging them and I see that [?] and he’s really good at finding like the uniqueness and the talent and the gift of someone acknowledging them early in a conversation. I don’t know if that’s innate I’m also doing that and finding good at someone and acknowledging it and I think that’s what makes you.

Grant: Well you just see me finding some good stuff in people because you know. I was having dinner yesterday and there was no water on the table. This nice restaurant

Lewis: Expensive restaurant.

Grant: The guy I’m with is an important person and there’s no water on the table. So, I acknowledge the good in people but I also acknowledge this is not acceptable.

Lewis: Yeah, we were just talking about how you’re not likable and because you say the truth and you say what’s on your mind and you’re not filtered, and every time I do an interview with you I have a lot of people that are like super grateful because of what they learn and then I get a few people that are just like cannot get over the fact that I’m friends with you. They hate me for it, they unsubscribed and they unfollow. And then they like would attack me for days or weeks holding onto something because of something you said or something you did. And I say to people like “Listen I don’t have someone on because I agree 100% with their life, but there’s a lot of things I agree with or think that can be helpful for you.” And I try to find the best in everyone.

Grant: Yeah.

Lewis: And bring that information. You have built an incredible empire with your name, with Cardone capital with everything you do, and the last time you’re on just looking up I think was June, 2017 which is probably like a year ago.

Grant: Less than a year ago I felt I was here.

Lewis: It was almost 2 years ago and you told me I think of the time you were doing, trying to do like 90 million or a hundred million.

Grant: We were doing a deal. I was doing a deal in Houston, Texas it was 90 million bucks.

Lewis: And you were like “If we do a hundred million this year in deals it’s gonna be great.” And I was like “Why not 900 million?”

Grant: I left here I mean you gave me a great gift. So, for all the people that hated that interview or I said something that bothered you, I mean the one thing I’m patting myself in the back for is like I get one piece of data from anything, I’ll get more from one piece of data than anybody I know. Like when I read a book when I grab this book, when I open a book I make a decision every time I go read it ‘what can I find today?’ I used to have like everything and I realize [?]. I’m looking for something I don’t know in my life. And so out of that interview even the interviews I get ‘what can I get?’

Lewis: Right.

Grant: I’m greedy, dude.

Lewis: I was thinking last night I’m gonna get something from Grant to take him from the last interview which was 100 million dollar goal to 900 million dollars that year 2017.

Grant: We close I think 400 million dollars’ worth of deals last year. I have 300 million in the hopper right now. A guy just called me on the way over here he’s like “Okay, you’re an [?], there are 3 guys in the deal one dropped out, do you have any room?” The deal of size dude change so much because of that interview.

Lewis: Because you were thinking that if I have 90 million this year or whatever it was.

Grant: I was thinking about 3 30 million dollars. I remember when my first deal was $78,000. I didn’t know how to come up with the down payment, I remember doing seminars when I was 29 years old and I wouldn’t rent. I would talk to 300 people for 8 hours. So, anytime I’ll save 80 bucks that’ll be 2 days $160, I’m going to do 50 of these this year that’s $9,000 and you can hear my voice today like my twin brother’s voice and my voice. Mine is definitely [?] and actually, have some physical problems because I was having a freaking too much effort. I was 29 years old man I wouldn’t spend any money I was terrified.

Lewis: You spend the money now?

Grant: Yeah, the stupidity is kind of like ‘What was I thinking?’ nobody’s got an $80 problem they got $80 million problem and that’s how I approach everything now.

Lewis: So you went a year and a half, 2 years ago thinking this deal sizes were so big at the time, but now these are like ‘we do this every week type of thing.’

Grant: Like now I’m doing 3 deal and are 300 million.

Lewis: 30 million deal for all year it will be huge and now it’s 300 million.

Grant: Since I left here we raised 200 million using Facebook and Instagram without spending a penny on ads. So, everything change after I left here, we didn’t have funds, I wasn’t raising money and we started looking at how can we grow faster. I mean literally, I walked out of here just asking myself this question over and over. What can I do to grow faster without violating my formula that’s never let me down? And then I’m like ‘we can raise money.’ My wife is involved in those conversations, we can raise money. First thing we did is create a fund for accredited investors that make 200 grand a year, and then I’m like ‘You know I need to do this for the other people.’ People that don’t have a million dollars yet because people are starting to hit me on social media and said.

Lewis: How can I get in?

Grant: You can’t just help wealthy people and they’re right because my family was not wealthy. And then one day I looked at ‘okay, my brother can invest with me but 2 of my sisters can’t.’

Lewis: So, I can’t help any of my family members.

Grant: Like what am I doing? This is a contradiction to who I am and we spent the money to create a fund for everybody.

Lewis: And so you guys did that what changed in your mind because you were doing big deals already. In the last you were making millions, you had a thriving business like things are already growing in 2015 to 2017. Speaking on stage with huge audiences, what’s switching your mind to go from 30 million to 300 million dollar deals? And what do you think is needed for someone making 30,000 to go 100,000 or to a million?

Grant: The switch is if you go and try from 30, I’ll just talk about myself. When I was trying to go from 30 and I remember I was making 30 grand, when I try to go from 30 to 100 I just ended up with all the same problems. So, the guy is like I’m gonna go from 30 to 100, well you can’t do that in the space you are in.

Lewis: You need a bigger space.

Grant: But you don’t have money for a bigger space. So, the trick is to create a plan to go from 30 to 300 not 100, because the people are trying to edge into them. But what they should do is plan to go from 30 to 300 because immediately you’ll be like [?]. Immediately it unlocks you from this budget this mentality that traps you for so long from worrying about $80, literally, I was so terrified I damage my through and my lower intestines because I didn’t understand $80 of your problem. A lot of people see me as a super confident guy but I just been scared.

Lewis: What are you scared of the most?

Grant: I was scared of like ‘I got something now I don’t know what to do with it.’ I figured out how to get it I didn’t know what to do with it, I didn’t know where to go.

Lewis: What did you get?

Grant: I got the money

Lewis: The audience.

Grant: Or I finally got a little audience or I got one industry tonight.

Lewis: And you didn’t know what to do with it?

Grant: How do I keep it? I don’t think you keep it I think you need to multiply. You multiply by taking the risk of going to other industries.

Lewis: You started teaching sales in a car?

Grant: Yeah, before that I started in stuff that I lost at, and again I wasn’t thinking big enough. I was awkward I wasn’t confident, I didn’t know how to talk to people I hated the job, but if somebody goes ‘learn this game so you can own 50 McDonalds restaurants’ like if I would have that idea I bet you I would own a bunch of McDonalds franchise today. I went there just for the 280, not for I want to do something, I truly think the thing that I suffer from the most in my life is I look at Kobe and you know all these pictures of these great people, dude I just thought too small. I was worried about the 80 bucks and I was worried about what the car dealers thought about me.

Lewis: When did you start to think bigger and how did that make you feel when you started to see, like, a bigger vision for your life? You see a model or someone doing?

Grant: Mike Tyson, I was with My Tyson the other day. You know when you watch the old tapes of Mike knocking somebody out, I don’t care if you like boxing or not you watch like him in his prime at 19 years old and people would be like ‘whoa.’  The greatness is always pulling my freaking insides so hard like literally, I cry if somebody is doing something great because I know. I know there’s something in me that’s destined to do something.

Lewis: How do you know that something is in you?

Grant: Because I can hear it, I can feel it. I see it notices in other people and so how could I see that in Kobe or Michael? This is not about celebrity because I’m not a star stuck guy, I am struck by moments. How could I recognize that if it’s not in me? The same thing for like criticism of other people of like when I see I don’t like in somebody I know immediately there’s no way for me to see that in him if that’s not in me. The water last night on the table like how many times have I ignored somebody and not serve them properly.

Lewis: In your own business.

Grant: In business or maybe somebody right now that I’m ignoring and I’m not paying enough attention to or. So, you know that’s been thing dude just that looking I want to be great. I know there are people like ‘that’s because he doesn’t love himself.’ That’s the go-to thing me and Tyson were talking.

Lewis: You don’t love yourself? Why?

Grant: Why do I need to be great? That’s the go-to formula is, you don’t need to be great you should just love yourself the way you are. This is what Tyson said yesterday “The ego save my life.” All these other stuff undoing you know trying not to be great like hurt me a lot, trying not to do big things was damaging to me.

Lewis: How is it damaging?

Grant: Because it put me in conflict.

Lewis: You mean like playing small?

Grant: Yeah like how can you? I showed up in that big truck right it’s noisy and you punch a button it gets noisier and that’s what it was built for, it wasn’t built to not be loud. I don’t think I was built to be loud or to be small, I don’t think I was built to be quiet like they tell you when you’re growing up. God is a show off man.

Lewis: Look what he created, he’s not quiet.

Grant: Like when we walk around nature and we look at all that and we see whatever it is growing on your wall that fungus. That’s living at least in my imagination.

Lewis: I think we love people that are grateful and have humility but we also love people do great things. Is there a balance like also be grateful and humble as opposed to, kind of like McGregor?

Grant: I love McGregor. You know look at The Rock he doesn’t have little muscles.

Lewis: But he’s got more humility.

Grant: He knows how to play the game, there’s no better than the rock at that. Obama was unbelievable with that and staying connected. That’s what I am terrible at and I am so bad at it.

Lewis: Why?

Grant: I don’t know why I just know I am bad at it.

Lewis: It didn’t affect your business.

Grant: I’m sure it had you know, I mean if it slows people down from liking me like if people, and my wife tells me this all the time ‘the reason women don’t like you Grant is because you sound like you don’t feel for anything.’ And she knows the favorite in my life [?]. My mother, I would have done anything for her and she’s my best friend, I depend on her and later I was with my mother when she died. My mother trusted me, didn’t trust me the most when I was growing up and when she was dying knew that no matter what I would be there for her. So, I got on a plane flew to [?] and I walked in and my mom was in a hospital and was like ‘have they told you what’s going on?’ ‘no what do you mean?’ I said “Has anybody told you what’s happening now?” and she’s like ‘No’ and I said, “Well, what do you think is happening?” And I was the first one to have the conversation and got her to say ‘Imma die.’ It was the hardest conversation I had with anybody in my life and it was like ‘you’re gonna die’ this was what’s happening my sisters didn’t have the conversation with her, my brother didn’t have the conversation with her and I said ‘that’s what happening we got 12 hours.’

Lewis: That’s it?

Grant: Yeah, and I’m trying to take time out of this thing like I don’t want to drag and all because I know she doesn’t want to drag on.

Lewis: Was she in pain or?

Grant: No, not really. And I said “How do you want to die?” and then she got it now. So, I’m like how do you want to die? So, I said “You want to stay here?” and she said “I don’t want to stay in this hospital. I want to be in my house.” And when we got to the house I just walk her through the pieces. What do you want to be?

Lewis: Was her body just falling apart?

Grant: It’s cancer and so the organs are shutting down now. Within 10 hours from the time I had the conversation with her, the next morning got her in the Honda drove her home and put her in the living room for a couple of hours and let her sit in her eyes wide.

You know at 11 o’clock at night it finally and she said 30 minutes before she finished she’s like “I’m scared.”

Lewis: Wow.

Grant: And I said, “What are you scared of?” You got it all together, and she says “I’m scared I can’t die.” She wasn’t scared of dying, she was scared she couldn’t.

Lewis: She was afraid that she couldn’t die like she could drag on or and just?

Grant: She wasn’t scared of dying, she was scared she couldn’t.

Lewis: Was your whole family there?

Grant: I was right there with her.

Lewis: What was the greatest lesson she taught you?

Grant: She was a very negative person like I have a lot of that. No one should confuse me with a motivational person because I’m not a positive person.

Lewis: Why aren’t you?

Grant: Because I understand that people die, like, I understand that life is hard and that there’s evil, I know there’s evil. I confront like that’s what people don’t like about me dude. Who says ‘you’re gonna die?’ It’s hard man.

Lewis: It’s really hard being honest.

Grant: My dad died when I was 10 and my older brother died when I was 20, so by the time I was 20 I was like ‘oh people die.’ Then you start getting used to it.

Lewis: Not just your grandparents.

Grant: No, I know there’s people that I know today that have never had a death in their family, they’ve never experienced it and then they’re shocked when their dad dies. My kids already know my 7 and 9 year old they already confronted the issue of me as a body not being around one day. So, my mom taught me a lot, she talked me out of most of everything I ever did because she was negative. A mother is 50% negative.

Lewis: She protected you and kept you safe.

Grant: So, I had to learn how not to listen to that 50%.

Lewis: Was there anything she taught you in the end or any regrets from what you had done or what you haven’t done or a promise you made for yourself after she passed. Is there anything like that for you?

Grant: Not with her, I mean I told her when I was a kid when I got clean from drugs ‘I’ll buy you a jaguar I never bought it for.’ She told me one day ‘some football player had bought their mom a house’ and I was wealthy at the time I was living [?], you know I had done well and I was still single. She didn’t want a house she didn’t want any of that stuff.

Lewis: What did she want?

Grant: She didn’t have a lot of dreams. She lived way below her potential and that’s why I understand women. You know my mom she was a 50’s housewife and my mother lived for her children until part of this, part of my hardness and the way I prioritize things I know my mother made a mistake putting her kids first.

Lewis: What should she have done?

Grant: She should have put herself first not us first. She was more worried about 5 little kids than her own dreams and when I watch my dad died left her to run everything, he died suddenly and she never dated again. She was 40 I guess she was 38 and never went on a date. She had a step-mother and she’s like ‘I’m not giving my kids to my step-mother.’ Everything now was for her kids, you can’t be happy just living for kids that are gonna move out.

Lewis: What advice do you have for women about following their dreams?

Grant: All people should be more greedy about their personal dreams.

Lewis: I got this 5 kids and responsibility.

Grant: Yeah you do, but you also got responsibility to yourself. If I can’t take care of me how can I take care of somebody else? And this has always been my battle cry like I have to take care of me and how can I help anyone if I’m fucking broken? I didn’t need to help anybody else, I needed to get on solid ground and I needed to make sure I wasn’t going back to treatment and then I needed to clean up the mess that I make. That has been my contention now for many years like just keep slowly taking care of your neighborhood until you are in another zip code.

Lewis: Is there any way in your life right now that is still broken or a mess that you need to take care of first?

Grant: I let them go. I was having this conversation with Jamie yesterday and I said “I don’t do that” because she’s got this person and got so much potential. I don’t handle people with potential I handle people that want to change. So, I would rather somebody that wants to say ‘what do I do I’ll do it than somebody’s got a bunch of potential and won’t do it.’

Lewis: But your own personal life do you think there’s anything that’s broken inside of you still?

Grant: I’m not working on the broken stuff of me because thankfully I repaired a lot of stuff and I’m not dealing, I mean I got a lot of help along the way so. All that broken stuff and the doubt and the not sureness even though there’s still me playing small that’s all doubts.

Lewis: What do you doubt right now?

Grant: I’m just saying Lewis the last time I left like ‘okay, we’re gonna build a billion dollar business.’ Now I’m starting to question maybe I just go 20, because now all of a sudden the game gets so big I can truly make a difference. We’re talking about hospital difference, countries like you can make a difference. When you start hanging out with billions of dollars of control and you can start influencing the people that have the resources to do the influencing.

Lewis: So what’s the mindset that’s gonna take you from 1.2 billion now to 10 billion by the end of this year and then 30 billion by the end of next year?

Grant: I can’t move that fast that would be, there does need to be increments because there has to be foundation, there has to be.

Lewis: You can’t just leapfrog that far without doing the work.

Grant: I’m in a physical universe I could do it if I didn’t have a body. The peoples body their thoughts, ideas I’m dealing with a lot of other people, they have time and they go home and you know.

Lewis: Start thinking about them every day.

Grant: Or you know I’m dealing with other institutions that go a lot slower because they are getting conservative now.

Lewis: So from 1 to 10 what’s the goal 10 billion by the end of what?

Grant: I think what’s real is I can be a 2 billion 2020 for sure. I can open in 2020.

Lewis: It sounds so small you’re already 1.2. It sounds so tiny compared to what Grant Cardone is capable of. This sounds tiny it’s just in the mind

Grant: It sounds tiny?

Lewis: This level for you? It sounds tiny.

Grant: I drove a Camry ’til I was 35 years old.

Lewis: Yeah, but you’re 61 and you’ve been leapfrogging for years now. It seems like small. I mean huge for me but where you’re at. I think of Grant Cardone and I think of the empire you’ve built.

Grant: You’re talking about black stone. The black stone is 12 billion dollars of assets.

Lewis: You know the people that have money, you just need a bigger team. How big of a team do you need?

Grant: My team needs to be 100+, it depends on what but if you’re just talking about real-estate right. I got 13 other deals that I’m running so.

Lewis: It sounds small to me. You’re Grant Cardone. So, you need a bigger team it takes time to [?].

Grant: It’s like Mike Tyson he’s like “So what do you want to do?” I’m like “I want to meet 7 billion people.” And immediately, we should get you this tape it’s so fascinating. You know part of it is just getting the word out too like nobody knows I exist.

Lewis: Small amount of people yeah.

Grant: And even the people that know me they’re not thinking about me right now.

Lewis: So how do you become known in the next 2 years?

Grant: Doing things what I’m doing right now. You know getting on your podcast and collaborating, working with other people that you have on this wall.

Lewis: I’m curious what do you think is your superpower is? You’re one of the best in the world at and how does someone find out their superpower is?

Grant: My superpower is probably, what do you think mine is? I’m gonna write down what mine is, but I want to hear what you think mine is.

Lewis: I think what you would write down your belief system is your superpower. What I was thinking before that was your ability to enroll people in your vision.

Grant: It’s interesting you say that.

Lewis: Not allowing fear to play small except for I feel you might be right now, but what did you write down?

Grant: I wrote persistence. Once I decide I want to do something it’s like the chances of me letting go of something that’s important to me, a friend like I am either the best or the worst friend a person has.

Lewis: Why?

Grant: Because if you and I are in a club and something goes down I will be there swinging it out. I have no chance of winning the fight, I can only be a distraction but you’re not gonna see me just run. I’m not gonna run from Elena, there’s nothing Elena could do that cause me to like run away from her.

Lewis: If she treats you horrible every day if she screams at you, tries to pull you back from your dreams.

Grant: I mean none of that will happen, but [?] on me I don’t think that will cause me to run away.

Lewis: Why not? Because it will be your fault? Why would you run away if your wife cheats on you?

Grant: Because what would allow her to get interested in something else? I wasn’t paying attention to her, that something was out, I had to know it. Nobody’s every betrayed me that I didn’t know beforehand they were gonna betray me. There was something you saw happened, some little movement. If you could just go back and look what did the person do or say or do to somebody or not do, maybe they didn’t do something that was consistent with what just happen, and you took that piece of data in and filed it and then you disregarded it.

Every time I’ve been with somebody like got over on me, you know I knew that was gonna happen. I didn’t acknowledge it.

Lewis: Pay attention or have the conversation.

Grant: And so I think one thing is persistence. 2 is that I understand that extremely well, I understand numbers.

Lewis: What do you mean by numbers and why it’s a superpower for you?

Grant: I just understand them they’re very like, I did a 2-day seminar after the 10x conference, we did 3 days and then I did 2 more days right behind that on real-estate. For 8 hours 16 hours total I was living in this what was like the matrix to me. I was in this topic that I understand so well and its formulas and values and money and why something works and like algebra, all these numbers written behind me and I was living in them. So, I mean I don’t know where it comes from or whatever but I know that’s a superpower. The other one is the ability to know when somethings right and say ‘yeah, we’re gonna do that.’ Like really fast decisions.

Lewis: Why are people so slow on making decisions in life, business, and relationships? Why don’t they commit on something?

Grant: Because I think this is that conversation about why you guys need to go talk to each other about [?]. Because you guys don’t trust each other, but mostly you don’t trust yourself. There’s no way I’m not gonna talk to Elena I’m not gonna stop. Now, I got a buddy him and his wife they talk about every real-estate transaction they do, he doesn’t get any.

Lewis: He doesn’t get any what?

Grant: He doesn’t get any deals. They’re too busy talking about the real-estate deals. I tell Elena we bought it, she celebrates she trust me, she trusts the plan. She understands that I’m a genius on this.

Lewis: This is your superpower she’s not gonna question your superpower.

Grant: Exactly. It’s my superpowers, Elena has her superpowers.

Lewis: And probably not consults you.

Grant: Never consults me, I don’t even know what she’s doing, I don’t even understand what it is. She’s bouncing on a ball and she does. I’m convinced that her bouncing on the ball is why she stays in such good shape and she is thinking her world is very ethereal, somewhat like she’s not living in the physical universe. What would that be called? The muse, she’s the magician she lives in a world I don’t even know what she’s doing in it.

Lewis: Right.

Grant: It’s some kind of like postulation, imagination and it’s not about her it’s about us. It’s about something bigger, it’s about people we’re gonna meet places we’re gonna go. Elena, come up with so many brilliant ideas that I would have never have thought, because I’m the effort. My superpower is persistence and push and that relentless, hers is not any of that.

Lewis: Brainstorming.

Grant: She’s exhausted of 5 hours of an event.

Lewis: You never thought of it that way.

 

Grant: I’m gonna cut it from 8 hours to 4 hours. And then what happened was it was a product that we had that I used to deliver, and I said “Guys, we’re gonna do a 4-hour event” twice the people showed up and we didn’t have to reduce the price and that was Elena.

Lewis: Where do you think you’d be without being married to the right partner? Would you be building a business or empire without having the right married partner in your life? Could you do it single?

Grant: 1 I think I’d be miserable. I remember being single and I wasn’t happy I mean I was with somebody all the time, but I was miserable because I didn’t have the right person.

Lewis: How did you know the right person for you then?

Grant: I thought just because of the way she’s mocked up, just her physical unit like ‘okay, that’s my deal.’ And then the way she kind of like her attitude was fit for me her confidence and her vulnerability you know I like all that. But I mean I don’t think I’d be doing what I’m doing. I think 50% unless we get a divorce and I got to go to the whole you know she wants 50%, which by the way I would yell hey ‘you can’t take 50 of this.’ But she is definitely contributed to this expansion because I never imagined I would be.

Lewis: Really? What did you imagine?

Grant: That I’d have money never thought if this level. I bought a house up the street 15 years ago I was worried I couldn’t pay for it.

Lewis: How long have you been married?

Grant: 15 years. It’s Elena but it’s also us having a commitment to self-improvement too, it’s like that’s the other thing that we did together we were working ourselves. She would take care of her left and right shoulder down to her feet and clean up her thing and I did mine, and we did that some time together.

Lewis: What was the thing that you needed to clean up the most since you got married?

Grant: I needed to get rid of a lot of ideas. All these false ideas that I had accumulated from high school, from family.

Lewis: What are 2 or 3 of them?

Grant: There’s thousands of them. Money, I was completely fucked up about money even though I had money.

Lewis: In what way? What was the thing?

Grant: To save money, I was saving money all the time.

Lewis: As opposed to investing it?

Grant: No, I used it all I don’t save anything.

Lewis: Well you probably had 6 months of like runway of living expenses.

Grant: I don’t need it because I have the cash flow. Cash flow is gonna take care of me for like that’s the thing that people only have got half the formula right. The money thing I was screwed up on I did a retirement account when I was 19 years old it was totally unnecessary. I bought life insurance when I was 21 years old. Time how to manage the time I had all these ideas about time and that so many bad ideas I’ve had. Work you got to work hard. Raising money that it would cause me problems. All these were ideas that I had.

Lewis: What’s been the greatest joy about being married? And the biggest challenge?

Grant: The biggest joy is certainly having the kids.

Lewis: And you thought to have them take away from your dreams or business?

Grant: I remember being scared just the responsibility. It’s one of my fears.

Lewis: Someone’s life in your hands. What happened when you had kids?

Grant: I got more of everything. You know I got more time, I don’t know how I actually got more time.

Lewis: How?

Grant: Because I had this new thing to play with and I was so excited about this new thing I got up earlier. So, I would get up an hour earlier because she needs sleep, she was exhausted. I would grab Sabrina and I would take her to pavilions every morning right down the street.

Lewis: No way.

Grant: I love it she was 3 months old and I take her to the swimming pool every day. My first daughter at 9 months old I can put my foot on her at the bottom of the pool and she would be down as cool as can be.

Lewis: You were training her how to swim?

Grant: Exactly. By the time she was a year old, she could hold onto my neck and can swim the length of the pool underwater. Me and her are so connected much more than Scarlet and myself.

Lewis: So having a kid broke the limitation.

Grant: Dude, it broke the limitation of time that I wasn’t gonna have time and then the responsible thing, I realized that I am a great dad. I don’t think I would have the jet if it wasn’t for the kids because I needed the jet so that I can spend time with the kids. You know a lot of people think the jets for you, but the jet really created a situation where I could spend more time with Elena and the kids, otherwise I’d be on an airbus somewhere and I couldn’t bring them. That’s the good thing of the expansion of the marriage and the hard thing is just like.

Lewis: The challenge?

Grant: The challenge is like you’re both aging and that is a real thing. Even the kids are growing up and you know what that means for you.

Lewis: You’re getting older.

Grant: You ain’t getting older you dying. My mom didn’t die that night, so where am I if something happens and I die next week? Well, the reality is I was dying right here, like that’s the life cycle. So, watching the kids I’m being reminded by life cycle, my termination date on this unit.

Lewis: On this life and then watching my wife and then us having to like change what we want to do. You know when you first meet you’re all excited and you want to do sex. I mean I bought up that house up the hill and we were 30 days maybe 45 days before closing it, we would sneak into the house. So, we would both sneak into the house have sex in the house. We were crazy we didn’t even own the house yet, we were just blessing it before closing. As you get older and more responsible you start raising money, you probably don’t want to be seen doing some of these things and we live in a different world today. You know we got through 2008, 2009, and 2010 that was really good for us.

Lewis: Because you lost a lot of money.

Grant: I lost a lot of my sense of, that I had underestimated the reality of taking care of a wife and 2 kids. This was the first big loss I had since being a father and a husband and I was like ‘wait a minute I was still calculating based on Grant.’ I got 2 kids and a wife, my reputation started to expand a little bit I just got whacked and I don’t want to keep doing this. I know a lot of people say they learn from their losses but I don’t, I get better because of my successes.

Lewis: It just takes longer again to get back to where you want to be.

Grant: Mike told me something the other day in the hot box he says “you know my grades got better.”

Lewis: He got more confidence.

Grant: He even learns better. I said, “I don’t learn from losses I learn from successes.” And then I try to repeat those things.

Lewis: Do more of those things.

Grant: And the bucket gets bigger, everything gets bigger. I feel so bad for people particularly around money that they never have the victories back to back enough victories. So, Elena has given me that I wouldn’t have that if I was by myself. The beautiful thing that we have is we don’t fight about stuff that people fight about.

Lewis: Like what?

Grant: I mean I see a lot of guys like he wants to be on social media and she doesn’t. We’re going someplace it’s not about Facebook or Instagram. She does it differently than I do and there’s things that [?], there’s things we just don’t fight about.

Lewis: What do you fight about?

Grant: We probably fight about. She’s just like we’re in a bungalow and we stayed longer, that room sold out so they need to move us to another room. They moved us to this penthouse room.

Lewis: 5 grand or something.

Grant: And she’s like it doesn’t matter, what matters is she doesn’t know. This is a game that I play with her and nobody wins. The game is how much is the room? I know she didn’t ask because I know she didn’t have that, that’s not her style.

Lewis: Why do you care to ask her that?

Grant: Because I know that with money you should ask. How much is this? Because one day I’m not gonna be here and she’s gonna get rip off. Her magic will be taken advantage of because she lives in this ethereal, she’s a bit native and she would admit that.

Lewis: More of a principle that it is.

Grant: I should’ve asked but I didn’t ask for the same reason by the way. So, it’s this embarrassing thing how much is the room? We argue about she’s taking the kids off sugar and the next thing you know she’s giving them sugar. It’s all right when she does it but it’s not all right if I do it.

Lewis: Right.

Grant: So that’s a bit of a bother but nothing terrible. She goes down to this place and works out in the morning it’s a long drive. She goes down the street its 25 minutes like dude it’s so dumb to go all the way down there, have him come to you.

Lewis: What’re the 3 keys to if you have any say for that couple who’s gonna get married like make sure you do these 3 things if you want as much of a chance of being fulfilled and love. What would you think the 3 things that are most important?

Grant: I don’t want to give people advice man.

Lewis: For you what are the 3 keys?

Grant: I always do what I say I’m gonna do, I never don’t do it.

Lewis: So you follow your word to her?

Grant: Always. She doesn’t, not only do I do it, I do it right then, like I don’t put it off. So, I would tell guys out there at least I would tell anybody ‘do what you say you’re gonna do and do it as fast as you can.’

Lewis: 2nd thing?

Grant: Number 2 is I take care of my family I think that’s important.

Lewis: Financially, spiritually, and emotionally?

Grant: Yeah like I make things go right so that they’re taken care of. I want to feel good about me.

Lewis: Right.

Grant: The third thing is I think sex is important.

Lewis: I think a lot for married couples. Once the sex is gone it’s like.

Grant: Even if you don’t want to. I’m just saying like when she’s in a mood and you need to turn it on and vice versa. It’s about getting your game on and I think a lot of relationships if you play the other games in life or business, if you apply those rules or you try to do some in the bedroom, if you did that in business you’d be broke.

Lewis: So your relationship is broke too.

Grant: Like there’s no way you can’t do something at work. I say always rise to the occasion.

Lewis: I went through some stuff recently I got a lot of critics and haters and I know you’re used to it. You rub people the wrong way, you say what you feel what you think and some people don’t like that. So, how do you handle if there’s a barrage of like negative comments? How do you deal with it?

Grant: It depends on whether like if it’s false and somebody is trying to hurt me that’s different than if it got some truth in it.

Lewis: So if it’s false or trying to hurt you?

Grant: I’m gonna crush him. They’re trying to hurt me my reputation, my name, my money like I’m gonna fucking crush them. I’m gonna call them out publicly and call them straight, I’m gonna make it known that they made this claim like things are going and I’m gonna confront it. Evil exists.

Lewis: Yeah it does.

Grant: I’m talking about the Taliban, I’m not talking about some bad group of people I’m talking about people. They’re a good 7 and a half hours a day and for 30 minutes they take on this evil valence. If you don’t crack them then they’ll do an hour the next time. People in this internet influencer space very small, you know or any space. These guys have these great moments and then they go evil for a second.

Lewis: What if it’s just negative comments?

Grant: Like somebody on my stream?

Lewis: Yeah.

Grant: There’s so much good data in there.

Lewis: Does it ever affect you emotionally?

Grant: I mean look I am a weak person like I would love everyone to love me.

Lewis: So how do you handle it when it affects you emotionally? Do you just sit back and breathe for a minute? Do you reflect? Do you talk to your wife?

Grant: I never tell her about it. She can’t handle it. They call her a gold digger right? And then my response to them is ‘you need to find a gold digger because if you’re the only one digging and she’s not.’

Lewis: That’s great.

Grant: I roll with it. It’s a move, people call me a show off like I used it now. So, today I did a post on Instagram and Elena she did this photoshoot for L.A magazine and the post is ‘Now, we are showing off.’ So, there’s a lot of good in the criticism or the brokenness.

Lewis: How do you handle that emotionally and how do you not let it consume your mind for too long? Like how do you personally deal with it?

Grant: Some of it just means, it’s not meant to really cause any damage. Those people what I’m gonna do is I probably try to see if I can harness some of that energy and show them like really put it in their face.

Lewis: How so?

Grant: Like watch how big I can get.

Lewis: So your ego can get involved in your life?

Grant: Totally.

Lewis: Isn’t that the worst thing when you get something coming after you and you just have to deal with it?

Grant: The go-to movement some of that was legitimate some of it was not. Like people accusing people of doing stuff that wasn’t done.

Lewis: Spreading lies.

Grant: Making accusation about people that aren’t true.

Lewis: It’s like evil. You can’t just say what you want and then people. That’s the thing that pisses me off some can say anything right now and then people will believe it without any facts or hearing the other side of the story.

Grant: Until this happens to a person they’re not gonna know it’s real.

Lewis: And this is what people need to understand you need to prepare for the [?]. When you expand your vision and your empire and your dreams get ready because now everyone is gonna come after you.

Grant: Closer to you than you might’ve expected.

Lewis: So how should people prepare for that?

Grant: The deal is 200 grand a month. I hire the best lawyer and like dude I didn’t do this, it doesn’t matter you still got to defend it.

Lewis: And you don’t get the money back.

Grant: It’s all a loser [?] you know. The only way I can actually get even later like I’m gonna get so big, this was the best money I ever spend in my life. It caused me a couple of million dollars plus about I lost 9 million in the deal plus the time and stressed, I had to take 3 or 4 years off my life. At the end of it, I told Elena “I’m gonna get so fucking big” every morning this guy he’s gonna wake up he’s gonna have to see me. I’m trying to show the bad guys that like you know what you pick the wrong phony.

Lewis: And now look at you.

Grant: They end up losing the lawsuit but where they really lost was every day now they got to be reminded, lady gaga talked about that.

Lewis: What did she say?

Grant: How many people counted her out?

Lewis: Now, they’re all wishing they all bet on her.

Grant: And that’s not a revenge thing, I know it sounds like a low-grade kind of like retaliation.

Lewis: Because I don’t think revenge is sustainable long term.

Grant: But you know, I think you know how do you use it so it doesn’t consume you? And how do you keep using it in a healthy way? But it really woke me up to like you need to have a budget for fabricated bullshit.

Lewis: Craziness.

Grant: People should have budgets. This is the money thing that people need to confront, people need to have budgets for all kind of crazy shits.

Lewis: Even for emergencies in their life.

Grant: Or how about what if the internet goes down tomorrow? Your business is screwed. How many people, like I know a guy who owns 20 million of Apple stock got his house paid for probably worth 30 million bucks, if the internet crash today he could not, in 5 days he’s busted. So, there’s a lot of people in America walking around saying everything is fine.

Lewis: Like in Puerto Rico. How do you build a culture of success around a team when you left 2010 and move? And then you go to Miami and build an empire over the last 8 or 9 years whenever you start doing that 7 or 8 years ago. How do you build from small team to this large team now with the cultural success after you come from a bust experience?

Grant: We have probably grown the staff 50 times since leaving L.A. Leaving L.A was one of the best things I ever did.

Lewis: What do you mean you grew it 50 times? What does that mean?

Grant: 300 employees.

Lewis: Yeah. 12:53

Grant: So we had 6 here. The problem with 6 is you’re depending on 4 broken people if you’re not one them. I hate being depended upon broken people, I want partnerships where I feel good like I got some really good people around me. I got people that want to hire away you know and they’re untouchable.

Lewis: How do you put that culture of people?

Grant: You got to add and get rid of. You have to flush.

Lewis: How do you deal with that emotionally?

Grant: I don’t get rid of anybody, I mean I’m a tough guy and all that but I don’t think I’ve fired anybody.

Lewis: Gone the end of the day or week?

Grant: When I get back I don’t want him in there. So we made a mistake I don’t want mistake, I don’t want to second guess myself when I am around with somebody. I can’t have people second guessing our playbook because it’s already hard enough.

Lewis: You’ve got so many decisions you got to do all day.

Grant: So, while people are worried about the other side I’m worried about our side more than the other side.

Lewis: How do you know when you’ve hired the right person?

Grant: I never know when I hire the right person. I’ve had guys go bad I’ve had guys they’ve done with this 3 years and superstars and great, but also when you see those graphs coming down we graph everybody. So everybody is gonna graph.

Lewis: What do you mean? You’re charting, ranking?

Grant: Calls out, emails out. Proposals made if they’re in sales. Whatever it is their job is we graph it all. When that graph goes down the guy has already quit. You can’t keep a graph erected moving up if the guy has checked out.

Lewis: Do you feel like that’s your responsibility? You know maybe you’re in a relationship and your wife checked out is that also a responsibility for you to say maybe I wasn’t giving them what they needed or the incentives or the encouragement?

Grant: It’s never me. I need to keep my own graph up I just keep spiking my graph. My graph keeps spiking up I become the role model for the organization, then I got Sherry she’s got her graph she keeps her graph going up. Graph it all man because numbers don’t lie.

Lewis: Does your graph ever go down?

Grant: Yeah it goes down. I watch it when it goes down I pick it up again. So, whatever pick it up last time I go and graph it again. I go back and hit that action.

Lewis: What’s the system you guys are using for the graphing? Is there a software or internal thing?

Grant: We just take whatever the task or activity is and put it on a spreadsheet.

Lewis: What would be one piece of advice for growing the culture of success besides graphing?

Grant: We have a meeting every day you know we look for compliance and willingness before intelligence. I never look for potential.

Lewis: What do you look for then?

Grant: We hire the patriots [?], they don’t hire the best they never do. There’s 3 people in charge of those teams, not 33. There’s a dictator on that team.

Lewis: Those are with superstars.

Grant: It’s got to be so hard.

Lewis: Because everyone’s got personality and opinion.

Grant: So let’s see how long that legacy can last. I know that the New England Patriots thing works. There’s an owner he’s not involved. So, they hire from the lower half of the draft. They’re gonna win without a great person.

Lewis: One great person they got the best quarterback.

Grant: But they got a bunch of no names. So, I like that because now I’m not depending upon a superstar. Before I work for myself I was the superstar where I work and I made them kiss the ring, I was a total diva. I’m not gonna put myself in this situation where 1 guy runs the show. So, that’s why our staff is so big I want to get that staff to 1,200 people.

Lewis: Really? Does that not stress you out going from 600 to 1,200?

Grant: It’s going to be easier. So, that’s what we’re doing we’re studying big companies now rather than studying people in my space. You know the guy that became a big name and outsource everything, we want to run this internally and get big man.

Lewis: Okay, a couple of final questions. This is called the 3 truths I think I’ve asked it before. So, imagine it’s your last day but you can pick the day and at some point, you got to leave this physical body and you go to wherever you are going. And you achieved everything whatever you want it to be.

Grant: Achieved everything?

Lewis: Everything you wanted up to that moment happened.

Grants: Kids are happy, healthy they love me.

Lewis: They are by your bedside just like you were with your mom. You got an opportunity to share a message with them that they would then share with the world. You’ve created books and crushing it, you’ve got all these videos but you got to take it all with you. So no one has access to any of it you got to take it with you, but you get to have a piece of paper and give it to your family 3 things you know to be true. 3 things that you can have and then share it with the world. What would you say are your 3 truths?

Grant: You can do anything.

Lewis: That would be number 1.

Grant: And more than you ever freaking dream. Like everybody is underestimating what they can do. Number 2 you can’t fail it’s impossible just impossible, you can’t even quit. And number 3 you’re not a body you’re not your physical unit.

Lewis: I love it, 3 great lessons. Where can people find you right now?

Grant: If you’re in Singapore I am coming to you. If you’re in Russia we’re coming. So, we’re gonna do every country on the planet. So, this idea that I am going to meet 7 billion people I don’t know probably never do it, but we’re gonna at least give it a try and until whatever.

Lewis: Grant Cardone on Instagram and Facebook?

Grant: Yeah, Grant Cardone everywhere. Finally got a million subscribers on YouTube.

Lewis: I got like almost half a million I got to step it up.

Grant: So hard dude 12 years.

Lewis: 12 years myself. I didn’t start YouTube about 3 and a half years ago really going in.

Grant: So hard I didn’t ask people to subscribe to the channel for 8 years.

Lewis: Yeah. We got 10x.

Grant: We’re gonna do a kind of 10x version around the world and around the United States but then we’re gonna do a big one.

Lewis: Where can they go to?

Grant: Go to 10growth.com. You can actually register there for a $20,000 seat because this year we have 2 stupid parties plan. 1 you won’t know where you’re going until you get there.

Lewis: It’s like an experience.

Grant: It’s gonna be a trip and it’s gonna be confined, so there’s 3 levels and this one also be part of the show. These seats will be part of the show itself and we got some super talent it’s gonna be crazy.

Lewis: So, 10xgrowth.com get your tickets.

Grant: Just register if you don’t want to buy one right now, see if you can win the $20,000.

Lewis: You got cardonecapital.com?

Grant: Cardonecapital.com is gonna be the thing I’m gonna end up known for like this is kind of ridiculous, but the books and the programs and the sales and the university is probably I’m gonna end up being known for. So, we’ve already had calls from hedge funds saying [?].

Lewis: Crazy.

Grant: 100% of the 200 million is invested in real-estate there’s not 1 penny taken out. So this is gonna be a disruptor dude. Now, somewhere along the line the black stones and the Wells Fargo are gonna be like [?], if I get big enough there’s gonna be some big impact.

Lewis: I love it so thanks for giving me a check every month. I love all your stuff, I appreciate you. I acknowledge you for, I don’t think you shared a lot of stuff before there’s a lot of stuff you shared about marriage, about your mom. I don’t think you’ve gone there and really open up about those stories.

Grant: Nobody has ever asked me.

Lewis: I care about all this stuff.

Grant: I just love watching you grow and you know who you are and what you do and I like watching all the guys in the space you know develop. I’m so grateful and blessed, I know there’s plenty for everybody and I know you know that.

Lewis: I acknowledge you for opening up man, I don’t think I ever saw you cry. I actually one time in Malibu late night you was opening stuff. Final question, what’s your definition of greatness?

Grant: For me [?] it just keeps moving because I become more and more aware of what I can do. So, it’s fluid.

Lewis: Appreciate it, brother.

There you have it, my friends, I hope you enjoyed this interview and this episode. We are always trying to bring you powerful insights from some of the most inspirational people in the world and Grant Cardone delivered. If you enjoyed this share it with your friends’ lewishowes.com/802. You get to be a hero today by texting a few friends this link. Tag me and Grant Cardone over on your Instagram story.

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And as T.S. Eliot said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

You are born with so much freaking potential inside of you. You have only scratched the surface of what is possible. You have only tapped into so little of what you’re capable of, but you’ve got to be willing to push yourself farther and farther. Risk so much to see how far you can go. I hope this interview inspires you to risk bigger in your life, to think bigger, to change your mindset, to be willing to reach your potential because you are born with incredible gifts that only you have and the world needs to see them. They need to experience these gifts and it’s time you stop holding back, it’s time you start moving forward and start unleashing the greatness within you.

As always I love you so very much and you know what time it is, it’s time to go out there and do something great.