I Don’t Agree with Grant Cardone on Everything, But He Nails These 8 Points About Wealth

One of the more polarizing personalities on social media today, Grant Cardone is best labeled as a prominent businessman and real estate investor. Claiming more than $4 billion in assets under management, Grant is also widely known as the founder of the 10X movement. 

Beginning with his book The 10X Rule in 2011, Grant Cardone now uses this movement as the backbone of his philosophy of working with entrepreneurs to become successful leaders by thinking big, and going beyond the ordinary in their lives. 

The 10X Philosophy

Serving as the backbone of Grant Cardone’s work, the 10X rule states that you need to set your goals to be 10X higher and then take 10X more action than you think you might need to achieve these goals. In Grant’s world, someone who wants to increase sales by only 10% would adopt the 10X philosophy and now aim for 100%, forcing them to explore a whole new strategy. 

This is the easiest way to summarize what Grant is saying, but more to the point, the 10X philosophy is also all about pushing entrepreneurs to think beyond what would otherwise be considered ordinary. Grant says that average thinking won’t help you build wealth. 

Famously, Grant once said that “Average is a failing formula,” and the 10X philosophy hopes to show that by going well beyond the ordinary and becoming extraordinary with the amount of effort you are applying to your goals, wealth will follow.

Of course, this line also highlights Grant’s famously blunt style, which grabs attention and frequently reminds us that he believes ordinary is equivalent to failure in a competitive world. Grant is a lot of things, and he isn’t without controversy, especially around aggressive ideas about heavy debt leverage. 

The 10X Approach

Heavy Leverage

One of the most controversial approaches Grant Cardone has undertaken to build his wealth and empire is advocating using heavy debt to create wealth. In this regard, Grant makes no secret of utilizing loans to help build up his billion-dollar empire. 

In Grant’s view, if you use debt strategically, you can build wealth faster than saving ever could. This belief leads Grant to often be the source of online ire, as he usually takes money from his investors or other people’s money (OPM) as a hallmark of his “go big or go home” mindset. 

According to a 2024 YouTube video Grant recorded, he likes to keep his debt leverage around 65%, which allows him to take advantage of bigger deals without having to draw from his personal capital, leaving himself at risk. Grant says he has never lost a property because of his debt leverage, even during the housing market collapse. 

More Conservative Approaches

Grant’s approach, while popular with a certain group of people who believe in the 10X philosophy as the future, contrasts against the more conservative approaches of individuals like Dave Ramsey. In many ways, Ramsey is the opposite of Grant in that the former believes in a debt-free philosophy. So much so that on his own YouTube channel, he doesn’t want people to take out a credit card because of debt. 

A more conservative investment style might sound something like saving for a single rental property and then building wealth by adding more properties based on the success of the first one. This contrasts against Grant’s style, which looks to borrow money to buy a 100-unit complex that he can then leverage to buy a second one. 

Of course, in Grant’s case, it requires a significant amount of high risk tolerance, something conservative investors would be very much against. While Grant’s style has proven successful for him, the 2008 housing crisis showed just how much risk is associated with being over-leveraged. Let this be a reminder of how quickly you can lose everything if the market goes the other direction, leaving you holding a giant bag of debt. 

The 10X Pitch

There is also the consideration here that using the 10X Pitch, Grant’s sales style, is counter to that of more conservative approaches. Some might say Grant’s methods are too aggressive when trying to sell to someone, which contradicts more conservative approaches in business. Others might say Grant is a master manipulator who pressures people to buy more as he sells them on an idea than a practical solution. 

The 10X Mindset 

Unwavering Ambition 

The first element is “Unwavering Ambition,” which is based on Grant’s idea that you should set sky-high goals, like aiming to make $10 million instead of $1 million on your first deal. He believes this will force his followers to go beyond what they believe are their own limitations or self-imposed limits. 

This philosophy has helped Grant transition his original focus on sales training to real estate, which he uses as a prime example of thinking bigger. Grant knew there might be an eventual limit to how much wealth he could build in sales, but with real estate, the sky is very much the limit. 

What’s true about this mindset is that even if you are trying to reach $10 million instead of $1 million but only reach $3 million, you have still shown that being pushed motivated you to go out and get more. 

Consistent Action 

Between his books, seminars, and the content he posts, it’s boldly clear that Grant Cardone is obsessed with “massive action,” as he likes to call it. This shows up when he makes bold claims about once cold-calling clients for 12 hours straight to close as many deals as possible early in his sales career. 

Whether this story is true or not, it shows that Grant believes in persistence, which is another way of saying “Consistent Action.” While it’s hard to sit here and say that everyone should go the same route and cold-call potential clients for 24 hours straight, there is an argument to be made that persistence has helped grow businesses around the world. This is doubly true for some of the wealthiest people today. 

Self-Promotion 

One reality is that Grant is the target of online ire these days because of his shameless self-promotion. He consistently walks around claiming to be the best salesperson ever while he boards his private jet or makes bold claims about how much he’s made that week, which has made him a household name, for better or worse. 

This shows up in plenty of examples, such as when he bought a $425 million Miami Beach apartment complex in 2021, which he funded through debt and investor capital. He later claimed to be a 10X winner after property values increased during the pandemic. It stands to reason that you can borrow this idea of self-promotion to promote yourself and build yourself as an authority on a subject, so long as your confidence is not mistaken for not being authentic. 

Moving Forward

Arguably, the most important reminder here is that you can certainly examine Grant Cardone’s philosophies on wealth, debt, and the 10X mindset, but you must do so within your own ethical standards. Plenty of individuals online claim that Grant is not ethical, that his tactics border on deceitful, and that he’s running a “scam” on investors. 

Regardless of where you land with Grant Cardone, adopting a success mindset, whether the 10X mindset or otherwise, is arguably the right approach. The caveat is that you should only do it with measured caution, knowing your ethical and financial limitations and understanding that there is a limit to the persistence most people are willing to receive. 

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