Grant Cardone Bio: How He Created a Real Estate Empire

Grant Cardone is a much-publicized real estate mogul and entrepreneur well-known for his sales training and commitment to the 10X Rule.

I know Grant Cardone has a significant social media presence, and while I am familiar with the 10X Rule, I didn’t know much about his background. I learned a lot about his life, his early struggles, and how Grant turned it all around to build a multi-billion dollar empire.

Before I get into the details of his fascinating journey from losing his father at a young age to creating a substantial net worth, here are some quick Grant Cardone bio facts.

Grant Cardone Bio Facts

Grant Cardone Key Facts Summary

• Operates a multi-billion dollar real estate portfolio that stretches across the United States.
• He had significant issues with drug abuse when he was younger and turned his life around to achieve a net worth of $600m.
• He has authored several award-winning books, including the New York Times bestseller, If You’re Not First, You’re Last.
• Created the 10X Rule and thinks many people set targets for their lives that are too realistic, inhibiting their success.
• He runs successful sales conferences, the Cardone University and has over 15m social media followers.
• Cardone is a committed Scientologist, although he grew up in a Catholic household.
• He is married with two children and owns beachfront homes in Florida and Malibu.

Grant Cardone Birthplace and Early Life

Grant Cardone was born on the 21st of March 1958 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. His parents were children of Italian immigrants.

I found out that his father, Curtis Louis Cardone, died when Grant was only ten years old (he passed away in 1968). I think Grant’s business acumen came from his father, as I discovered he had an entrepreneurial spirit. Curtis started a life insurance company, and he also owned a grocery store before becoming a licensed stockbroker.

I also find it fascinating to look into the business history of the families of wealthy people because I think you can pick up clues to how they gained their business skills.

Grant Cardone’s upbringing took a drastic change when his father died. His mother, Concetta Neil Cardone, took on the role of provider for the family, and they were forced to sell their home and downsize. Grant grew up with a twin brother and three other siblings, so I imagine that times were particularly tough going into his teenage years.

Things didn’t get a lot better for the family, as his older brother, Curtis, died just a few years later. Grant admitted that he began abusing drugs during this time (from 16 years old).

He attended LaGrange High School before studying at McNeese State University and graduated with a degree in accounting.

Grant Cardone Early Business Success

Grant experienced issues with drugs in his early life. He began working at a car dealership and moved around between Houston, Texas, LaJolla, and Los Angeles, California.

At the age of 25, he started to address his drug and alcohol issues by checking into rehab, where he spent a month. I found it interesting that he stated that his rehab counselor told him he would fail in the real world, and I think this spurned Grant on to find success.

His first business success came from working as a consultant for the auto industry in the United States and Canada. Alongside his business partner, Scott Morgan, they founded The Cardone Group in 1994 to help auto dealerships enhance their sales and marketing strategies. The venture was pretty successful, and the revenue gained from consulting allowed him to branch out into buying real estate.

It was through investing in property that Grant Cardone started to find real wealth. He bought his first property when he was 29, although it didn’t work out as well as expected, which I will touch on later in his bio.

The second property he invested in was in San Diego, a multi-family complex, and he eventually used the money generated from renting his first two properties to purchase another one shortly after. This business strategy started to generate a lot of money for Grant Cardone, and his real-estate venture grew as time progressed.

I know of Grant Cardone through his sales programs, but I found his rapid growth in the real-estate market fascinating.

Today, his real-estate portfolio stretches to Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas – which I think is some achievement. I also found his business strategy interesting because he owns the vast majority of his businesses, with around 2% being owned by outside investors.

If you have heard of Grant Cardone before, you will probably know of the 10X Rule and possibly the Cardone University. These sales programs have massively increased his wealth and prestige.

Grant’s 10X Rule amounts to setting yourself targets that are ten times higher than what you think you can do. He states that many people fail and don’t succeed because their objectives are too low.

Grant has turned his sales training and business skills into several best-selling books, including:

• Sell To Survive
• The Closer’s Survival Guide
• If You’re Not First, You’re Last
• The 10X Rule
• Sell or be Sold

If You’re Not First, You’re Last is a New York Times bestseller, while Sell or be Sold is an Axiom Business Book Award winner.

His sales conferences have also found a lot of success in giving people the confidence to go on and achieve their goals. I suppose there are some similarities between Grant Cardone and Jordan Belfort in that they suffered personal issues and have since turned to help others through motivational speaking with a focus on sales techniques.

Grant Cardone has had a largely successful career, first by consulting the auto industry and using his money to invest significantly in real estate. It is said that Cardone Capital owns real estate, amounting to a few billion dollars. From here, he has helped thousands of other people through his sales conferences, books, and Cardone University, to achieve their goals.

Grant Cardone Videos

Grant Cardone Business Failures

One of the first failures I found in Grant Cardone’s career was during his first foray into the real estate market.

He purchased a single-family property when he was 29 to rent out. However, the family moved out after less than a year, and Grant soon found that his income was drying up because he wasn’t receiving any rent. While he did have other ventures at the time, this proved to be a bit of a setback for the entrepreneur.

I think this taught him a lesson. When he started to expand his real estate portfolio in his 30s, he made sure that he didn’t rely on one property for rental income and used the money generated from one property to fund the purchase of another. This helped him grow his portfolio, and I think it showed he wouldn’t suffer the same issues as he did through his first property purchase.

Grant Cardone has admitted several other failures, particularly during the mid-1990s. Although, I do think his version of failure and mine are pretty different! He has said that the targets he set himself in the 1990s were too realistic and didn’t allow him to grow as much as he would have liked.

The other failure he has alluded to is not being as aggressive in business as he should have been in his younger days.

While I do think a lot of Grant Cardone’s interviews and speeches are full of buzz phrases (take action, reach your full potential, etc.), if you read between the lines, you can pick out parts of his life where he is less than happy with his performance.

In 2020, he released a video saying that he would file for bankruptcy, which would amount to a massive business failure. However, as he put it, this was just a ruse that he said he did to try and ‘break the news cycle’.

I recently discovered that Cardone was subject to a lawsuit accusing him of misleading investors by claiming that they would receive at least 15% return on their investments. However, this lawsuit was dismissed as the plaintiff failed to prove the allegations.

Grant Cardone Family

I think Grant Cardone was massively influenced by his parents, particularly his father, Curtis, who was an entrepreneur. Both his parents were children of Italian immigrants.

Grant Cardone married Elena Lyons in 2004, and the couple has two children, Scarlett and Sabrina. One fact I thought was quite cool was that Grant and Elena host their own show through Grant Cardone TV. The G&E Show address how they manage their business, marriage, and family life.

Grant Cardone Career Earnings

There are a lot of conflicting reports of Grant Cardone’s actual net worth, and it wasn’t helped by his video where he claimed he was filing for bankruptcy. However, this turned out to be a marketing ploy.

As far as I can tell, I think his net worth is around $600 million.

His real estate portfolio is estimated to be worth over a billion. His wealth stems mainly from his investments in real estate as well as his hugely successful 10X brand, which consists of conferences, books, and the Cardone University, which he claims has over 500,000 users.

I discovered that he also runs the Cardone Foundation. This philanthropy organization helps at-risk individuals with mentoring and financial literacy. I found it interesting that one of the main target groups is people who have grown up with a father in their lives, which is something that Grant has personal experience with.

According to the latest financial report for the foundation, it is a multi-million dollar organization that has helped people in many southern US states and internationally in Haiti and South Africa.

Grant Cardone Real Estate Holdings

Grant Cardone’s real estate holdings are well-known as he owns a lot of property across the country that he rents out, and this is where a lot of his wealth has stemmed from.

However, what about his actual home? I also find it interesting to look at the houses of wealthy people (hence why I love the Million Dollar Listing show with Josh Flagg).

Early this year, Cardone purchased a home on Carbon Beach, Malibu, for an estimated $40m. It is also known as ‘Billionaires beach’ due to the large number of affluent people who have purchased property there, including Larry Ellison.

The property is 9,508 square feet, with six bedrooms, ten bathrooms, a pool, and a home theatre.

Cardone also owns a beachfront property in Florida that he purchased from fashion mogul Tommy Hilfiger for $28m.

Grant Cardone Quotes

“Your greatness is limited only by the investments you make in yourself.”

“Success is your duty, obligation, responsibility.”

“No one’s going to come to your house and make your dreams come true.”

“Speed is the currency that you want to maximize on today. Most people just go too slow. They think too long and they never take any action.”

Frequently Asked Questions – Grant Cardone Bio

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Research

• https://www.capitalism.com/grant-cardone-net-worth/
• https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/business-people/grant-cardone-net-worth
• https://grantcardone.com/
• https://meaww.com/curtis-louis-concetta-neil-cardone-grant-cardone-parents-drug-abuse-undercover-billionaire
• https://therealdeal.com/miami/2020/09/30/lawsuit-seeking-class-action-status-accuses-grant-cardone-of-misleading-investors/

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Jodie Chiffey

As a fellow business owner and business strategist, Jodie shares valuable insight into the strategies and tactics business owners can use to increase their growth.

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