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Shawn: Welcome to School's Over...Now What the Podcast and I'm here with my guy, Mr 10X himself. Grant, how's it going man?
Grant: So good to be with you man.
Shawn: Man I'm glad to be here man. So like you're on the show today. A lot of people have been waiting to get you on the show. So I, before we do all the fun stuff and figure anything out, I want to go back to like, that guy that grew up in your childhood. What was it like growing up for you?
Grant: Well, it was, it was, uh, you know, like everybody, like I'm a little kid, like every kid, right? So like, you know, it's the same thing for everybody. You know, everybody grows up the same way. Like, like, I was a little dude, you know, you know what it's like to be a little guy. I know, man. I'm sure. So I'm a little guy, you know, I, I see my daughter Sabrina now and she's, she's going to be 10 years old and she's like, "you know, pop I'm smaller than everybody else". I said "baby that's all right. That's what they said about me." You know, I was a little dude, so, so I bruised easily. So I'm walking around, I had shorts on all the time, so I'm like, I'm all bruised. I'm looking at myself like I'm a little. Uh, and there was a lot of comparisons in my family.
Grant: Everything was about the physical unit, about the body, right? So there was a big, because I was an identical twin, there was tremendous attention from others. Everybody that met the, the little kids, whether we were infants or babies or you know, four years old, five years old or 10, it was always who's stronger oh you're so cute. Everything was about the body. So, um, it, that, that was a little introverting right? As a kid, everything's about the physicality, the limitations. Yeah. So, so I can see that theme carrying through my life. It's this idea that I'm just this. Yeah. And so, you know, when I went, when I got into junior high, junior high, elementary was hard. Junior high was worse and high school was terrible.
Shawn: Why is that? Why is that?
Grant: Dude? Because I was like, I was the little dude. I got a big mouth. I've always had a big mouth. You can relate.
Shawn: Yeah, of course.
Grant: And, and, and you know, I have an opinion. I've had an opinion. Um, I, I liked the girls and it didn't matter if that was your girl. And that caused me to get beat up a lot. I don't know. So like, like at least twice a month. Somebody was, somebody was punching me. I remember I was going, I was going to class one day. I had, I had this new pink shirt on.
Shawn: Pink??
Grant: Pink dude, you gotta be confident to wear pink. In high school. So in Louisiana, Lake Charles, Louisiana. So I literally, I'm walking out the door, I must've been 15, 16 years old and I walked back inside, took the shirt off, put another shirt on because I knew I was going to get beat up that day. And sure enough I did.
Shawn: Wow, man. So you grow up as this kid. Short. I can relate to that by all means, man. Yeah, I stopped growing. I remember back in middle school I was a star on the basketball team. Everybody grew up in my career was over you really quickly. But for you, as you're going through all these battles in your childhood, being that short small guy, how did you overcome that? How did you get like the passion and drive that you have today?
Grant: Well, I don't know that I did overcome it. You know, I'm, I'm, you know, I, there was nothing I could do about that. Right. So, so when I had a big loss when I was, when my dad died when I was 10 I lost my brother when I was 20 but there was another loss in between where, where I thought I was going to be a baseball player. I had this illusion like, you thought you were going to be a basketball player. And I really thought I was going to be a, a professional base..., a catcher. For a professional team and 18 years old, I had drug problems, dude, like I was, you know, so, so I realized again, a physical limitation. My body was getting beat up, guys are running over me at the plate. Uh, my arm wasn't strong enough to hit second over and over. I wasn't that good with a stick.
Grant: So, um, that was a big loss for me. Like, ah, I got to give that up.
Grant: You know, so, so along the way now how do, how do you find the wins? Right. You know, uh, you know, I mean I got, I didn't have anybody to help me so....cause I lost my dad and my older brother. So I'm, I'm like looking like, how do you find your way? I go to school, I think the teachers are going to help me. You know how that turns out....teachers can't help themselves. Right. And they want to, they want to, but like, like I needed more than history and grammar. Dude, I needed...I needed discipline, I needed direction, I needed....a destination. You know the three D's, man.
Shawn: You got to have those three D's and I mean there are so important.
Grant: Dude. Like, like I didn't have any of them. I didn't have the destination. I probably should've gone to the military. Then somebody said, oh no, you've got flat feet. They won't take you anyway. I'm like shit nobody will take me. But the local drug dealer would take me. He'd take me, all day long.
Shawn: So that, did that turn you into a hustler though?
Grant: Well yeah. It was a hustler man, cause I had to pay for the weed. So like Dennis was the first entrepreneur I ever met. Dennis was the pot dealer.
Shawn: What it did Dennis do for you?
Grant: Dennis was the dude. He was, he was the first guy I ever met. Dude. He was, he was, he was slinging weed man. And, it was interesting because again, here I am looking for, I'm looking for direction, whether you know it or not, everybody's looking for it. You know, you go on Instagram, whatever you think you're looking for, you're looking at pornography, you're looking for direction really. You know, it's just a different kind of deal right? We out of school now?
Grant: Wherever you're going, you're looking for something, you know, even when you're lost. And I was lost from 15 years old to 25 I was completely lost. And so, I run into Dennis, he's a drug dealer. He's selling weed. He was cool dude, man. He's like, he had, he had the profit game down.
Shawn: Yeah.
Grant: And this was the first guy I ever met. There was about margins and volumes.
Shawn: Wow.
Grant: And that was like boom. And that rung true to me. You know, like I, I could, I could be a business man. I was going to be a baseball player, but, uh, maybe I can be a businessman, you know, so, and I had to pay for the weed. Right.
Shawn: You had to pay for it!
Grant: So, uh, which, you know, I did that deal and I didn't feel good about it. Again. I was just lost. My direction was lost. I never felt good about, uh, breaking the law.
Shawn: Somebody right now is listening to this show and they want to know how can they find a better direction.
Grant: You've got to keep looking, man. You got to keep looking and you gotta you gotta you gotta be, it doesn't matter that you, I wrote a book, be obsessed or be average. It doesn't matter if you're going the wrong direction. What matters is that you go fast. You need to go all the way in the wrong direction because you'll hit the wall faster. I was in a treatment center when I was 25 years old for drug addiction. Okay. I was using up to $500 of cocaine today.
Shawn: Wow.
Grant: Dude. I mean, I was a wreck. I was popping pills, smoking weed all day. I'd wake up in the morning and literally I'm not using drugs today and within 30 seconds later, I would snort, eat, or smoke something or a combination of all three before breakfast.
Shawn: Wow.
Grant: So I was a wreck nude. Okay. Like I, I made the treatment center 25 years old. I walk in, there was a guy Be n, I remember Ben just shaking and Ben's like, I mean, he's got dts dude, like full on like alcoholism, right? Yeah. And he, he's, he's withdrawing. And I'd been there about four or five days [inaudible] and I said, dude, how old are you? He's like, 50, 53. He's like, I said, oh my Dad died when he was 52. I said, what took you so long to get here? He's like, Huh? I said, you 53 I'm 25 man. What took you so long to get here? And he's like, what do you mean? I said, you should have put the pedal to the metal man. Yeah. And he said, what do you mean? I said, if you're gonna, if you're gonna make a mistake, make it like all the way so you can hit the bottom faster.
And so at 25 I had hit bottom. I was like, I can't keep doing this. I put 28 days together in a treatment center. The counselor told me, he's like, you'll never make it on the way out. I'm leaving that day. Right. My insurance ran out and he's like, you'll never make it. You'll be back.
Shawn: Did you use that as motivation?
Grant: I don't know if I used that as a motivation or not. Maybe. Maybe I did, but, but good. But they didn't last very long. If it was that that kind of stuff doesn't typically last very long. Like I'm going to prove him wrong. Yeah. I needed to prove me right. That that's what lasts is the motivation. Like not me trying to impress you, you know, you know, me trying to impress others with the things I buy, it doesn't' last long enough. Me impressing me? That shit lasts a long time. Like the only guy I'm trying to impress right now is me.
Shawn: I love that.
Grant: And I'm not trying to compete with other people. I'm trying to be like, Hey, what do I have to do to really like, Oh wow, you did something big here. So, uh, that treatment centered me putting 28 days together was a big deal. But me putting the next 24 hours together, the next day when I was out was massive for me, it was the first 24 hours I'd ever done by myself. And then what I did was I took my, that addictive quality. I have not that deficit that, that gift to be fully into something like completely obsessed and addicted and, and just like, like voracious. And I'm like, I can't let go of it. I took that, which everybody in society they says is a bad thing. Uh, I took that dude and I'm like, I'm throwing that into work. Okay. And, and I did. And that's where I really, uh, I took a, I had a job and, uh, I was, uh, a salesman. Hated it and I learned how to be great. It's something I hated. It was the first big victory on, in my life.
Shawn: I think a lot of people....what I want to stick to right now is you have to become great at some things that you hate in order to further your career down the road. How do you feel about that?
Grant: Totally, man. Like if you're a waiter and you hate it....leaving that job, it's just going to send you to another job you hate. Okay, because you left the job. A guy used to tell me, a guy named cowboy used to tell me wherever, go, there you are. That always stuck with me. I'm like yeah no shit dude. Wherever I go, I can get rid of the girlfriend, I can get rid of the job, I can get rid of the car....I'm still there.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Grant: Me and all my limitations and my problems and the way I think. So I had lost six jobs. McDonald's fired me. That's hard.
Shawn: McDonald's?
Grant: McDonald's.
Shawn: How'd you get fired from McDonald's? Somebody wants to know that right now.
Grant: You know, I don't know cause that was terrible because I hated it. Cause I had a bad attitude because that was resentful because, you know, I didn't understand why.... Sorry, I didn't understand why anybody would work there. Um, I was fired from the country club as a bell..., not a bellman. A busboy.
Shawn: Oh Wow.
Grant: Dude I couldn't make waiter.
Shawn: Jesus.
Grant: It pissed me off because I would come bring you....I'd set the table up and the people at the table wouldn't recognize me. Thank you. Nobody looked at you as a waiter. Right. So that, that killed me. I lost a job in a refinery. I tried labor, hard labor, lost that job. After about three months. I worked on a fishing boat. I don't know that I lost that job. Um, furniture I tried to sell furniture with a bunch of women, lost that job. I was a clothing salesman. Lost that job. Okay. Uh, because I was stealing ties.
Shawn: Were you flipping them? Were you flipping the ties?
Grant: No, dude, I was just stealing them. And so, so look what, five or six jobs I lost the last job that I had. I was a car salesman. Yeah. Hated that job. Dude. Fired from that job the same place four times. And refused to leave.
Shawn: Refusing to leave even after you've been fired?
Grant: He would fire me....the dude would fire me cause I was wrecking cars, man. I wrecked cars. Right. And he'd be like, but I sold a lot of cars. I could sling a car. And so I, I got great at that job, even though I hated the job and I had a college education, so I'm like, what am I doing selling cars. It was like, it was a conflict for me. I was better than that, you know, in my mind. And so, um, here I am selling cars. I'd wreck em like every three months I wreck a car. And so, they called me crash
Shawn: Hahaha. Nickname "Crash"
Grant: Yeah. And so, uh, every time they'd fire me I'd be like, okay, okay. Uh, it, this is my seventh firing dude. Like this is going to be the seventh job. Um, I'm clean now and uh, and I realize what I'm gonna do, dude, is I'm going to go on the way out....this guy Rip, he was the owner of the place his name's Rip, right? And he's like, you're done. You're done. Get out of here, pack your stuff. And then I'd go find a customer and I'd sell them and I'd bring him the deal.
Shawn: You were earning your keep
Grant: I'd say, look dude, look, look, I know you fired me. I know I'm done here, but I got a deal, you want to sign off on this one and go forward and of course the car dealer's going to take the deal. Four times he fired me and every time I got back on.
Shawn: So you start your entrepreneurship journey, right...
Grant: Now I'm in it. Because I'm having a victory. I'm 25, 25 to 29, 23 to 29 I sold cars and at 25 though at 25 I committed. The first two years were terrible cause I was screwed up. I was lost. You know, I was out of school but didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know where I was going, like and, and, and the job, the, the, the 17 years that I got educated, I was being educated to be an accountant kinda guy, a business guy. And by the time I got out of college, they won't even hiring for accountants where I lived. And that's happening a lot today, right. People are being trained or educated for one job and by the time you get out there that job doesn't even exist. So, um, I got this crummy job selling cars and then I got great at it. Like, I mean I was in the top 1% in the country. I was like a master. Like if you, if you even mentioned the word car right now, you'll probably leave with one.
Grant: That's how good. I saw a couple of cars. I did, I was saying, oh my God, they're easy. They put you in the night that ranks in finance raising financing, no money down. Bad credit.
Grant: I mean I've used to kill people there. I'd be like, they're like, I'm just looking, we're not buying anything today. I'd be like, how about no money down and nothing a month. And there'd be like, Huh, no money, turn around and nothing a month. Hello guys. Looks at me. He says hello for what? No money down and nothing forever. Okay, I'll do it. Shit, let's row. Next thing you know, he's paying 400 bucks a month. You know,
Shawn: What should, like what would you say like right now for somebody that starting off cause somebody's listening....
Grant: Well, let's just go back to this. Everybody's going to hate. You're going to, everybody is going to hate something you're doing. Yeah. Elon Musk right now hates dealing with the SCC. Yeah. You, no matter where you get in the food chain, like, like you guys out there that are like, oh, I'm going to work for myself. I'm not putting up with bullshit from anybody. Yeah, you will. You always will put up with something from somebody that you don't want. So it doesn't matter if you're, uh, if you, if you have no credit or you're worth $100 million, you will have to do things you don't like. Yeah. And it, and by the way, you can't delegate everything no matter how rich you get or how successful you are. Some things you still have to do. Like I pulled a muscle or ribs out of place or something.
Okay. Now I've got Kayla's here with me. Johnny's here. You guys are here. I've got, I got this guy will be here. We don't know what he does. Okay. Nobody can handle this freaking spasm but me. Yeah. Right. So I don't like it. And, and, and the point is, your always going to have something you have to deal with. You got, got to lean into it all. You getting a lot of advice out there saying, oh, don't do anything. Uh, you know, there's a guy out there right now saying, don't I don't do anything I don't like to do. I give that to somebody else. I'm like, this stupid, this arrogant and elitist and it's, and it's just ridiculous because you will have to do things you don't want to do. Have a baby. I'll guarantee you can be doing a lot of stuff.
Shawn: Beyond that. Yeah. I want to ask you the question. Cuz we're going to wrap this up.
Grant: No man, you're doing great.
Shawn: I want to ask you the question we always....
Grant: Why are you in such a hurry man?
Shawn: Cause I saw someone say two minutes, so...
Grant: Don't worry about those people man. [inaudible] All you gotta do is worry about me
Shawn: All right great. Let's keep it rolling. So somebody who's watching this right now and the got Grant, they want to know about the entrepreneurship journey and they're running into those hurdles, they're running into those problems, right? And they are getting to the point where they want to stop. Was there ever a point....
Grant: You wanna quit, they want to quit...
Shawn: In your journey, was there ever a point where you felt like that? I feel like...
Grant: Like a million times man.... I, I, you know, I quit this morning. Shit I quit everyday man, all these memes popping around Instagram, never quit. Don't quit. dude, you're going to quit. Question is, are you going to start again? Right now to the degree that you quit determines how, how far you have to start over again.
Shawn: Yes.
Grant: So, uh, you know, like there's no way to quit. Like, you just got to understand there's no way you get to actually quit on this planet because tomorrow you're going to wake up again and hell, I'm not even sure if you die. If you die, why that might not even be a quit. I think the guy that commits suicide, he gets surprised like seconds later, like "Oops! I'm back again!"
Shawn: Yeah.
Grant: You know, and he's got to go through the process again. So I would just tell everybody like, you, you're going to want to quit. Okay. The, the question is then what are you going to quit on? Right? So you're going to quit on something big, or something little. And um, the second thing I would tell you is like, you guys quit...you need to, you, if you're going to do the entrepreneur thing, at least look up the word. Look up what the damn word means. The word says in the dictionary. Let me just read it because I think people are running around doing it. I'd never thought about being an entrepreneur. I have never ever in my career thought, oh, I'ma be an entrepreneur. I wanted to be a business person that made money. I wanted to have a bunch of businesses and made a lot of money. Yeah. And it didn't matter to me how hard I had to work as long as they made money. Uh, the problem, the problem I had was I never thought about making enough money. Let me just see what this word means. You mind if I do that?
Shawn: Yeah, of course. They need to hear this.
Grant: Entrepreneur....defined as. I've looked this up like 7,000 times. A person who organizes [inaudible] just because you, you knew Instagram shit, uh, at your house don't mean you're an entrepreneur, right? A person who organizes you, you go get a lemonade stand one time that don't make you an entrepreneur, not at all. And a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so. When I read this definition, I had been in business for 20 years. And I had not been taking on greater than normal financial risks. In fact, I have been trying to reduce my financial risk. I had a couple employees I office from home. How many entrepreneurs? You know like this?
Shawn: None.
Grant: That office from home?
Shawn: Oh, all, everybody, everybody's home or something.
Grant: They all want to stay home. I'm staying at home. I'm gonna reduce my expenses. I'm going to do everything myself.
Shawn: You don't want to pay for the office, yet.
Grant: I'm going to get my little sister to do my, my, my admin, you know, and uh. And, and I'm going to outsource everything. That's not the definition of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur puts money at risk is greater than normal financial risks, not energy, not time. Financial risk. Okay. So if you're not investing money, taking loans out, borrowing money, begging for money. In order to build your business, you're not an entrepreneur. Right? So by, by definition. So when I saw that I had been, I guess I was 45 years old, I'm like, dude, I'm not spending enough money. I need to put more money at risk. And I was successful. I had millions of dollars in a bank. I had three businesses that were doing good. But in the last eight or nine years, if this is any kind of inspiration for people, man, I have learned more in the last eight or nine years than the previous 28 years.
Shawn: Why do you think that?
Grant: Just the expansion has been freaking phenomenal. Just phenomenal amounts of expansion. Like, like we, we, we made more money in the first three months of this year than I made in the previous 20 years. In the first three months.
Shawn: You 10X'd that....
Grant: You know, why? Cause I'm willing to put money at risk. I have 129 employees here not three. People don't cost money, right? Uh, your parents are telling you not to borrow money, but you borrowed money to go to college. Yep. Borrow money to go to college, but don't borrow money to make money. Like it doesn't even make any sense. Your parents tell you borrowed money to buy a house, right? You don't rent cause you just make the landlord rich. It's stupid. Borrow money to build a business and don't own a home. There's no money to be made in a house. The money's to be made in your business and your brand and your marketing and your advertising. So, so people are just getting the wrong information today.
Shawn: I mean, it's so funny you mentioned that there's a lot of people that feel like, you know, I grew up, I want to, I want to go by the house. Why do you, how do you feel to, like, what would you tell that person that feels like they got to get that house on the hill, start with their family. They should invest in all of those things. Is that a good investment or not?
Grant: It's just stupid. It's not a bad investment. It's a terrible investment. It's just, it's, you lose your mobility, you lose your freedom, you lose the ability to go to wherever it's something might be this better for you. You end up with a bunch of money stuck in a place. It's a 30 year commitment.
Shawn: Wow.
Grant: Um, nobody wants it. It's a dead dying dinosaur concept and your parents don't even want their homes. So you know, you're not going to make money there. You make money in a business. Warren Buffet doesn't about that one house he bought. Elon Musk is not known for the house he bought it. He's talking about going to Mars, never talked about his house. He lives wherever he wants. That's what I want dude, I want to live wherever I want to live.
Shawn: Mobility, to be able to move.
Grant: Mobility, the ability, like if you study extremely wealthy people or big financial companies, they have the ability to move around the planet. And Blackstone. Blackstone is not in one market, right? There are many markets, right? So you wanna, you wanna, you wanna do what wealthy the super wealthy do not the guy that wrote a book...the millionaire next door. OK not your uncle, that that's been doing some section eight stuff in your, in your town. He's got, you know, he's the rich guy in your, your family and you think he's the, he's the living legend of your family. Big deal, dude. The guy's worth 1 million bucks that could be wiped out tomorrow. You want to study a guy like Jay-Z? What did that guy, what's he do? What's he buying? Yeah. I mean, he says, he's like, I'm not popping Molly's man. I'm, I'm rocking Tom Ford.
Grant: So, so what's he telling you, dude, don't waste your time on drugs, man. Get your money right. That's what he's really saying there okay. And he's not buying, he's not buying fancy cars. He's buying art and real estate. Uh, my buddy that was following me that just died...
Shawn: Nipsey Hussle.
Grant: Nipsey. Nipsey was following me, man. What was Nipsey saying? Okay, dude quick buying this junk. We got to quit buying this junk. We got to quit buying metals and gold and bling. We got to buy real estate.
Shawn: Yeah.
Grant: Okay, so....
Shawn: He owned that whole block too man.
Grant: Yeah. Yeah.
Shawn: So I mean, it's just crazy that you've mentioned that because I love that message. And a message that you're sending right now is that there are bigger things to put your money in that are going to change your whole entire family's life rather than just being....
Grant: One house is, one house. When you buy one house, you're a selfish person. Everybody that I talked to about a house today, they're like, but I love it. Who are we talking about? You! But my wife loves it. Now we're talking about her. Yeah. Okay. But it's a good place for the kids. Okay, now, now we're talking about four people dude, there's 7 billion people on this planet. You made a decision for four people. There's you, every person listening to this right now has a bigger responsibility than just your wife or your husband, your mom, your dad, and two or three kids. And I grew up like that. Family's the most important thing Grant. Like my mom used to tell me this family, it's family Grant. You've probably heard the same thing. Just take care of your family man. But dude what about the rest of the planet? We all a family.
Shawn: That's true man. So let's end this with a very good note. I want to ask you a question. We've asked every single person that's been on the show...
Grant: Oh my God.
Shawn: And that is if you were a college student or you were that person who just dropped out.
Grant: Oh!
Shawn: Or you're that person you know, got your degree, you just completely lost and you're asking yourself the question of the show: School's Over....Now What? What advice would
Grant Cardone give?
Grant: Dude, go to work. Dude be the best person. Be the best worker in your space. I don't care what your job is. You're a shipper, a personal assistant, you're security. You're a bellman, plumber, contractor, McDonald's, flipper. You know you're an Uber driver be, be fucking unbelievable. Okay? Be unbelievable. Be, be so unbelievable that people like dude what you on? Like you on something, man? Are you on something man? What's up? What's up? What's with you man?? Who are you man? If they're not asking you that, it's cause you blend in, man. You don't stand out. People need to ask you, what the hell are you on? When I was selling cars, the first two years, people were like, ah, I hate car salesman. I hate car dealerships. I want a better deal. The last five years, they were like, do you ought to be selling yachts?
Shawn: Wow.
Grant: I don't know why I'm paying you more than the guy down the street, but I'm going to do it. Okay. Here, take my wife too and my daughter. Like people were like giving me stuff because I was, I was exceptional. Right. They were like, I would sell somebody something, they'd bring me cookies. They'd bring me meals weeks and months later, right. What was the difference? Dude cause I was great at what I did. At something I didn't even like. So that's what I'd tell you. You're going to get out of college, you're going to find out your grades don't matter. You're going to go on interviews. Nobody's going to even care whether you graduated or not.
Shawn: Not at all.
Grant: Dude Facebook don't even care if you got out of college.
Shawn: Not at all.
Grant: Right. Daniel? We hired Daniel, I didn't ask him if he's got a college degree. Shit. What do I care? Right? I know. Even if he did, I become suspect of them. "Yeah, I was in college 18 years." We definitely aren't going to hire you. Right. So took too long to get out. So if you're in college, man, take time out of the equation. Get out now. Get out, finish. If you want to finish, finish. Just quit screwing around on the weekends. Put in extra time and take an extra class. Do four years in two years. If you're already out, don't worry about your damn loan. Put it off. Don't pay the, don't pay off the past. Create the future.
Shawn: Love that. Love that.
Grant: Worry about your future money. And then if you, if you're, if you're lost right now and you don't know where to go, man, follow your boy GC man, I'll show you the way. Everybody needs direction.
Shawn: Yes. Love it man.
Grant: Come on man.
Shawn: So for those that are listening, always remember dream it, believe it, go out and get it.
Grant: That's right.
Shawn: Appreciate you GC.
Grant: Appreciate you man. You guys are awesome man.
What the full interview on YouTube here