“I INVEST IN REAL ESTATE FOR ONE REASON: TO MAKE MONEY. AND TO PROTECT CAPITAL. AND FOR LONG-TERM APPRECIATION. AND THE TAX BENEFITS.”
Photo credit: Ray Kachatorian
ing only one parent, no matter how great she was, was not enough. Going through that extreme loss as a child eventually ignited a fire toward greatness, but it took ten years to turn it around. “I stood in the unemployment line at 23 years old. My uncle asked what I was doing there. I said I was there to get a check. He said you didn’t go to college to be in that line. I got out of that line and went and got a job. Life is hard with money. It’s almost impossible without it,” Cardone said. So, he started selling cars at 23 and stuck with it for more than six years. “I hated it,” he said. “But I com- mitted to doing something I hated and decided to become great at it. I couldn’t get another job. Part of why I hated my job was because I hated myself. No one was more disappoint- ed in me than me.” When he was 25, Cardone went to rehab. “What turned it around for me
was looking in the mirror for 10 years (from the time I was 15 to 25) and just being disgusted. I became more disgusted with my choices, my drug addiction, my results from my actions. I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. One day, after 1,000 attempts, I started changing. I flipped my obsessive quality and addiction to productivity and mak- ing a difference. I am proof of the American dream; you can turn it around. You can be a good example even if you were a terrible example,” he said. In hopes of becoming the men- tor he needed during his formative years, Cardone started The Grant Cardone Foundation, a nonprofit or - ganization devoted to helping under- served and at-risk kids by providing mentorship and financial literacy. According to the foundation’s web- site, “the statistics of fatherless kids are undeniable. Kids without dads are more likely to be poor, involved in drugs and alcohol abuse, drop out
—GRANT CARDONE
of school and suffer from mental and emotional problems.” Cardone is an example of a “good kid raised in a good family that turned bad” because there was no father figure for guidance and disci - pline. He credits the men in his life, like his uncle who guided him out of that unemployment line, for stepping in and showing him direction and purpose. Now, his direction is nothing but upward. Cardone’s annual 10X Growth Conference (prior to the pandemic) attracted thousands of attendees wanting to learn about entrepreneurship, leadership,
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