0:00

Hey, Grant Cardone here, host of The Cardone Zone. I'm

0:02

gonna be talking about your money, your finances, your

0:04

career, and this economy. Thank

0:06

you for listening. It's

0:08

a wake-up call for the middle class.

0:10

Ouch! Ouch! Make

0:13

success your duty. Whatever

0:16

it takes. It ain't your daddy's

0:18

economy. True freedom in business,

0:21

career, and finance.

0:22

The Cardone Zone

0:25

starts now. My entire

0:27

life, people have been telling me that

0:29

my obsession with success is

0:31

a bad thing. I've been called a work addict,

0:34

compulsive, obsessive, never

0:36

satisfied, out of balance, tyrannical,

0:39

and even impossible to work

0:42

with, and a lot more things. I was called selfish,

0:45

greedy, mean to people, okay?

0:47

Narcissistic. Look, I've been called it all,

0:49

I'm telling you. OCD, ADD, ADHD,

0:53

so many Ds that I started

0:55

thinking I was a big D. I've been

0:57

told I was too demanding and

0:59

that I have unreasonable expectations for

1:01

myself and for all others.

1:04

I've had professionals, the so-called professionals,

1:06

suggest I had diseases and

1:08

labeled me ADD, ADHD,

1:10

OCD, and much, much more.

1:13

Friends and family told me

1:15

for years, you need to chill out. I

1:18

had customers telling me to chill out.

1:20

I had people that I worked for,

1:22

that I would produce for, that would tell me

1:24

to calm down, relax, take

1:27

it easy, back off, take some time

1:29

off. I've had more people

1:31

tell me I needed to take a vacation than I

1:33

even wanted to take a vacation. Look, the reality

1:36

is that no matter how much I have tried

1:38

to squelch or control the

1:40

obsession I've had with success, it

1:43

has been the single one thing

1:45

that is most responsible for my

1:47

being where I am today. My

1:50

obsessions, my obsession

1:53

with success, my obsession with improving

1:55

my life, my obsession with becoming

1:58

the Grant Cardone I knew I could be.

1:59

that sat inside

2:02

of me has taken me from lost and

2:04

broken in every way

2:06

by the way. Financially, spiritually,

2:10

physically, everywhere I was broken

2:12

at the age of 25 to now owning

2:14

five privately held companies. We

2:17

do sales of almost a hundred million dollars a

2:19

year here. This past year I was

2:21

named one of the top ten most influential

2:23

CEOs in the world. New York

2:25

Times bestselling author of six, seven

2:27

books now. Internationally acclaimed speaker

2:29

speaking all over the world. I'm an attentive

2:32

husband, a doting father

2:34

of two beautiful girls Sabrina and

2:36

Scarlett who I love immensely. I'm

2:39

a contributing member of society. Last

2:41

year I raised over a hundred million dollars

2:43

for charities. Now look I'm saying this I'm saying

2:46

all this to let you know who I am, how

2:48

I think, and where I came from. I'm not bragging.

2:51

Hopefully this inspires you. This is not

2:53

meant to say I'm the greatest in the world. I

2:55

think you're the greatest in the world. I think all of

2:57

us have greatness inside of us

2:59

and I and I want to inspire you in this

3:02

read today to be to find that

3:04

that thing that you're obsessed with. I

3:07

just want to make it perfectly clear that what I've

3:09

achieved in my life is not because I am

3:12

of some particular invention okay.

3:14

I haven't I didn't go public on Wall Street. I

3:16

didn't create some great app. I didn't have

3:18

some spectacular breakthrough

3:21

monster invention. It hasn't been because

3:23

of luck. It hasn't been because I was connected

3:25

to the country club or the right people. It

3:28

wasn't because somebody gave me a bunch

3:30

of money or or seeded my start.

3:33

My success has come from my

3:35

commitment, my willingness

3:38

to embrace my obsessions, to

3:40

go all in all the time, to finally

3:44

put aside the labels,

3:46

the negativity. So look for me

3:48

I did I did not get lucky okay. There was no

3:51

luck along the way literally. There was

3:53

hard work. I have never done

3:55

I did not do what I have

3:58

done. I have not accomplished what I've accomplished.

3:59

because of timing, some kind of inside

4:02

deal, some special intelligence, some

4:04

super leverage because of Goldman Sachs

4:07

or JP Morgan. I know, but I have friends

4:09

that did that. That's awesome, that's great, but that

4:11

is not the way that I've created what I've created. I

4:13

am where I am today, only because I

4:16

have embraced my obsession

4:18

with success. It has been very

4:20

difficult, but I made it, and I want

4:22

you to make it. Now that being said, that there's

4:25

been a lot of hard work and a lot of commitment to

4:27

obsession. Before I gave myself

4:29

permission to fully own my obsessions,

4:32

to fully own them, okay, to eat

4:34

them, breathe them, swim in them, and harness

4:36

them, I had been denying my obsessions

4:39

with success, with wealth, with

4:42

notoriety, with celebrity. I had

4:44

been denying that obsession, and denying

4:46

those obsessions had almost killed me.

4:48

I learned the hard way that denying obsessions

4:51

or being obsessed with the wrong things,

4:54

look, I learned the hard way that if you deny

4:56

your obsessions, if you deny

4:59

your obsessions with being successful, or

5:01

the right marriage, or a great life, or being

5:03

rich, or wealth, or whatever your obsession is

5:05

to have adventure, if you're obsessed

5:08

with those things, then you need to embrace that, because

5:10

if you don't completely own

5:13

and embrace the obsessions, those things

5:15

that you're obsessed about, which might be your

5:17

purpose for being on this planet, you will become

5:19

obsessed like I did with the wrong things,

5:22

and that will become very destructive. I'm

5:24

gonna share with you my story about

5:26

discovering my obsessions, and how

5:29

that alone

5:29

has given me this unbelievable

5:32

life that I have today that I refer to as

5:34

a super life.

5:36

I will share with you the tools I've discovered

5:40

along the way to put my obsession to work

5:42

for me, not against me. I wanna give

5:44

you permission to be completely and unapologetically

5:47

obsessed. That is the goal of this book. I wanna

5:50

give you permission. If you walk away, say, Grant

5:52

Cardone gave me permission, I am now giving

5:54

myself permission to be completely

5:56

and unapologetically

5:58

obsessed. with those things I

6:01

want, regardless of who you are, where you come

6:03

from, what your family is like, or

6:06

what your crazy big dream is.

6:08

You know, before I wrote this book, I wrote a book

6:10

called The 10X Rule. It's an international,

6:12

phenomenal bestseller about

6:15

the importance of thinking and executing

6:17

at massive 10X levels. If

6:19

you're gonna have a budget for a project in the

6:22

10X Rule I wrote, set that budget

6:24

at 10 times what you initially

6:26

considered. If it was a million dollars,

6:29

then make it 10 million. If a million dollars

6:31

is the amount of money you wanna earn annually, then

6:34

make that 10 million. If the budget was a million

6:36

dollars, make that 10 million dollars, okay?

6:38

If the weight loss was X, 10X that.

6:41

If you wanted to do it in 10 months, reduce

6:44

it into one month. You understand? It

6:46

was a very aggressive, big thing, 10 times

6:49

everything. The 10X Rule was ultimately

6:51

about multiplying your goals to

6:54

achieve any objective. It was to go

6:56

for much bigger things, not smaller things.

6:59

This book became an international phenomenon

7:02

because people were trying to operate

7:04

in increments in their life and started

7:07

thinking in terms of surges

7:09

or 10X. Even

7:11

Google, the great company Google, uses

7:14

the 10X Rule when they look

7:16

at buying a company or investing their time

7:18

and energy. They look for big surges

7:21

of growth, not incremental growth. After

7:23

I released the 10X Rule, so many people wrote me

7:25

saying things like, I'm trying to 10X my business

7:28

and I'm having trouble staying with it. Or

7:30

this 10X thing is throwing my entire

7:32

life, my marriage, my kids, my balance,

7:35

is throwing it into disruption. That's

7:37

when I realized that there was a missing

7:39

piece to the puzzle, that when I finished

7:41

writing the 10X Rule, I had not completed

7:43

the book. I had not completed giving

7:46

people everything they needed, which was, if

7:48

you're gonna go 10X or 100X or 1000X,

7:49

you're

7:52

gonna have some problems.

7:54

I flirted with this concept in the book.

7:56

I said, look, when you start operating

7:58

at the right levels of activity,

7:59

the first response, the

8:02

first thing that will happen to you is you will

8:04

create new problems. And

8:06

like any book, when you end that book,

8:08

you leave some details out. And in this

8:11

case, it was causing people problems because they

8:13

were like, dude, I went 10 X, I went 20 X, I went 100 X, my

8:16

income exploded and my marriage

8:18

fell apart. Well, I don't want that for you. Okay. Look,

8:21

obsession is the missing piece for

8:23

the 10 Xers of the world. If you've ever thought

8:25

I can do way more, but how am I? I can

8:28

do 10 times more, but I don't have any time. I

8:30

can do 10 X or 100 X more. But

8:33

how do I find time for my wife and my kids? Obsession

8:35

is the missing piece. The mindset,

8:37

the mindset, the mental, if you will, that

8:40

will allow you to apply 10 X rules in your life and

8:42

your business and have a 10 X super

8:45

life, not in one area,

8:47

but in all areas. Look, today,

8:49

today, my life is like this. Okay. I don't think

8:51

about a job. I don't think about a stream.

8:54

I don't think about a TV interview. I

8:57

don't think about a book. I don't think about an audio

8:59

program. I think about my life. I don't think about time

9:01

with the kids or time with the wife. I think about my life. I

9:04

have literally been able to create a life

9:06

where I get to do what I want, when I want, how

9:08

I want 365 days a year for one reason. I

9:12

am obsessed with my

9:14

life and I want you to be obsessed with your

9:16

life. Look, sure, you can be, you can be, of

9:19

course you can be successful without being obsessed. There's

9:21

many people that have been super successful

9:24

without being obsessed,

9:25

but you and I don't know them. You don't know their

9:27

names and I don't know their names. Okay. They did not change

9:30

the world. Okay. The people that change this

9:32

planet for the better

9:33

are obsessed.

9:35

Sure, you can be successful without being obsessed,

9:37

but you cannot reach the levels of success that

9:39

I'm referring to in this book without being

9:42

all in obsessed, all

9:44

the time obsessed, no

9:46

balance, completely immersed.

9:49

It's a single common factor that the super

9:52

successful, that is people that you and I both

9:54

know, people that have changed the world, the super

9:56

successful all share this one thing.

9:59

It's not the color of their skin.

9:59

It's not their religion. It's not their business.

10:02

It's not the industry they were in. It's not

10:04

how much money they made or invested It's

10:06

not how they got there the road or the path.

10:09

It is this one thing this one ingredient They

10:11

were obsessed people of all

10:13

levels of IQs

10:15

From all parts of the world from different

10:17

socio economics the one thing they

10:19

had in common was obsessed They

10:22

were obsessed they were they could not

10:24

they could not spit the hook as we say

10:26

in Louisiana They could not get the hook of

10:28

obsession out of their stomach. I couldn't get it

10:31

out of me I had to do this thing

10:33

and and in that they changed the world Oh

10:35

by the way, those people also embraced

10:37

their obsessions. They didn't fight it. They gave

10:40

themselves permission

10:41

Now I'm gonna show you I'm

10:43

gonna show you how to become obsessed and

10:45

how to harness control

10:47

manage produce Okay,

10:50

and use obsession to create electricity

10:52

and energy and creativity

10:55

and art

10:56

I've broken this message and guide this

10:58

book into manageable chapters the first chapter

11:01

of be obsessed Listen to this

11:03

man. If you're not obsessed. I don't think you have

11:05

your life yet. Listen what I just said So

11:07

the next time my mom a dad

11:09

a wife a husband

11:11

your kids tell you you're obsessed Did you ain't

11:13

got a life if you're not obsessed you got

11:15

somebody else's life? You're not even being you

11:18

yet I define obsession and

11:20

what it means to me in chapter one in chapter

11:22

two will erase the conventional wisdom that

11:24

Average and safe for all you can achieve

11:27

That's what they tell you that's what the middle class

11:30

is built on Mommy and daddy

11:32

your brothers and sisters are trying to convince

11:34

you to fit in and you

11:36

know

11:37

You know you hate it

11:39

and then you have kids of your own and you try to get them

11:41

to fit in I'm gonna explain to you

11:43

in chapter two why you need to replace Mediocrity,

11:47

I'm gonna explain to you in chapter two why

11:49

you must replace Mediocrity

11:51

and doubt this middle class

11:54

fit in concept with a burning

11:56

purposeful animal

11:58

beastlike carnivorous

12:01

obsession. Ladies, you're being

12:03

held down because you're being

12:06

told to act like ladies. The

12:08

glass ceiling you have given yourself

12:10

is your inability to own your obsessions.

12:13

Obsessions, by the way. The book publisher

12:15

wants me to write obsession. Notice in the book they

12:17

always say obsession, singular. But

12:20

when I wrote this book, I always wrote it

12:22

as obsessions. They thought that

12:25

I included the S incorrectly. Okay,

12:27

I didn't. Sorry, it's over at Penguin.

12:30

It's obsessions to follow your obsessions.

12:32

Nobody has one obsession. That

12:34

one thing that you're looking at right now is indication

12:37

that you are not embracing your other obsessions.

12:39

Probably one obsession would be the

12:41

destructive one. It would be an indicator.

12:43

You're obsessed with one thing, means you haven't

12:46

given your right to be obsessed with the right things.

12:48

I'll prove to you in this chapter why

12:50

it's important to feed the beast.

12:53

To feed the beast. Fuel the beast. Give

12:55

the beast energy. The very thing that

12:57

your friends and family that society

13:00

has tried to talk you out of doing, I

13:02

wanna tell you, fuel it. Send it electricity

13:05

and energy and power. We'll explore why

13:07

you need to starve your doubt. How to actually

13:10

starve doubt. How to use fear.

13:12

How to starve the boogeyman. How to block

13:14

out the naysayers. How to embrace and

13:17

use haters. Haters, I love

13:19

my haters so much. Man, without my haters,

13:21

where would I be? How would I get

13:23

where I gotta go? Because they're fuel. They're like

13:25

rocket fuel to the next level. But

13:28

how do I handle the more damaging

13:30

people that are close to me, that aren't haters,

13:33

but they're naysayers and they're critics and

13:35

they're judges and they're opinions?

13:37

You know, the old saying, everybody's got

13:39

an opinion. Yeah, that's right, man, they

13:42

got a lot of opinions and a lot of them aren't spoken

13:44

and a lot of them hide. They're

13:46

basically clothed in love. They

13:48

look like love and friendship. Like

13:51

your mommy telling you. We love you just

13:53

the way you are, little Peter.

13:55

We love you just the way you are,

13:57

is your mother telling you, please stay

13:59

there.

13:59

the way you are when you want to get rich or

14:02

you want to be famous or you want to be known for

14:04

some invention look starve the doubt

14:06

we're gonna talk about how to starve the doubt how to block

14:08

the naysayers how to embrace haters

14:10

and use them how to handle family

14:12

members and people close to you maybe

14:15

the person you sleep with how do you handle

14:17

them and how you can over promise and how you must

14:19

over promise and then over deliver

14:21

the old saying the adage is under promise

14:24

over deliver is such a deception

14:26

is such small tiny

14:29

little winky

14:29

thinking where I work and where I

14:32

live people support me and being obsessed nobody's

14:34

trying to stop me anymore okay the first 40 years

14:37

of my life everybody was trying to change me now everybody's

14:39

like dude you're the man dude you're the man

14:41

man I want to be like you see now I'm getting

14:44

fueled my obsessions are getting fueled

14:46

and I'll show you how to do that how and why

14:48

you must be a control freak

14:51

and why control is so important to

14:53

the successful these are practices

14:55

you will need in order to not just maintain

14:58

your dreams to not just maintain

14:59

but grow your obsession into

15:02

a thriving lucrative and

15:04

powerful business that can maybe even

15:06

create an entire new industry or even

15:08

oh

15:09

I love this idea disrupt an existing

15:11

one the power of persistence

15:14

as your obsession matures and morphs

15:17

into something beyond what you can

15:19

only imagine today obsession saved

15:21

my life and I believe it will save yours for

15:24

you to understand how I became successful

15:26

and how I learned about this amazing

15:28

power of owning like

15:31

embracing your obsessions I first

15:33

need to show you how denying my obsessions

15:36

almost ruined my life that's right I

15:38

denied the obsessions and it almost

15:41

killed me literally physically killed me it's

15:43

not a pretty story but I but but I must

15:45

tell you it's a real story it happened to me it's

15:48

not a story of drama or to pull heartstrings

15:51

or to get you to feel connected to me this

15:53

is what happened to Grant Cardone and

15:56

I wouldn't be surprised if you find some

15:58

parallels to your own

15:59

life of mine. Look, the roots of

16:02

my obsession. I

16:04

didn't have a father who led me to the land of the rich.

16:07

He didn't talk to me about becoming a millionaire. He

16:09

couldn't lend me a million dollars for my first real estate

16:11

deal.

16:12

He didn't assist me with country club

16:14

connections, political connections. He

16:17

didn't introduce me to the important people in the

16:20

city. He never showed me the ways

16:22

of business. He couldn't. See, my

16:24

parents were the children of Italian immigrants

16:26

who came to this country, came to America in

16:28

the early 1900s. My grandfather

16:31

was a shipbuilder. My other grandfather never

16:34

had papers to live in America.

16:35

My dad, Curtis Lewis Cardone,

16:38

senior, was the first in his family to

16:40

even attend college. He was an ambitious

16:43

young man, I would find out later, who

16:45

had the entrepreneurial spirit. He even

16:47

had that millionaire, I want to be a millionaire

16:50

thing going on. He believed

16:52

the American dream was within his

16:54

reach. Remember, this is 50 years ago.

16:56

He wanted to be part of the middle class coming

16:58

from poverty. He started his entrepreneurial

17:02

adventure in a little grocery store

17:04

with my mother.

17:05

They operated it together. My dad was

17:07

obsessed with one thing at that time. He

17:10

was obsessed with the idea that it

17:12

was his responsibility to take care

17:14

of his family, that taking care of family

17:16

was his first duty.

17:18

From a very early age, I got

17:21

that my dad's intention, I

17:23

got without him ever telling me,

17:25

his number one mission in life was to provide

17:28

for his family. I didn't know until

17:30

later that he also had this ambition to

17:32

be rich. He wanted at the

17:34

early times of his life to put a

17:37

roof over his head, his wife's

17:39

head, and his kid's head to make sure

17:41

we had food closed and an education. A

17:44

few years before I was born, my dad took on

17:46

an ambitious plan to start his own life insurance

17:48

company with a couple of partners. I don't

17:50

know all the details of what happened with the life

17:53

insurance company, but I do know that he lost

17:55

it. His partners ousted him. I imagine

17:57

it wasn't very comfortable. It's probably painful.

17:59

hurt him a lot and he was wounded and found

18:02

himself in a very difficult tough situation.

18:04

At the age of 42 he found himself

18:06

in transitions without a job. Five

18:09

kids, three kids in the household,

18:11

two more on their way, one of which was

18:13

me. He had to feed three kids. He

18:15

knew his wife, my mother was pregnant

18:18

with my twin brother Gary and myself

18:20

and my dad, my dad was starting over

18:22

at 42. Imagine,

18:23

imagine life

18:25

is already difficult enough, okay, trying

18:28

to create a middle class, trying to feed

18:30

three kids and finding out you're out of work,

18:32

lost your dream

18:34

and you have two more kids, four and five on

18:36

the way. My dad decided to use the

18:38

little bit of money with my mother's inspiration

18:41

and support to use the little bit

18:43

of money he had in savings to become a licensed

18:45

stockbroker and he embarked yet

18:48

on another career. Thanks to his work ethic

18:50

and his obsession with providing for his

18:52

family, that's right, an obsession to

18:55

be a provider. His new venture started to

18:57

pay off. He bought a new car that

18:59

he was very proud of. I remember a Lincoln

19:01

town car, I think I was five or six years old and I

19:03

could see how proud my dad was. Just after

19:05

my eighth birthday we moved to a new home on

19:07

a sprawling one and a half acre

19:10

lakefront property. My dad had made

19:12

it. We owned a boat as I remember

19:14

it. We were fishing every day, water

19:16

skiing, riding a lawnmower. My dad

19:18

got a riding lawnmower and he thought, oh my god,

19:20

I'd made it. Doctors who at that time

19:22

were the most successful people in the community lived

19:25

on both sides of us. Dr. Morin

19:27

on the left side, Dr. Stevens on the

19:29

right. My dad's hard work at the

19:31

success, my dad's hard work and success

19:34

at the stock brokerage had gotten

19:36

our family firmly into the middle

19:38

class. We weren't rich by any means but

19:40

we were firmly in the middle class. I often

19:43

heard my mother tell my dad I'd

19:45

hear them talking about how he had made

19:47

it. Even as a young kid I knew

19:49

something special had happened in our family. The

19:52

next two years with my family at the

19:54

lakefront at this dream property

19:56

but it didn't last long. Only a year

19:58

and a half after my dad had bought this dream

20:01

house, he died of a heart attack,

20:03

a heart condition at the age of 52. The

20:06

truth is he had suffered from this heart condition

20:08

since the age of 42. For the 10 years that

20:11

I was with my dad, he had suffered from the

20:14

physical stress of a heart condition.

20:16

My mother had now found herself a widow

20:18

at 48 years old with five kids, a

20:21

little bit of life insurance money, or death

20:23

insurance, and a big house in

20:25

the country

20:26

that required constant attention. My mother

20:29

had no professional skills she could use in the

20:31

marketplace to bring in new income. She

20:33

had dedicated her life to being a wife and a mother.

20:36

That's what they did back then. And now she

20:38

needed to figure out how to conserve this

20:40

much money my dad had left, stretch

20:43

it out as long and as far as possible to get

20:45

five kids through school. This was

20:47

a huge challenge, particularly with no

20:49

idea about how to create new income without

20:51

a college degree, without education, without

20:54

ever holding a job. My mother

20:56

had to figure out how to make money stretch.

20:59

She had grown up in a very poor,

21:01

a great depression time. She actually

21:03

stood in food lines when she was a young child,

21:05

and she remembered

21:06

the poverty that comes with that. She

21:08

didn't want to see her family have to struggle that

21:10

way. So my mom,

21:12

my mom became obsessed. She

21:14

became obsessed, if you will, with making

21:16

sure the little bit that we had, little

21:18

bit of money that my dad

21:20

had left, would be enough to get us by. Everything

21:23

to my mother was a threat. Everything was a

21:26

future expense. So what she did was quickly

21:28

downside. She went into massive

21:30

conservation retreat

21:33

that I talk about in 10X.

21:34

The world had delivered her a blow.

21:37

The provider is dead. A little

21:39

bit of insurance money. No real knowledge

21:42

of how far it could stretch, how long it would

21:44

stretch. She immediately put my father's dream

21:46

house on the market. We sold it. We were forced

21:48

back into the city to a tiny brick

21:51

house on a tiny lot surrounded by

21:53

other houses that all looked exactly the

21:55

same. The lake was gone. There was

21:57

no more boating, no more fishing, no

21:59

more

21:59

more crabbing, no more going outside and

22:02

shooting guns. I was crushed.

22:05

10 years old, I've lost my dad. I'm

22:07

in grief, I'm angry. We

22:10

all missed our father. My mother's terrified

22:12

every day, every single day. On

22:15

top of all that, my mom, I

22:17

would watch her literally go

22:19

from grief to fear and

22:21

fear back to grief and I could feel

22:24

it. There was a constant fear around my

22:26

mother

22:26

and it started to infect me. While

22:29

other boys at my age were out with their dads playing

22:31

sports, they were going hunting. I grew up in Louisiana

22:34

where you fish and you hunt and you run and you

22:36

play. It was back in the day when you could go

22:38

outside and you would only come home when the lights,

22:41

the street lights turned on. I was at home watching

22:44

my mother day after day, week

22:46

after week, month after month, worried

22:48

about money. Clipping coupons, focused

22:51

on basic necessities, worried

22:53

about how far this little bit of money

22:55

could go. My mom could make

22:57

pennies bleed.

22:59

Her scarcity mindset was part of everything

23:01

we did and became part of the

23:03

way I thought. At the same time, my

23:05

mom was constantly reminding me of how very,

23:08

very lucky, how grateful I

23:10

should be for all that I had. She

23:12

would claim, your father got us into the middle

23:15

class. We have more than most

23:17

people.

23:18

I would hear her say over and over,

23:20

never take anything for granted. You have a bike,

23:23

we have a car, you have school, you have

23:25

clothes, you have food.

23:27

Constant reminders, trying to make

23:29

sense of the fear, trying

23:31

to make sense of the grief. I tried

23:33

being grateful for what we had. I tried to

23:35

be appreciative, but I saw my mom scared

23:38

and I couldn't do anything about it. And none of it

23:41

ever sat right with me. The whole

23:43

thing seemed screwed up to me. I

23:45

was 10 years old. My dad was dead.

23:48

The dream house was gone. Mom was

23:50

living in constant fear and I was supposed

23:52

to be grateful. I wasn't grateful.

23:54

I was angry. I was pissed. I

23:57

didn't know it then, but this time.

24:00

This moment in my life would seed

24:02

what would later drive me in my life. As

24:05

much as I loved, admired, and appreciated

24:07

my mother and still do today,

24:09

for what she did, for

24:11

what she sacrificed, to make sure

24:13

that I had clothes,

24:15

as much as I love, admire,

24:18

and appreciate my mother, then and now,

24:20

for what she was willing to do, for what she

24:22

sacrificed in making sure that we had clothes,

24:25

she managed the money, that we had

24:27

food on our plates, that we had a roof over my

24:29

head, for all that

24:31

that I was grateful for. The truth

24:33

is, I didn't want to live my life in

24:35

the same constant state of worry

24:38

that I saw my mom experience every

24:40

day. At the age of 16, I vowed

24:42

to my mother,

24:43

when I grow up, I told her, when I

24:46

grow up one day like a rebellious teenager

24:48

would say, when I grow up, I'm

24:50

going to get rich, so that I never

24:52

have to worry about money again. I will

24:55

never have to worry about having enough. I want

24:57

affluence and abundance and prosperity.

25:00

I don't want to worry like you do every day. When

25:02

I do, mother, I'm

25:04

going to help a lot of people. This middle

25:06

class thing, I told her, if it's

25:09

what I'm supposed to be grateful for,

25:11

something's wrong. I think it

25:13

sucks. I'm going to get

25:15

mine.

25:16

As soon as I said it, I knew I sounded like a spoiled,

25:19

ungrateful, disrespectful, rebellious,

25:22

snot-nosed punk teenager.

25:25

I was. Anyways I was, and I could see

25:27

how my mother, her face enraged,

25:29

my mother had that look on her face that

25:31

every parent gets when a kid crosses

25:33

the line.

25:34

She was furious. She was disappointed.

25:37

She was frustrated. I was

25:39

embarrassed.

25:40

I was introverted for a moment. I doubted

25:43

that what I said was right or wrong. I felt

25:45

bad. I felt guilty. Still, I

25:47

felt this overwhelming sense of powerlessness

25:50

that I hated. I

25:51

knew I couldn't do anything to help my mother. At

25:53

least I thought I couldn't help her at the time. These

25:56

flare-ups became more and more common.

25:59

These acts of

25:59

rebellion and me

26:02

more and more often saying, I

26:04

hate this life. And the truth is I didn't hate

26:06

my life.

26:07

I hated not being able to help my mother. And

26:10

the more I had these these outbreaks,

26:13

the more I knew I was both wrong

26:16

and I was right.

26:18

Terrible place to be where you're wrong and you're

26:20

right. I knew I should be grateful.

26:23

So many other people had less than us, but

26:25

I also knew. I

26:26

knew there was a truth, a seed

26:28

inside of me that says, hey this is crazy.

26:31

Why should anyone have to live like this? Why

26:34

should anyone only have enough money to get

26:36

by? Why should anyone only have enough

26:38

money to still have to worry? When things

26:40

would cool down between these rebellious

26:43

outbreaks, I would try to explain to my mother, I would make

26:45

up to her. I would hug her. I would kiss her. I love

26:47

you so much. I would try to pour admiration

26:50

and love back on her and

26:52

tell her, look I really do appreciate everything you

26:54

do for us. But what I was trying to explain

26:56

to her is that

26:57

not that I didn't appreciate everything she

26:59

did for us or that I was grateful for everything

27:02

we had and that I knew that other people had

27:04

it worse. The reality is I would

27:06

continue to have this push-pull,

27:08

right-wrong argument about scarcity

27:11

and money with myself and others for years

27:14

to come.

27:14

Anytime I had a blow

27:17

up, my mom and later girlfriends and

27:19

friends and teachers and

27:22

society and strangers would

27:24

always say to me, but you have so much.

27:26

You have so much more than others. I've

27:28

heard this for years. People try

27:31

to make sense of me not being satisfied.

27:34

I never understood this response. First

27:36

off, what do others have to do with my life?

27:39

My mother would always talk about people in China, people

27:41

in India, people in parts of the world.

27:43

I didn't even know where these parts of the world were. Later

27:46

in my life people would tell me, your business is doing

27:48

great. Why aren't you grateful?

27:50

What do these other things have to do

27:52

with me? Second, anytime

27:54

I compared myself with others who

27:57

had more, people would... The

27:59

second thing, And

28:00

anytime I compared myself with others

28:02

who had more, who had been more successful,

28:05

people who were really living the life, people

28:07

who had done giant monster things,

28:10

my mom, my girlfriends, my friends, even

28:13

strangers, customers would always say

28:15

they'd

28:15

come back with the,

28:17

don't compare yourself to others, Grant. Look,

28:19

there was no winning. No matter how I

28:21

thought about it, what I said, I couldn't

28:24

win. I would tell myself over and over, one

28:26

day I'm going to make it big. Have you ever said that

28:28

to yourself? Have you ever thought, dreamed,

28:31

had this seed, this gnawing inside

28:34

of you that said, one day I'm going

28:36

to do something monster.

28:38

I've suffered with this my entire life, but

28:41

I quit telling myself. I quit telling,

28:43

but I quit telling my mom this because every time

28:45

I did tell her, every time I shared with others

28:48

that I was going to do something huge, they would always

28:50

reach down

28:51

and give me some variation of

28:53

Grant, why can't you just be grateful for

28:56

what you've done, for what you have? And

28:58

in the case of my mom, she would start telling

29:00

me again how she had grown

29:02

up taking care of five siblings with

29:04

no money and not knowing where the next

29:06

meal was going to come from. All that being

29:09

said, she was telling me again, be grateful for what

29:11

you have,

29:12

but I wasn't. I wanted more. This

29:14

was the cycle of my life. The constant loop

29:17

aimed at talking me out of what I

29:19

believed was possible, my obsessions

29:22

and what I wanted. No matter

29:24

how many times I try to convince myself of

29:27

my mother's logic because I actually did, I actually

29:29

tried to get on the side of my mother's story. It

29:31

never added up to me.

29:33

Let me get this right. My dad works

29:35

his ass off, finally

29:38

makes it, buys dream house,

29:40

dies, leaves family

29:43

terrified every time we go to the grocery store because

29:45

we're worried about running out of money. That's the calculation.

29:48

That's the middle class. That's a dream.

29:51

That's not a dream. That's a nightmare. Hey,

29:53

no thanks. I don't want any part to do with this.

29:55

That's all I know. Now I feel guilty again.

29:58

That's the loop.

29:59

I go through.

29:59

through the rationale, I look at it sanely,

30:02

I don't want any part of this and now I feel guilty.

30:04

I can't get out of this loop. Looking back I

30:07

realized I was the only one

30:09

that was actually making any sense at the time.

30:11

I was the only one making any sense

30:14

at all about how the world actually worked

30:16

and I wouldn't know it for years to come. Obsessed with

30:18

the wrong things. I was unable to do anything

30:20

to remedy my mom's situation, our family's

30:23

situation at the time. I was young, I was 15, 16 years

30:26

old. I'm frustrated and frankly I didn't

30:28

know how to do anything. I couldn't

30:29

do anything. Do you know what it feels like

30:32

when you can't help someone? With too much

30:34

time on my hands and no strong mentorship,

30:36

no direction, no course, no dad, no

30:39

father, those are important. I became busy

30:41

becoming a problematic teenager. Stuck

30:43

in school every day, sitting in 55 minute

30:46

classes in wooden chairs that I didn't want

30:48

to be in, listening to a teacher for no

30:51

reason. Didn't even know why I was there except

30:53

that I was forced to go. See by the time I

30:55

was in high school I was a handful. Okay

30:58

I had a big mouth,

30:59

I thought different, I was very opinionated,

31:02

I was extremely disruptive with

31:04

tremendous amounts of energy and I'd

31:06

get kicked out of class. And to that fact

31:09

that I was always hanging around the football players

31:11

girlfriends didn't help because now I'm getting in weekly

31:13

fights with the football team. I couldn't make the team

31:16

so the quarterback beat me up. Couldn't make the

31:18

team but I could make his girlfriend. So he

31:20

beats me up, so his buddy beats me up, so the

31:22

linebacker beats me up, so the fullback beats

31:24

me up. This goes on and on and on.

31:27

There's no payoff in high school for me except

31:29

the girls. Okay in general

31:31

I caused more trouble

31:32

than my poor mother knew what to do with. By the

31:34

time I graduated from high school, don't even

31:36

know how I did that, I had also fallen

31:39

in with the wrong crowd drinking, smoking,

31:41

experimenting with drugs. Drugs became a daily

31:43

issue in my life. I started smoking weed

31:46

at 16. I knew it was wrong the day I did

31:48

it and by the time I was 19 I was

31:50

using anything and everything available.

31:53

Short of shooting dope, literally putting a needle

31:55

in my arms, short of that I tried it all.

31:58

I'm not bragging, I'm telling you where my life went.

32:00

because I denied my obsessions. I

32:02

developed a massive daily drug problem. I

32:04

did go to college because my mother had promised

32:06

my dad before he died, my dad

32:09

said, make sure those boys go to college.

32:11

And so I did. I felt obligated to

32:13

go, I didn't wanna go. I felt obligated to

32:16

fulfill my mother's promise. I didn't see the point

32:18

in going to college. I wasted five long

32:20

years in college learning how to drink

32:23

and learning how to do more drugs. Never

32:25

paying attention to class, not taking advantage

32:28

of the education there, not going

32:30

with the intention to be obsessed with

32:32

connections and education.

32:34

I wasted five years taking

32:37

almost nothing away from college and yet

32:39

maintaining grades good enough, just good

32:41

enough to get through.

32:42

Eventually I graduated with an accounting

32:45

degree. I had no intention of using

32:47

ever in my life. I had $40,000 worth

32:49

of debt from college loans.

32:51

It was terrible. It wasn't a pretty

32:53

picture by any means, okay? And

32:56

not only was the condition of my life

32:58

terrible,

32:59

the way I felt about myself was terrible. 23, I

33:01

was at least 20 pounds underweight.

33:04

My complexion was gray thanks to

33:06

the drugs and I had become the black sheep

33:08

of my family. Despite my earlier

33:10

pronouncements of wanting to be rich, I

33:13

found myself with no abilities,

33:15

or at least I couldn't find them. No self-esteem,

33:17

no direction, no belief in myself,

33:20

no course, I managed to get a job

33:22

at a car dealership. It was a dead end job for me. It's

33:24

a job I didn't want. It's the only people that would hire

33:26

me was a car dealer. And then came the kicker. As

33:29

a result of hanging out with the wrong people and being

33:31

obsessed with the wrong things, because I was

33:33

denying my real obsession, I

33:35

was beaten up within an inch of my life. I'm hanging

33:38

out with the wrong people, that's what happens. Hang

33:40

out with the wrong people and bad things happen. Hey

33:42

look, bad things happen to good people.

33:45

You know bad things are gonna happen to people that

33:47

are doing bad things. I spent three days

33:49

in a hospital after almost bleeding out in

33:51

my apartment. The apartment that I paid $275 a month for and

33:55

was late almost every month on. It

33:57

took 75 stitches in my head and my

33:59

face to fix. me up. Not even my

34:01

mother could recognize me that night. The scars

34:04

are still visible on my face today over both

34:06

my eyes, my mouth, and all in the back

34:08

of my head. The

34:09

people who loved me and believed in me

34:11

the most had no idea how to help me.

34:14

I didn't know how to help me. How could they?

34:16

They didn't know how to talk to me. Every time they said something

34:18

to me, I felt all beat up about it. I'd get

34:20

all defensible. Okay, and my

34:23

life sucked. Even after almost

34:25

being beat to death in my own home,

34:28

I didn't change my ways.

34:29

Every day,

34:30

every day, just so you know where I started.

34:33

Every day I swore to myself, I

34:35

will not use drugs today.

34:38

From the age of 23 to 25,

34:40

every day I would wake up, I will not

34:43

use drugs today. Only to find

34:45

myself moments later, sometimes

34:47

seconds later, doing the very drugs I had

34:49

promised I would not use again. In fact,

34:52

nothing changed for another two years.

34:54

I continued to use every day. It

34:56

doesn't even make any sense. I just almost

34:58

got killed.

34:59

I have nothing. I hated everything

35:02

about my life. Swore that I would quit

35:04

every day. I hated my job. I hated the industry

35:06

I was in. I hated my co-workers. I

35:09

hated the people I hung out with in my apartment.

35:11

I hated my customers. I hated the people that paid

35:13

me and didn't pay me, and I hated me. I've

35:16

become a cause of concern for everyone who

35:18

loved me and a disappointment to so

35:20

many who wanted to believe in me. Uncles

35:22

and aunts had given up on me. I was broke

35:25

and I was broken financially, emotionally,

35:27

spiritually, and physically. The weekend

35:29

of my 25th birthday, I went to visit my

35:31

mother at her place, not far from my

35:34

dumpy little apartment, again that I rented

35:36

for $2.75 and most often was late

35:38

on. I showed up in my mom's place, loaded

35:40

one night, slurring my words, tongue swollen

35:43

from barbiturates.

35:44

My mom exasperated. Finally,

35:47

gives me the big ultimatum. Don't

35:50

come around here anymore until

35:52

you get your life together, she said. I

35:55

knew I had to change.

35:57

I was gonna die without even getting

35:59

a chance. chance to prove to myself or

36:01

to her that I could be something. That one

36:04

day, as I told her when I was 16, one

36:07

day I'm going to make it. I

36:09

was so far from making it at 25 years old.

36:12

When I told the owner where I worked at the

36:14

car dealership, three days

36:16

later, I'm going to rehab. I

36:18

need help for a drug problem. He suggested

36:21

I try to handle the problem myself. Unbelievable.

36:24

He knew I had a problem. Everybody knew I had

36:26

a problem. And he says,

36:27

do it yourself. It was the first time that

36:30

I admitted to anyone that I couldn't. I

36:32

told him if I could quit by myself,

36:34

look man, I would have quit when I was 16. I

36:37

would have stopped at least five years ago

36:39

when it got out of hand.

36:41

A few days later with the help of a family friend, I

36:43

checked myself into a rehab treatment facility.

36:46

I was terrified. I was terrified,

36:49

yet I was hopeful. 29 days later when

36:51

the insurance coverage ran out, you know, that's

36:53

how they work over there at those treatment centers. When

36:56

the money runs out, they say you get to go home

36:58

now. You've recovered. See, at this point, the

37:00

treatment center couldn't get any more money from me. I

37:02

was sent back to the world. I had left. The

37:04

only thing good about that treatment center was that I

37:06

learned that I could go 29 days without

37:09

using drugs. If you have this problem

37:11

or know someone that does have them reach out to me, I'm

37:13

happy to help. Okay. I would not go to a traditional

37:16

rehab center today. On the way out

37:18

the door, the counselor

37:19

in charge of me gave me a parting

37:21

shot, some advice from

37:23

the good counselor. You'll never make it. He said,

37:26

you're a defective person. You have

37:28

an addictive personality.

37:30

You have a disease you

37:32

can never recover from. He said, you

37:34

have no power or control over this

37:36

disease or your life. And

37:38

the chances of you never using

37:41

drugs again or zilch to

37:43

none. The most successful thing, he

37:45

said, the most successful thing you

37:47

can do with your life, Grant Cardone, at

37:49

this point is to just simply never

37:52

use drugs again. Focus on

37:54

anything else and you will use again.

37:56

Focus on anything else and you will fail. Drop.

37:59

your grandiose ideas of money,

38:02

fame, and success. Wow.

38:05

What a motivational message to

38:07

leave on.

38:09

I had taken a big step in seeking help and

38:11

while the treatment center gave me the chance to get off

38:14

drugs, that was very valuable. By no

38:16

means had this place in

38:18

any way, shape, or form rehabilitated

38:20

me or addressed the actual reasons

38:23

I had gotten into drugs in the first place. I

38:25

left the place. I can't even call it a rehab.

38:28

It's almost like it's not rehab. They didn't rehab

38:30

me. I left the place as broken

38:33

as I had been when I entered,

38:35

less

38:36

I'm not using drugs anymore. In fact, my

38:39

uncertainty about my life and my abilities

38:42

had actually grown because I was no longer

38:44

under the influence. That's what they call recovery.

38:47

That's recovery? I hadn't recovered. I

38:49

was also acutely aware of how fragile

38:51

I was for the first time in my life. I had never

38:54

ever felt this fragile. When I stepped out of the

38:56

door of the treatment center, I made a personal

38:58

commitment to myself

39:00

to never return to drugs again

39:02

and to use the addictive personality,

39:05

the addictive compulsive parts of

39:07

the personality that he said I was

39:09

not in control of. I made a personal

39:11

commitment that day to never return

39:14

to drugs and to use

39:16

to tap into the addictive personality

39:19

that the counselor had so tried to

39:21

convince me would be my downfall

39:24

to rebuilding my life.

39:25

Reigniting my obsession

39:28

for good.

39:30

Once back home in my little dump of an apartment,

39:33

same place, with only my dog

39:35

for company, old Coppo,

39:37

I sat down at my kitchen table that night with

39:39

a piece of paper.

39:40

In rehab, they had you write a lot about

39:43

your past, but it was all about the past.

39:45

It was about the damage you had done. It's about the people

39:47

that you need to apologize for and make

39:50

amends to and

39:52

all the bad experiences,

39:54

but I didn't want to look at the past anymore. I had done that.

39:57

Now I wanted to put my attention on the future.

39:59

No more of the

39:59

the past. I thought I need to look into

40:02

the future. I need to create the next thing

40:04

in my life. I need to put my attention

40:06

on to the future and off the past.

40:09

Not that I needed to deny the past. I

40:11

had taken a good hard look at it. I had to stop

40:13

focusing on where I had been and

40:16

start getting obsessed with where

40:18

I was gonna go. Looking toward

40:20

where I wanted to go. What I wanted to create. I started

40:22

writing down what I wanted to do with my life.

40:25

What would I do if I could do anything? What

40:27

I wanted to make my family or

40:30

I wanted to make my family proud again is one

40:32

of the things I wrote. I wanted to be proud of myself

40:34

again. I wanted desperately to prove

40:37

to the counselor that he was wrong. Maybe that was

40:39

a gift he actually gave me. I don't know.

40:41

I wrote down that I wanted to clean up

40:43

all the damage I had done. I

40:46

wanted to become a respectful member of society.

40:48

I wanted to prove to the world that I was

40:50

worth something. I wanted to be successful

40:52

and wealthy. I just started writing everything.

40:55

I'm gonna be a respectful businessman that

40:57

people admire. I'm gonna help others do the same.

41:01

Everything just started flowing out of me.

41:03

I became obsessed with my

41:05

future. Everything started flowing

41:07

out of me as I gave myself permission to

41:10

write about the new life I would create.

41:12

I wrote more about wanting to write books one

41:15

day. I don't even know where that came from. I'm gonna be an author,

41:17

okay, about becoming a master

41:19

salesperson. I was in an industry and I hated

41:22

salesperson. I'm gonna become a master at

41:24

the very thing that I hate. I'm gonna become

41:26

a husband and a father. I remember

41:29

what I had told my mom when I was 16 at that

41:31

moment before everything went really

41:33

bad. Mom, when I grow up

41:36

I'm gonna be rich one day so I never have to worry

41:38

about money again. I'll have enough

41:40

money that I will never have to clip coupons

41:43

and when I do I'm gonna help a lot of

41:45

people. At that moment I realized drugs

41:47

had become a problem for me not because I was

41:49

obsessed with drugs, not because

41:52

I was obsessed with bad things and

41:54

bad people, not because I was destructive

41:56

or addictive, but because I had

41:59

given up on the

41:59

the things I was earlier

42:02

obsessed with at that early

42:04

age, particularly success.

42:07

You know the old saying, what you resist will

42:09

persist. When I had resisted

42:12

my call to greatness

42:14

and suppressed my obsessions,

42:17

the energy had gone

42:19

in a destructive route or behavior.

42:22

When I had resisted my call to greatness

42:24

and suppressed my obsessions, the

42:26

energy of that shoots out

42:28

in all kind of weird, crazy, destructive ways.

42:31

I made a decision that night that I would no

42:33

longer ever again fight my desire

42:35

to be successful. I would not fight my

42:37

desire to be rich or wealthy.

42:40

I would not fight any longer. This

42:43

obsession would be an important and I would help others

42:46

along the way. I knew the first step in getting

42:48

back on track to my success was to help me.

42:50

I couldn't help anybody else until I

42:52

got my own life in order. I had to rebuild

42:54

my sense of self before I could ever

42:57

get others to believe in me and trust me

42:59

again.

42:59

I didn't even believe in myself, so I had to rebuild

43:02

me. But where could I start? I had no

43:04

friends. My ex-girlfriend, also an addict,

43:06

was now sleeping with a drug dealer. Come home

43:08

to that and see how you feel. All I had was

43:10

a job at the car dealership, by the way that I

43:13

hated. And even though I hated the job, I decided

43:15

rather than getting rid of the job, I

43:18

decided I'm going to throw myself into this sales

43:20

job 100%. I'm going to use

43:22

it as my jumping off point. I'm going to commit

43:24

to learning everything I can about sales. I'm

43:27

going to become obsessed with sales,

43:29

master sales. I'm going to literally

43:31

become obsessed with the very thing I hate

43:34

until I love it and I'm great at it.

43:37

I'm going to become obsessed with the auto industry

43:39

and I'm going to use every second, every

43:41

minute, every free moment to help

43:43

others know the truth about drugs and

43:46

how destructive they are. I had two missions

43:48

at that time. Get great at a job I hated

43:50

and help other people with drug recovery.

43:53

I resolved myself to take all

43:55

my obsessive energy and rather

43:57

than denying it, redirected.

43:59

toward rebuilding the life I

44:02

wanted to create.

44:03

I went to bed after writing my new life manifesto,

44:06

feeling inspired, clear headed for the

44:08

first time in years. I showed up at work

44:10

the next morning, an hour early, embarrassed,

44:14

self-conscious, scared of what

44:16

others thought of me, short on confidence

44:19

and not knowing where to start.

44:20

But I showed up. The owner welcomed

44:23

me back with open arms. That was great. I

44:25

realized later he had probably saved my life by

44:27

giving me a place to put my life back together.

44:30

He saved that job for me.

44:31

My first day back was awkward, but it

44:33

was good. I felt

44:35

out of place. I actually sold something

44:37

that day. I stayed at work later

44:39

than everyone else, probably just because

44:42

I was scared to go home. Free time

44:44

was a great threat to me because I knew

44:46

when and if I got bored or

44:49

didn't have something productive to do, I

44:51

was at risk of returning to my old ways.

44:54

Six months later, I was still clean and

44:56

my dedication and commitment to

44:58

my new manifesto and

45:01

my obsession with staying clean, rebuilding

45:03

my life and creating success for myself

45:05

was starting to pay off.

45:07

I had become the dealership's top

45:10

salesperson, not once, not

45:12

twice, but every month. I was outperforming

45:14

the other people

45:16

who'd worked there for years, all of whom

45:18

stood around scratching their heads wondering, what's

45:21

Grant's secret? They thought it was

45:23

because I was no longer using drugs, but wrong,

45:26

they weren't using drugs.

45:27

Certainly, I couldn't have done what I was doing while

45:30

on drugs, but simply not using drugs

45:32

was not the secret.

45:34

I knew plenty of people who had left treatment

45:36

and were not winning in their careers. The

45:38

secret was that instead

45:41

of being obsessed with horrible habits,

45:44

I allowed myself for the first time

45:46

to become obsessed with success

45:48

again, with the same innocence

45:51

and energy that I had as a child.

45:54

Rather than denying my obsession with success,

45:57

I was finally giving myself permission

45:59

to embrace it.

45:59

to feed it, to fuel it. I was

46:03

starting to get a taste, just a taste of

46:05

how life could be. I was making money for

46:07

the first time in my life and I was saving all

46:09

of it

46:10

because I didn't have any bad habits.

46:12

More important for the first time in my life,

46:14

in years I had felt good about myself

46:17

again. My self-esteem was starting to return.

46:19

I was starting to find swag in my walk,

46:22

pep in my step. I was starting to believe

46:24

in myself again for the first time

46:26

in a long time.

46:28

Though I was a long way from

46:31

the kind of success I dreamed of, I

46:33

finally knew I was headed in the right direction.

46:36

For the first time I was doing what I had said

46:38

I would do.

46:39

I would wake up in

46:41

my little apartment, feed Coppo,

46:44

shower,

46:46

watch a sales training video every morning

46:48

while I eat breakfast. On my drive to

46:50

work each day I'd listen to self-improvement

46:52

and sales training tapes with the commitment

46:55

to become the best of the best in the industry

46:57

I worked in. And in the first year

47:00

I probably spent 700 hours just

47:02

improving myself

47:04

as a salesperson. I arrived

47:06

an hour early before everyone else and

47:08

many nights I was there till 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock,

47:10

sometimes midnight.

47:12

When I wasn't working in the dealership I was

47:14

trying to help other drug addicts.

47:17

Every month I was better than I'd been

47:19

the month before.

47:20

I was selling more, I was making more money,

47:22

I was saving more money and most importantly

47:24

I was rebuilding my life and rebuilding

47:27

my self-esteem.

47:28

And every month that I was one more month

47:31

removed from the past was one

47:33

more month closer to where I wanted

47:35

to go. Months added up to years

47:37

and by the time I turned 28 I

47:39

was no longer the kid with the drug problem anymore.

47:42

I was a solid sales professional in

47:44

the top 1% of all sales people

47:48

in an industry that I just

47:50

previously hated. I

47:53

was starting to think bigger now.

47:55

I was entertaining grandiose

47:57

ideas of one day not just being a salesmen

48:01

but becoming a sales legend like

48:03

the guys I were studying. I

48:06

was starting to dream about ideas of

48:08

one day writing books about sales,

48:11

doing programs on sales. Again

48:13

this is just I don't know where it's coming from.

48:16

Maybe it's coming from my obsessions. I'm

48:19

thinking one day I'm gonna teach millions of

48:21

people I'm gonna speak in hotels and conferences

48:24

and exhibit halls. See

48:26

I had done the opposite of what the counselor had said

48:28

and

48:29

was throwing myself completely obsessively

48:32

into this new obsessions. I

48:35

was obsessed with my obsessions. You get it? I

48:37

was obsessed. I completely threw myself into

48:39

the fire,

48:41

into my obsessions and

48:44

my life was starting to bear fruit and create

48:46

a future consistent with the dreams

48:49

I had had as a child.

48:51

Success became

48:53

my new drug. Success

48:56

had become my new drug. I

48:58

finally began to understand how to make my

49:00

obsessive nature work

49:03

for me not against me.

49:04

I thought this was a great change in mindset

49:07

so I was surprised and upset when the people around

49:09

me who believed in me, who saw

49:11

me improving, who worked with me every

49:14

day

49:15

started to react with

49:17

concern to my new philosophy. I

49:20

remember people grabbing me and saying look

49:22

man you're replacing one addiction with another

49:25

one. I couldn't believe that anyone

49:28

would compare what had almost

49:30

taken my life from me, probably actually

49:32

did take my life from me, with this

49:34

new commitment I had made to creating

49:37

success for me. But

49:40

he wasn't the only one. Lots of people

49:42

had concerns. They were happy. They

49:45

were happy I wasn't using drugs but I

49:47

didn't understand that recovering from a drug addiction

49:49

wasn't enough for me. People kept saying why

49:51

can't that be enough? Co-workers,

49:54

life isn't all about work, Grant, you know.

49:57

Even the guy who owned the car dealership

49:59

said I think you should relax a little bit

50:02

take some time off My

50:04

family was concerned about burnout

50:06

and relapsing. I wasn't even thinking about burnout

50:09

or relapsing until they brought it up

50:12

Sorry, but no see I've been

50:14

some very low places in my life. I

50:16

mean low how low can you

50:18

go? And I wasn't

50:21

gonna go back to low

50:22

Hitting that massive bottom in my

50:25

life had given me something to bounce off

50:27

of back bounce back from I mean the beauty

50:29

Beautiful thing about hitting the bottom is it

50:31

gives you a place to freakin launch from

50:34

and I wanted to bounce back as high as Possible

50:37

and if I could go that low and survive I

50:39

thought

50:40

How high could I go in the other direction?

50:43

So no matter how troubling was

50:45

to others my new behavior?

50:48

It was my obsessions with

50:50

success that had given me this new lease

50:52

on life It was not the fact that I just stopped

50:54

using drugs I

50:57

Did I get into this drug thing in the first place because

51:00

I had denied my obsessions see

51:03

I was really beginning to understand the power

51:06

of a positive obsession of Possibility

51:09

of immersing yourself completely into

51:12

something for the first time in my life

51:14

While others were concerned I was

51:16

seeing the results of a

51:19

new obsession Obsession

51:23

is a gift

51:24

in my life

51:25

Being obsessed with success has never

51:27

created a problem for me

51:29

In fact denying my obsessions is what

51:31

caused the problems The drugs came

51:34

as an alternative at a time when squelching

51:36

my ideas and my dreams of

51:39

Doing unbelievable great things.

51:42

Okay, whatever that is money fame

51:44

fortunes author speaker

51:47

Great father husband community

51:49

leader. I know you're a big dreamer and

51:51

I know you're someone who wants to have

51:54

massive

51:55

success You're also probably

51:57

extremely frustrated at this point in your life. You

51:59

know you can do more every time you see others

52:01

achieving greatness you wonder whether

52:04

it's sports or business why are

52:06

they able to do that and I'm not those

52:09

succeeding aren't necessarily smarter than you

52:11

they don't work harder than you so why

52:13

them and not you look even if you're

52:15

a multi-millionaire today you know the truth

52:18

you know you have the potential to

52:20

be a billionaire thank you for listening

52:22

to the Cardone Zone subscribe

52:24

to this podcast leave a review and

52:27

check out Grant on your favorite social

52:29

media platform hey

52:32

Grant Cardone here hosted the Cardone Zone thank

52:34

you for listening