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Grant Timothy Cardone (born March 21, 1958) is an American businessman, financial influencer, and writer. He is the founder and CEO of Cardone Capital and Cardone Training Technologies, Inc. In 2010, he wrote the ''
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'' bestselling book, ''If You're Not First, You're Last''.


Early life

Cardone was born on 21 March 1958 in Lake Charles,
Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
, US to a family of five children of Curtis Louis and Concetta Neil Cardone. His father owned a
grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday US usage, however, "grocery store" is a synon ...
and trained as a
stockbroker A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and ...
. His father died in 1968 when he was 10, and ten years later his brother Curtis died. Cardone attended La Grange High School in Lake Charles in 1976. He further studied at
McNeese State University McNeese State University is a public university in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Founded in 1939 as Lake Charles Junior College, it was renamed McNeese Junior College after John McNeese, an early local educator. The present name was adopted in 1970. M ...
, where he obtained a degree in accounting. From the age of 16 through 25, Cardone struggled with drug addiction and
substance abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definition ...
, overdosed three times, and finally went to a treatment center.


Career

After graduating from university, Cardone worked in a sales training company, where he traveled from Lake Charles to Houston, Texas and then to La Jolla, California, where he lived for 12 years. He moved into car sales and later became the president and CEO of Freedom Motorsports Group Inc. He owns Cardone Group, Cardone Enterprises and Cardone Real Estate Holdings. In 2016, ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' listed Cardone as one of the "25 Marketing Influencers To Watch In 2017". , ''
HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
'' estimated that Cardone has 2.4 million subscribers on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
; 4.4 million and 6.8 million followers on
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
and
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
respectively. Cordone has written five books: ''The 10X Rule'', ''Sell or Be Sold'', ''Closers Survival Guide'', ''If You’re Not First, You’re Last; and sell to survive''. He contributes to ''
Fox & Friends ''Fox & Friends'' is an American daily morning conservative news and talk program that airs on Fox News and reruns on Fox.Thompson, Ethan, and Jason Mittell. "Fox & Friends: Political Talk." ''How to Watch Television.'' 168-76. Print. It premie ...
'' and has been featured in the ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', appeared on
CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
,
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
. He has also appeared on ''Turnaround King'' and '' Undercover Billionaire''. In late 2024, Cardone launched a
bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...
real estate fund.


Legal issues


Cardone Training Technologies

In 2015 and 2016, several former employees of Cardone Training Technologies filed
religious discrimination Religious discrimination is treating a person or group differently because of the particular religion they align with or were born into. This includes instances when adherents of different religions, denominations or non-religions are treate ...
complaints with the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
alleging that they were fired for refusing to take
Scientology Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a scam, a Scientology as a business, business, a cult, or a religion. Hubbard initially develo ...
training courses disingenuously renamed as "
L. Ron Hubbard Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author and the founder of Scientology. A prolific writer of pulp science fiction and fantasy novels in his early career, in 1950 he authored the pseudoscie ...
training". Cardone's company has sued several clients who could no longer afford the hefty monthly payments on their training contracts. Having no termination clauses, clients were sued for tens of thousands of dollars of remaining balances on their contracts.


Cardone Capital

Cardone Capital purchases and manages large quantities of multifamily rental properties and sells shares in the
pooled investment An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages inc ...
. Cardone Capital's funds have a buy-in as low as $1,000. In 2024 Cardone Capital claimed to have approximately four billion dollars in
assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...
. Using his social media and other communication channels, Cardone tells potential investors that they should view "their own houses as a money-sinking liability rather than a real estate asset", that they should rent, and invest their money in his funds, which he has guaranteed 15% annualized returns. The
Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...
(SEC) has warned him to moderate his sales pitches. In 2020, a client sued Grant Cardone and Cardone Capital, LLC for violating SEC regulations regarding potential misstatements or omissions. The lawsuit, a putative class action, cited Cardone's own words: "You're gonna walk away with a 15% annualized return. If I'm in that deal for 10 years, you're gonna earn 150%. You can tell the SEC that's what I said it would be. They call me Uncle G and some people call me Nostradamus, because I'm predicting the future, dude; this is what's gonna happen." A
Federal District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...
in California dismissed the plaintiff's claims, saying that statements on social media were not actionable under the
Securities Act The Securities Act of 1933, also known as the 1933 Act, the Securities Act, the Truth in Securities Act, the Federal Securities Act, and the '33 Act, was enacted by the United States Congress on May 27, 1933, during the Great Depression and afte ...
, but the US Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal, stating that "sellers of securities that use social media communications to communicate with prospective investors are engaged in solicitation that can be actionable under the Securities Act". An amended complaint was filed in 2023 by a family member of the plaintiff who had died since the original filing. A 2022 investigative report by ''
The Palm Beach Post ''The Palm Beach Post'' is an American daily newspaper serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and parts of the Treasure Coast. On March 18, 2018, in a deal worth US$42.35 million, ''The Palm Beach Post'' and '' The Palm Beach Daily News' ...
'' showed that from 2018 to 2021 Cardone Capital-owned Miami-area apartment complex Wellington Club overcharged tenants for workforce housing — a government program to provide discounted housing in high-cost-of-living areas to renters employed in key industries such as nursing, teaching and firefighting who would otherwise be priced out of their service area. According to the report, this allowed Wellington Club to boost profits while suppressing the county's workforce housing program in a county with limited
affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on ...
.


Others

On a 2023
livestream Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming media, streaming of video or Digital audio, audio in real-time communication, real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature ...
, Cardone got in a heated dispute with his friend
John Legere John Legere (born June 4, 1958) is an American businessman, former chief executive officer (CEO) and president of T-Mobile US. He previously worked for AT&T, Dell, and Global Crossing. He resigned as CEO following the approval of the merger of T- ...
who told him that "You are the biggest bullshit artist on the planet," called him "a con man of the highest order" and a "fucking fraud." In January 2024, Cardone sued Legere for $100 million, alleging
defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
. In August, Cardone rejected an offer from Legere to settle out of court, and the parties agreed to a confidential settlement in January 2025. In 2024 Cardone sued
Formula One Group The Formula One Group is a group of companies responsible for the Promotion (marketing), promotion of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA Formula One World Championship, and the exercising of the sport's commercial rights. The ...
and
Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a chain of theme restaurant, theme bar-restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos, hotels and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll ...
alleging that his expensive watch had been stolen during a
Miami Grand Prix The Miami Grand Prix is a Formula One Grand Prix which was held for the first time during the season, with the event taking place at the Miami International Autodrome which is located around the grounds and private facilities of Hard Rock Stadi ...
event as a result of lax security. In 2025 a Las Vegas woman was charged with stealing millions from seven influencers including $2.3 million from the Cardones.


Personal life

Cardone married Elena Rosaia Lyons on July 4, 2004. They have two daughters. The Cardones reside in
Golden Beach, Florida Golden Beach is a town in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, between the Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic Ocean. The town is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. As of the 2020 US census, the town had a population of ...
and
Malibu, California Malibu ( ; ; ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, about west of downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate, its strip of beaches stretching along the Pacific Ocean coa ...
. Cardone is a Scientologist, and according to ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'' he had reached the
OT VIII OT VIII or OT 8 (Operating Thetan Level 8) is the highest current auditing level in Scientology. OT VIII is known as "Truth Revealed" and was first released to select high-ranking public Scientologists in 1988, two years after the death of Scien ...
level as of 2011. Elena is also a Scientologist and the couple are major donators to the
Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religiou ...
. Elena fundraised for
Kari Lake Kari Lake Halperin ( Lake; ; born August 23, 1969) is an American political figure and former television news anchor who has served as the special advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media since 2025 under President Donald Trump. S ...
in 2024 and is active in her husband's businesses. Following the
New York business fraud lawsuit against the Trump Organization ''New York v. Trump'' is a civil investigation and lawsuit by the office of the New York Attorney General alleging that individuals and business entities within the Trump Organization engaged in financial fraud by presenting vastly disparate p ...
, Elena set up a
GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...
to help Donald Trump pay off his multimillion-dollar legal judgments. Cardone has been a consistent supporter of
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
, and even engaged Trump as the headliner at one of Cardone's 10X conferences in 2022.


Published works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardone, Grant 1958 births Living people American businesspeople in real estate Businesspeople from Louisiana American people of Italian descent Real estate and property developers People from Lake Charles, Louisiana American Scientologists