Grant Cardone - Financial Leader of Our Time
An Exclusive Interview By Bruce Edwin
The Hollywood Sentinel - Bruce Edwin: You created a program I read about called E-pencil.
Grant Cardone: Right.
The Hollywood Sentinel: And you were working prior to this in the automotive industry, is that the main work you were doing before you became an entrepreneur and inventor?
Grant Cardone: No actually what I did was I got out of college, and I didn't want to be an accountant, which is what my degree was in, I was in an environment that had 25 percent unemployment, two and a half times worse than it is today, interest rates for credit cards, or an automobile purchase, or a home was 15 to 18 percent, the economy was ridiculous, terrible. And this was in the late 70's, caused by the oil embargo, and so really the only job I could get at that time was sales. And when I got in to the sales business, at that time out of college, I didn't know any thing about selling, the people around me obviously didn't know any thing about selling. It’s what makes selling such a bad experience for people. People say God, I hate salespeople, and I say, 'Well, you've never met one, how would you know?" And they say, "What do you mean?,' and I tell them, "You hate meeting people that don't know how to sell, because a professional salesperson that knows what they're doing, is never offensive, they never pressure people, they are just polished professionals, and its a great experience."
So I got in to selling, and committed to learning everything I could about it, just like you do in college, you know, where if I'm going to be an accountant, I'm going to learn every thing I can about accounting. If I'm going to be in sales, I'm going to learn every thing I can about selling. And out of that, I made discoveries, and at that time I was in the automobile business, and I made some discoveries about that business that seemed completely backwards to me, the processes took too long; it was antagonistic to a customer. Customers didn't like it, the salespeople didn't like it, the dealers didn't like the results they got actually, they'd just never tell you that, and the customers didn't like the control, and didn't like the lack of information. So I went about writing a program which is called now 'Information Assisted Selling." This is way before the E-Pencil, way before the internet, way before any one was thinking of this information, and we trademarked it 'Information Assisted Selling, 'and started introducing that when I was 28 years old to automobile dealers all around the country, about another way to do things. Now since then, that was greatly, vehemently opposed at the time, I was ridiculed that they would never do that, that was ridiculous, and I was an idiot, all of which indicated to me that I was probably on the right track...
The Hollywood Sentinel: Ha ha! That's great.
Grant Cardone: And what happened was, Lexus and Saturn picked it up. And this has now become really the way to do business in the automobile business. Some people do it better than others, but entire manufacturers now, I've worked with the top 100 car dealers in the country, I'm talking about mega dealers, public companies, have all adopted this system, this assisted selling approach, and it is now being adopted by other industries; consumers, electronics, furniture stores, the Army is now using this way even (for) recruiting, which is a vital, survival point. The heartbeat of the Army is to recruit, which is to sell. So E-Pencil came as a solution basically to quantifying what I was teaching people. We went in to companies and basically said, look, you need to shorten your process. You need to be friendlier, faster, and easy with information. And I'd hear, "Well Grant, that's great Grant, you can do it because you're a pro. You're perfect, that's what you do every day, you have that perfect thing. Right?" And they'd say, "You know Grant, if you could put that in a bottle, and make sure all my people use it, then you'd have something." And I was like, "Wow man, how do I put things in a bottle?" Well the way to put things in a bottle today is software.
So I basically did for car dealers what consumers hate, which is negotiating prices. How to get information from a car dealer? And we basically built a piece of software that delivers payment, prices, interest rate, and trade figures, in seconds, and it makes sure that every one is working from the same information, that the information is quantifiable, and that the information is recorded, so we know what we actually gave out, what the car dealer gave out. And what happened was immediately, we shortened the sales process. Some sales processes were reduced by a quarter, that is, people were spending 3 or 4 hours to get information that they were now getting in 40 minutes. What happened that we didn't know would, was employee retention increased, which is a major, major cost and problem in car dealerships, and number two, customer satisfaction increased by almost 80 percent. Now the phenomenon with this, employee retention went up, customer satisfaction increased, and, the gross profit for the dealership actually improved, by using technology to generate a proposal, or negotiating part of the sales process.
The Hollywood Sentinel: That's great, that is very smart of you.
Grant Cardone: This goes with what we teach people in my seminars, my programs, and all of my books. They are basically written about problems. I made a comment on a radio show one day in New York, and that is 'the reason people don't have money is they don't solve problems.' And the guy doing the radio show said, 'What are you talking about?' And I said 'Poor people hate problems, and rich people love em.' Poor people hate problems. They avoid problems. They don't want problems. They talk about problems like they're a problem. And, rich people are like, 'problems equal money.' They know if they solve a problem, you get money. Solve a problem and you create a service. And Velcro, Mac computers, I-Pods, automatic transmissions all solve problems.
The Hollywood Sentinel: Yes, that's brilliant. It sounds so simple, but it's genius.
The Hollywood Sentinel-Bruce Edwin: It seems to me that the majority of society out there thinks, ‘well, this is how things are, I just have to deal with it and live it, this may be terrible, but, this is how it is.’ You obviously saw a problem, and you saw something that could be improved, and you didn't say, I'm just going to accept this, I'm going to improve how things run, and make it better, and you did, and I feel there are a small percent of people out there in society like that, that actually takes initiative that moves society forward with creation, and invention, and I guess my question to you is, what do you feel makes some one that has the inclination and acts on that impetus, versus some one that just says, ‘well, I'm just going to go with the flow and stay how it is?’ What is the difference between two people like that would you say?
Grant Cardone: You know, I don't know that there is any difference actually, one if there is two people, and there's not, but lets say there are two people, and one is like O.K., I'm gonna go with the flow, and another is like, no, you know, I want things to be better, I think the only difference is, with the second guy who says, no, I want things to be better, maybe he's just like look, I just can't live that other way, you know, and they both work. You know, some people say the other guy is lazy, and no, it takes a lot of work to accept whatever is given to you every day. It takes the same amount of work, maybe even less, but it's more fun, to say, I'm going to change things around me.
And here's the good news, there is more people that don't want to change things, than do. There's less competition, and while people think, oh, they're pushing through it all and there's so much competition, the reality is, when you get to that real place, where there is not that much competition, where there is not that many people willing to do what it takes, and so there is less people at the top, and so there are less players up there, the thinking is freer, the air is better, I mean, there's less traffic there, there's not as much competition,it's not as bogged, every thing goes faster. Are there bigger problems? Yeah, but you want bigger problems.
And so, you know, I like to think that there is not really that much difference between me and some body that doesn't want to do it, because I've been there. Look man, I remember being in a bowling alley, I was 17 years old, playing, me and my brother, every day, for three and four hours a day, playing the game, Asteroids.
The Hollywood Sentinel: Ha Ha, yeah, I used to play that.
Grant Cardone: You know, and many people today will be like, what's that? You know, it was after Pac Man, today it will be Call of Duty, or you know, just listening to music, or the baby boomers watching CNN all day long, I remember just wasting time, well somebody, you know, my Mom would say, 'Oh, you're so lazy', but you know, the truth is, I wasn't lazy, I was bored, and I wasn't lazy when it came to playing Asteroids, I used a lot of time and energy to play that game, and that could be said about all people, Generation X, they're not lazy, they're just spending all their time doing something that you don't understand yet.
Look at what you're doing Bruce, you know with the entertainment world and all this, these people could be judged by a business man as, oh well, they're not doing any thing. No, they're creating, its just in a different genre. The problem with that whole industry today, radio, music, movies, man that world is changing so fast today, that you have to be on your game if you're an artist, and, there was an artist here in L.A. that picked up my book 'Sell to Survive,' and this guy writes probably 20 percent of all movies made, he probably writes the music for that much, and he said, this is the thing that's been missing in my business, probably more than any other thing, the ability to sell my self, and sell my product, and get my price, and as things get more and more competitive, whether its music, business, housing, mortgages, whatever it is, its all the same, there's creativity in every one of these fields, you know, computers, but whatever it is, you have to move your product, and get your product in to the marketplace, and then sell that in to the product and monetize it.
The Hollywood Sentinel-Bruce Edwin: Do you think there was a time when you learned this on your own, or did you just happen to have family that instilled this in you, or did you just get this yourself?
Grant Cardone: You know, I was 25 years old, and my life sucked, I mean it was terrible, I was renting an apartment that was 400 bucks a month, my dad died when I was 10 years old, I had a brother that I lost when I was 20. Things were not going well for me in life from the ages of 10 to 25, I ended up in drugs, got in drugs when I was 15 or 16 years old, ended up with a drug problem till I was 25, and one day looked around and said, man I can not do this any more. I'm either gonna die, or I'm gonna change...
Bruce Edwin: wow...
Grant Cardone: And I made the decision to change, and really, really started at looking at what do I have to do to change my life. And I literally changed every thing, my friends, where I hung out, and I took all the time and energy I spent destroying myself in life, and I turned it in to learning, and how do I get an education. (Learning) what do successful people do? What are happy people doing? You know, why do people get rich and then they're unhappy? You know, I don't want to be those people, there's people going to my church that didn't seem happy, they'd be happy for an hour, and then unhappy for the other seven days, and so I'm like, O.K., that's not what I want, so I'm like O.K., I've got to find the best of all of this. There's not reason not to have money, there's plenty of it on this planet, and there's no reason not to have happiness, there's plenty of that you know?
So, there was something that I was doing, I was causing these problems in my life, and I took responsibility, and I quit blaming every body else. It wasn't even the drugs, it was me. Drugs just happened to be a symptom of another problem.
Bruce Edwin: Really, yeah, that's incredible that you did that, unfortunately many people don't have that willpower to over come all that, or they do, but don't act on it.
Grant Cardone: Your personal willpower is meaningless when you are surrounded by a bunch of people with a combined willpower that exceeds your willpower, and their will is to destroy you, themselves and everyone around them.
Look at what you're doing Bruce, you know with the entertainment world and all this, these people could be judged by a business man as, oh well, they're not doing any thing. No, they're creating, its just in a different genre. The problem with that whole industry today, radio, music, movies, man that world is changing so fast today, that you have to be on your game if you're an artist, and, there was an artist here in L.A. that picked up my book 'Sell to Survive,' and this guy writes probably 20 percent of all movies made, he probably writes the music for that much, and he said, this is the thing that's been missing in my business, probably more than any other thing, the ability to sell my self, and sell my product, and get my price, and as things get more and more competitive, whether its music, business, housing, mortgages, whatever it is, its all the same, there's creativity in every one of these fields, you know, computers, but whatever it is, you have to move your product, and get your product in to the marketplace, and then sell that in to the product and monetize it.
The Hollywood Sentinel-Bruce Edwin: Do you think there was a time when you learned this on your own, or did you just happen to have family that instilled this in you, or did you just get this yourself?
Grant Cardone: You know, I was 25 years old, and my life sucked, I mean it was terrible, I was renting an apartment that was 400 bucks a month, my dad died when I was 10 years old, I had a brother that I lost when I was 20. Things were not going well for me in life from the ages of 10 to 25, I ended up in drugs, got in drugs when I was 15 or 16 years old, ended up with a drug problem till I was 25, and one day looked around and said, man I can not do this any more. I'm either gonna die, or I'm gonna change...
Bruce Edwin: wow...
Grant Cardone: And I made the decision to change, and really, really started at looking at what do I have to do to change my life. And I literally changed every thing, my friends, where I hung out, and I took all the time and energy I spent destroying myself in life, and I turned it in to learning, and how do I get an education. (Learning) what do successful people do? What are happy people doing? You know, why do people get rich and then they're unhappy? You know, I don't want to be those people, there's people going to my church that didn't seem happy, they'd be happy for an hour, and then unhappy for the other seven days, and so I'm like, O.K., that's not what I want, so I'm like O.K., I've got to find the best of all of this. There's not reason not to have money, there's plenty of it on this planet, and there's no reason not to have happiness, there's plenty of that you know?
So, there was something that I was doing, I was causing these problems in my life, and I took responsibility, and I quit blaming every body else. It wasn't even the drugs, it was me. Drugs just happened to be a symptom of another problem.
Bruce Edwin: Really, yeah, that's incredible that you did that, unfortunately many people don't have that willpower to over come all that, or they do, but don't act on it.
Grant Cardone: Your personal willpower is meaningless when you are surrounded by a bunch of people with a combined willpower that exceeds your willpower, and their will is to destroy you, themselves and everyone around them.
Grant Cardone: And so I was hanging around a lot of people and, it was the great will that was winning, so, probably the single biggest shift for me was the book 'Dianetics' by L. Ron Hubbard, and it’s about the mind. That book is not about Scientology. When you say Dianetics, most every body thinks Scientology immediately. That book is Dianetics, the word dianetics is what the mind is doing to the body, and that book literally changed my life. It woke me up, it took me out of a state of unconsciousness.
And that book is not Scientology, a person confuses this and thinks oh, that's Scientology, but its not. Dianetics is a different thing than Scientology is. A person can read that book, you know, I was brought up Catholic, so a person can read that book and still be a Catholic, or a Muslim, or agnostic, or whatever you want to be, Baptist, or Protestant, or Mormon. That book is about your mind, and regardless of whether you're a Mormon, or Muslim, or Catholic, or whatever you believe in, that book is just about how your mind works. And that was the problem I was having in my life. Drugs basically disguised the problems in my mind, and it covered things up, until the drugs wore off, and it was like, oh! problem! And that book really, really woke me up.
Bruce Edwin: Cool. That's something that I like about you and your work, is what you said earlier, and that is when you said, oh, people kept saying I was doing every thing wrong, so I must be doing something right, and with what you said here about Dianetics, because obviously what you are talking about with that book in particular, is obviously criticized negatively, and as you said, misunderstood, and that's not how the majority of the world thinks about some of these things...
Grant Cardone: You have to understand, the majority of the world used to think the world was flat, so every great thing that has ever come along, it doesn't matter whether it was fire, or the automobile, they've all been resisted. Everything. I'm building a condo on the Ocean front right now in La Jolla (California), it's a great thing! It’s much better than what’s there now. I own the property there now, I own twenty units there. We're going to build it, but we're going to get people to resist it. And the only thing they're resisting is a better thing!
People resisted Gandhi, Jesus Christ, you know, entire civilizations have burnt every book that they ever had. You know, the Greek don't even have any thing (much of their own) to read any more, because every thing was burned. So, things are resisted. They killed John Kennedy, Martin Luther King was killed, these weren't bad people, these were great people! They were people that were resisted!
Bruce Edwin: Exactly.
Grant Cardone: See, all the controversy surrounding Scientology actually drew me to it. I figured it must be something interesting if it is getting everyone so jacked up, I will go check it out and discover what the truth is for myself. I like looking at things that are new and that other's either don't understand or just refuse to even consider. The fact is history proves that when masses of people make a decision one way or the other regarding any topic most of the time the masses are wrong. Scientology and Dianetics is a great thing, I know it helps people, it has made my life incredibly rich in every way....and no one should be threatened by it just because it is new. It solves problems, it puts man in a position to be in control of his / her life, and wakes people up so they can discover what is true for them. The biggest secret about Scientology is how many wildly successful business people use it in their businesses to create success.
Bruce Edwin: Wow. Grant, Something great about you is your energy and motivation, which helps enable you to do all these huge things you have done and are doing. Aside from the people around you in life, I'm sure that helps, but is there kind of a ritual that you go through in your life? I mean, what advice would you give people to get and stay motivated?
And that book is not Scientology, a person confuses this and thinks oh, that's Scientology, but its not. Dianetics is a different thing than Scientology is. A person can read that book, you know, I was brought up Catholic, so a person can read that book and still be a Catholic, or a Muslim, or agnostic, or whatever you want to be, Baptist, or Protestant, or Mormon. That book is about your mind, and regardless of whether you're a Mormon, or Muslim, or Catholic, or whatever you believe in, that book is just about how your mind works. And that was the problem I was having in my life. Drugs basically disguised the problems in my mind, and it covered things up, until the drugs wore off, and it was like, oh! problem! And that book really, really woke me up.
Bruce Edwin: Cool. That's something that I like about you and your work, is what you said earlier, and that is when you said, oh, people kept saying I was doing every thing wrong, so I must be doing something right, and with what you said here about Dianetics, because obviously what you are talking about with that book in particular, is obviously criticized negatively, and as you said, misunderstood, and that's not how the majority of the world thinks about some of these things...
Grant Cardone: You have to understand, the majority of the world used to think the world was flat, so every great thing that has ever come along, it doesn't matter whether it was fire, or the automobile, they've all been resisted. Everything. I'm building a condo on the Ocean front right now in La Jolla (California), it's a great thing! It’s much better than what’s there now. I own the property there now, I own twenty units there. We're going to build it, but we're going to get people to resist it. And the only thing they're resisting is a better thing!
People resisted Gandhi, Jesus Christ, you know, entire civilizations have burnt every book that they ever had. You know, the Greek don't even have any thing (much of their own) to read any more, because every thing was burned. So, things are resisted. They killed John Kennedy, Martin Luther King was killed, these weren't bad people, these were great people! They were people that were resisted!
Bruce Edwin: Exactly.
Grant Cardone: See, all the controversy surrounding Scientology actually drew me to it. I figured it must be something interesting if it is getting everyone so jacked up, I will go check it out and discover what the truth is for myself. I like looking at things that are new and that other's either don't understand or just refuse to even consider. The fact is history proves that when masses of people make a decision one way or the other regarding any topic most of the time the masses are wrong. Scientology and Dianetics is a great thing, I know it helps people, it has made my life incredibly rich in every way....and no one should be threatened by it just because it is new. It solves problems, it puts man in a position to be in control of his / her life, and wakes people up so they can discover what is true for them. The biggest secret about Scientology is how many wildly successful business people use it in their businesses to create success.
Bruce Edwin: Wow. Grant, Something great about you is your energy and motivation, which helps enable you to do all these huge things you have done and are doing. Aside from the people around you in life, I'm sure that helps, but is there kind of a ritual that you go through in your life? I mean, what advice would you give people to get and stay motivated?
Bruce Edwin: Aside from having positive people around you, Is there a ritual you kind of go through, where your mood shifts, to stay positive and get motivated? What would your advice be to people for that?
Grant Cardone: My advice for people that want to stay motivated, is over commit to everything they do! The trick that I use, because people are always like, 'Oh man! You're always so positive!' You know, first of all, I said to this person, you know, you've only spent like maybe thirty minutes with me in the last two years. You don't know if I'm always motivated or not... but what you see is that I am over-committed rather than motivated.
Bruce Edwin: Sure...
Grant Cardone: But, if you see that I am always motivated, the reason you see that is because I over commit to every thing. This morning I wake up, I’ve got a meeting at 7, I've got one at 8, I've got one at 9, I've got one at 10, O.K.? Oh, I have this thing at 10:30 I promised to do. I don’t really have time not to be in engaged in whatever game I am playing. I think most people aren't motivated, because they just have too much free time on their hands.
You know, I had too much time to play Asteroids as a kid. You know, me and my brother were bored and every time I was bored, I'd get in trouble. Look at kids today in the inner cities- they get in trouble when they're bored! Keep em' busy, you don't need to buy em' gifts, you know, they just want to draw, they want to scribble, they want to take a piece of paper, you know, I’ve got a four month old right now, and I give her a piece of paper, and you'd think that I gave her some million dollar Tiffany gift. She fully commits to the piece of paper and when doing so there is nothing that can bother her. She becomes absorbed with it. This is what people are missing. To keep myself positive I figure out, how to stay busy? People aren't busy enough! How can you stay motivated when you're watching Anderson Cooper?
Bruce Edwin: (Laughs)
Grant Cardone: Or Fox TV? Or CNBC? You can watch the left or the right. There is no motivation there, you're becoming a zombie. And so one of the things that I do, is I curtail the amount of negative inflow that I receive, so when we watch T.V., we'll watch the creative channel. Or I'll watch a movie that I'm in control of, or if I'm watching the news, I'll Ti-Vo it, so I can blow through any thing I don't want to see.
Bruce Edwin: That's great. Yeah, that makes sense. That kind of leads me to my other question here. What about people that are at such a level of lack of motivation, that they are so down and out, that they are homeless? Homelessness is a big problem for example as you know in Los Angeles, especially in downtown L.A. What is your advice for that?
Grant Cardone: I hate the homeless situation and you wonder - what happened to this guy? Something changed in this guy's life and he just couldn't turn it around and the situation worsened to the point of being homeless. And what about all the people that have a home and are homeless, and the married people that are not really married because something happened and they just couldn't or wouldn't do what was necessary to turn it around. What about those with jobs that go to work every day, hate their job, dislike the people, their co-workers? They have income from the job but not really a job! You know, you've got 10 percent unemployment in the country today, and while it’s easy to feel for the people unemployed, these people lost their jobs for a reason. This is the confusion that's going on in the market place today. Unemployment is not just a statistic, it is a massive wake up call. You know, any body can be homeless, any body can be without work, anyone can lose a marriage if they don't continue to create on the future of whatever it is they want. If you don't keep creating your job, your home, your marriage, it will cease to exist. I was fired from the last job I had on six different occasions.
Bruce Edwin: Six times?!
Grant Cardone: Six times from the same job, but I never left! I kept saying, O.K. yeah, yeah, I got it. I got, and I just went out and produced more! I continued to create even after I was fired. And my creating led to production. And production gets you protection.
Bruce Edwin: (laughs)
Grant Cardone: They could not afford to get rid of me, it didn't matter how much trouble I was, or how much I caused, I produced more than I cost the company. And the people that are losing their jobs today, I know they're going to protest this, and say, Oh, Cardone, he's obnoxious, but the reality is your job ended because you didn't produce enough. If you're whole industry was wiped out, it failed because the people in that industry didn't produce enough. You know, people don't buy the little buggy whips any more, because the automobile industry wiped out the horse and buggy. And those people are like, oh, woe is me, I'm out of work! Like the homeless, oh, woe is me, I'm out of work, or I'm out of a home. Look, you've got to create in order to have what you want! The market place punishes anyone that does not continue to create a future.
Now, the problem, a big problem today, and this is going to get us in a whole other area, is the government keeps subsidizing the people that don't do any thing. And as long as you do that, why would I get a job?! I mean, you're going to give me 32 weeks, all paid for, and not even alert me to the potential cost of being unemployed for that length of time with some type of warning?! There should be a warning label on unemployment benefits. Warning: After 32 weeks, you'll be of no value to any one in the market place! Like, prescription drugs have a warning, like you know, if you take this pill it may or may not solve your problem but there is a chance you're eyes will bleed.
Bruce Edwin: Ha ha!
Grant Cardone: But, look, if you take 32 weeks of unemployment, in today’s economy, you will never be worth any thing in the market place again, and that warning should be given by the government. Because I'm not gonna' hire ya'. And, this brings us in to the employment issue, which is a very passionate issue I have right now, which is how to get a job, what it takes to get a job, and, people are still hiring jobs. You just don't see it on T.V. They don't report how many new jobs are given, how many new people are employed. I don't know if I have an answer to your unemployment issue, but I promise I have an answer to staying employed, staying busy, and making sure you're never homeless.
Bruce Edwin: Great. (To read more about that, go to Grant's website listed below). Grant, do you think there are elements within the government that actually want people to be in this state of dependency and near destitute, do you think it encourages people being destitute purposefully?
Grant Cardone: No, I don't believe that, I think the government doesn't know how to run a business. I think they're too busy trying to satisfy voters rather than actually make a difference.
Bruce Edwin: Wow, yeah. Is it true that the U.S. is being bought up by foreign interests, and is the United States in threat of being overtaken by foreign capitol?
Bruce Edwin: Six times?!
Grant Cardone: Six times from the same job, but I never left! I kept saying, O.K. yeah, yeah, I got it. I got, and I just went out and produced more! I continued to create even after I was fired. And my creating led to production. And production gets you protection.
Bruce Edwin: (laughs)
Grant Cardone: They could not afford to get rid of me, it didn't matter how much trouble I was, or how much I caused, I produced more than I cost the company. And the people that are losing their jobs today, I know they're going to protest this, and say, Oh, Cardone, he's obnoxious, but the reality is your job ended because you didn't produce enough. If you're whole industry was wiped out, it failed because the people in that industry didn't produce enough. You know, people don't buy the little buggy whips any more, because the automobile industry wiped out the horse and buggy. And those people are like, oh, woe is me, I'm out of work! Like the homeless, oh, woe is me, I'm out of work, or I'm out of a home. Look, you've got to create in order to have what you want! The market place punishes anyone that does not continue to create a future.
Now, the problem, a big problem today, and this is going to get us in a whole other area, is the government keeps subsidizing the people that don't do any thing. And as long as you do that, why would I get a job?! I mean, you're going to give me 32 weeks, all paid for, and not even alert me to the potential cost of being unemployed for that length of time with some type of warning?! There should be a warning label on unemployment benefits. Warning: After 32 weeks, you'll be of no value to any one in the market place! Like, prescription drugs have a warning, like you know, if you take this pill it may or may not solve your problem but there is a chance you're eyes will bleed.
Bruce Edwin: Ha ha!
Grant Cardone: But, look, if you take 32 weeks of unemployment, in today’s economy, you will never be worth any thing in the market place again, and that warning should be given by the government. Because I'm not gonna' hire ya'. And, this brings us in to the employment issue, which is a very passionate issue I have right now, which is how to get a job, what it takes to get a job, and, people are still hiring jobs. You just don't see it on T.V. They don't report how many new jobs are given, how many new people are employed. I don't know if I have an answer to your unemployment issue, but I promise I have an answer to staying employed, staying busy, and making sure you're never homeless.
Bruce Edwin: Great. (To read more about that, go to Grant's website listed below). Grant, do you think there are elements within the government that actually want people to be in this state of dependency and near destitute, do you think it encourages people being destitute purposefully?
Grant Cardone: No, I don't believe that, I think the government doesn't know how to run a business. I think they're too busy trying to satisfy voters rather than actually make a difference.
Bruce Edwin: Wow, yeah. Is it true that the U.S. is being bought up by foreign interests, and is the United States in threat of being overtaken by foreign capitol?
Bruce Edwin: Grant, is it true that the U.S. is being bought up by foreign interests, and is the United States in threat of being overtaken by foreign capitol or is that false?
Grant Cardone: Well, if I was the rest of the world I'd be buying America. Even Mexico, If I went to Mexico, if I had Mexican pesos, I'd be buying everything I could in America right now. If I was Canadian, I'd be buying every thing I could. If I was in England, look, they're getting half price on every thing. Not only has every thing been hammered, unrealistically hammered, but the euro to the dollar means I can not only buy America that's on sale, but I can buy it for half price, because the euro's so strong. So I don't know if there's a conspiracy or any thing to buy America up, but if I lived over there I'd be buying it up. I'd be buying every thing I could. Man, I can just tell ya' there's this one particular piece of property I have in San Diego right now that's being looked at by a group out of Mexico, a group out of Switzerland, a group out of India, and a group out of Belgium, so there must be somebody interested. Because America’s not going away. I don't care if there's unemployment, foreclosures, if we never produce any thing ever again, if we have no factories here, it doesn't matter, it's still America baby. It's America where you've got Kentucky Fried Chicken, and McDonald's, and bowling alleys, and movie theatres where you can go and watch 24 different movies in one day, you know, you have 96 screens, it's America! It's got great highways, great lighting, safe for the most part, you know, I dare any one to move to Iraq, and see how long you stay there. All these dissatisfied people. Go live in Panama if you think it’s so great!
Bruce Edwin: Ha! yeah. So do you feel that that theory is real about the so called "New World Order," the merger of one world currency, and all that?
Grant Cardone: You know man, I don't spend any time in conspiracy theories, I spend time on My World Order. It’s My World Order that I'm interested in. Is my world in order? Not the new world order. Is there a hand full of guys running this planet? I can't imagine that there's not. But I'm interested in my own reality. Is my family in order? Is my job in order? Is my bank account in order? Is the company that I created in order? If there's a new world order, do you think its run by Warren Buffet or Bill Gates? No, why? Because they've got their own world order.
Bruce Edwin: Right.
Grant Cardone: And so I hear people saying all these conspiracy theories, and I'm like, OK, what's the solution though? Why don't you get your own world in order? And then, I remember people complaining about gasoline about a year ago. And I'm like, yeah, so what? What you're really saying is you don't have any money. Because if you were making a movie, or two movies a year, you wouldn't care. If you were an actor that's working on two or three or four movies a year, you wouldn't care what gasoline costs. You know, if you had a job, and you were producing at your job, and you were making it in the economy, you wouldn’t care! Look, that's not the problem! You have your attention on the wrong problem. You know, what's my world order like? Because most of the people I hear talking about the New World Order, ain't got any order.
Bruce Edwin: That’s great yeah. You’re obviously working in a lot of areas, what things have we not heard or read about that you are working on that you intend to manifest that we can expect in the future that we don't already know?
Grant Cardone: Well, I'm working on a program, we did the website, we call sales training VT.com. It basically stands for sales training virtual training.com. It's going to change the way companies prepare their sales force, and whether your sales force is 10 people, or 20 thousand, any thing you want to know about selling, attitude, motivation, follow up, prospects, everything it takes to drive revenue to a company, the employee will be able to log in on his computer, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, go on, and get information from me, about how to drive revenue to that company, test out on it, an HR person or an executive can actually go in and see who tested out, what do they know, what don't they know, what do they need help with.
Bruce Edwin: Wow!
Grant Cardone: And I'm going to release that in about 2 weeks. I just got two book offers, a two book deal, one titled "Act Hungry," is the title we're playing with right now, how to succeed even when the economy stinks, and the other will be called "The 10 x rule," and this is a major, very well respected publishing company that wants to do these books.
Bruce Edwin: Congratulations on that, that's exciting.
Grant Cardone: Yeah, thanks.
Grant Cardone: And you know, I'm working on a radio show that will actually be on daily around the United States.
Bruce Edwin: Really?! That's cool, that's exciting.
Grant Cardone: Well, if I was the rest of the world I'd be buying America. Even Mexico, If I went to Mexico, if I had Mexican pesos, I'd be buying everything I could in America right now. If I was Canadian, I'd be buying every thing I could. If I was in England, look, they're getting half price on every thing. Not only has every thing been hammered, unrealistically hammered, but the euro to the dollar means I can not only buy America that's on sale, but I can buy it for half price, because the euro's so strong. So I don't know if there's a conspiracy or any thing to buy America up, but if I lived over there I'd be buying it up. I'd be buying every thing I could. Man, I can just tell ya' there's this one particular piece of property I have in San Diego right now that's being looked at by a group out of Mexico, a group out of Switzerland, a group out of India, and a group out of Belgium, so there must be somebody interested. Because America’s not going away. I don't care if there's unemployment, foreclosures, if we never produce any thing ever again, if we have no factories here, it doesn't matter, it's still America baby. It's America where you've got Kentucky Fried Chicken, and McDonald's, and bowling alleys, and movie theatres where you can go and watch 24 different movies in one day, you know, you have 96 screens, it's America! It's got great highways, great lighting, safe for the most part, you know, I dare any one to move to Iraq, and see how long you stay there. All these dissatisfied people. Go live in Panama if you think it’s so great!
Bruce Edwin: Ha! yeah. So do you feel that that theory is real about the so called "New World Order," the merger of one world currency, and all that?
Grant Cardone: You know man, I don't spend any time in conspiracy theories, I spend time on My World Order. It’s My World Order that I'm interested in. Is my world in order? Not the new world order. Is there a hand full of guys running this planet? I can't imagine that there's not. But I'm interested in my own reality. Is my family in order? Is my job in order? Is my bank account in order? Is the company that I created in order? If there's a new world order, do you think its run by Warren Buffet or Bill Gates? No, why? Because they've got their own world order.
Bruce Edwin: Right.
Grant Cardone: And so I hear people saying all these conspiracy theories, and I'm like, OK, what's the solution though? Why don't you get your own world in order? And then, I remember people complaining about gasoline about a year ago. And I'm like, yeah, so what? What you're really saying is you don't have any money. Because if you were making a movie, or two movies a year, you wouldn't care. If you were an actor that's working on two or three or four movies a year, you wouldn't care what gasoline costs. You know, if you had a job, and you were producing at your job, and you were making it in the economy, you wouldn’t care! Look, that's not the problem! You have your attention on the wrong problem. You know, what's my world order like? Because most of the people I hear talking about the New World Order, ain't got any order.
Bruce Edwin: That’s great yeah. You’re obviously working in a lot of areas, what things have we not heard or read about that you are working on that you intend to manifest that we can expect in the future that we don't already know?
Grant Cardone: Well, I'm working on a program, we did the website, we call sales training VT.com. It basically stands for sales training virtual training.com. It's going to change the way companies prepare their sales force, and whether your sales force is 10 people, or 20 thousand, any thing you want to know about selling, attitude, motivation, follow up, prospects, everything it takes to drive revenue to a company, the employee will be able to log in on his computer, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, go on, and get information from me, about how to drive revenue to that company, test out on it, an HR person or an executive can actually go in and see who tested out, what do they know, what don't they know, what do they need help with.
Bruce Edwin: Wow!
Grant Cardone: And I'm going to release that in about 2 weeks. I just got two book offers, a two book deal, one titled "Act Hungry," is the title we're playing with right now, how to succeed even when the economy stinks, and the other will be called "The 10 x rule," and this is a major, very well respected publishing company that wants to do these books.
Bruce Edwin: Congratulations on that, that's exciting.
Grant Cardone: Yeah, thanks.
Grant Cardone: And you know, I'm working on a radio show that will actually be on daily around the United States.
Bruce Edwin: Really?! That's cool, that's exciting.
Grant Cardone: So, gotta stay away from sweat lodges from guys that don't know what they’re doing.
Bruce Edwin: Ha ha, Yeah, I heard about that, that was terrible, that's ridiculous. (...)
Grant Cardone: Yeah, they don't know what they're doing, OK here's a guy, he charges for five days, he doesn't have material for five days, so they throw in a sweat lodge, that covers six or seven hours, and this is people that don't have enough material, so they teach junk that's not tested, its not proven, and you know, there are a lot of charlatans out there, there are a lot of guys that are doing these two or three day deals, or weekend deals, that don't have any real statistics, but they claim them selves to be gurus. Look, you can't be all of these things that that guy claims he is. A wealth expert, a harmonics expert, a physical expert. You do all these things? OK, so maybe it’s not impossible, but it’s a little bit suspect to me.
Bruce Edwin: I agree. (...)
Grant Cardone: (...) I'm interested in the answer (to things), and I think most of America is. America is a very practical country. It’s a country that's built on practicality. And the people that do well in this country are very practical people. They're not very complicated. Google is not complicated, it’s practical. (...) You know, one of your questions I think was, what's the most amount of money you've ever made? And you know, I never think about money like that, I'm kind of like I show up every day, over and over and over again, and then maybe some day I end up with something. You know, that wherever I go, I have to mow the lawn, because the grass is going to grow, there's going to problems with it, there will be all the time maintenance, and America for the most part is not interested in getting rich quick, if you look at that, every body that does that, they get spanked, and spanked hard.
Bruce Edwin: (laughs)
Grant Cardone: And so my point is, (...) I'm interested in the answers, what are the answers to me keeping a job? What are the answers to me making my business work no matter even when the economy is terrible? Look, the economy is problematic, you know the old saying, don't blame me, it's the economy stupid, well that’s a lie that Clinton used to simplify his campaign, the reality is the economy is problematic, it ain't the problem, I am the problem, I am in my way, and you know, the economy is the opportunity right now, it's not the problem, its problematic, but its the opportunity. Can you get in there, and be more efficient? Can you get in there and drive revenue to a company, can you get in there really practically and discuss with people new ways to do things? If you can do that, if you can make a movie cheaper today, that’s going to make more money? You know can you do things faster and quicker? Can you be more efficient for a consumer? You know, those things are going to continue to sell the marketplace, and will allow you to be successful, and so while the economy, it might be problematic, it is not the problem.
Bruce Edwin: That makes sense. What would be your advice for actors and models and musicians to increase their market and revenue?
Bruce Edwin: Ha ha, Yeah, I heard about that, that was terrible, that's ridiculous. (...)
Grant Cardone: Yeah, they don't know what they're doing, OK here's a guy, he charges for five days, he doesn't have material for five days, so they throw in a sweat lodge, that covers six or seven hours, and this is people that don't have enough material, so they teach junk that's not tested, its not proven, and you know, there are a lot of charlatans out there, there are a lot of guys that are doing these two or three day deals, or weekend deals, that don't have any real statistics, but they claim them selves to be gurus. Look, you can't be all of these things that that guy claims he is. A wealth expert, a harmonics expert, a physical expert. You do all these things? OK, so maybe it’s not impossible, but it’s a little bit suspect to me.
Bruce Edwin: I agree. (...)
Grant Cardone: (...) I'm interested in the answer (to things), and I think most of America is. America is a very practical country. It’s a country that's built on practicality. And the people that do well in this country are very practical people. They're not very complicated. Google is not complicated, it’s practical. (...) You know, one of your questions I think was, what's the most amount of money you've ever made? And you know, I never think about money like that, I'm kind of like I show up every day, over and over and over again, and then maybe some day I end up with something. You know, that wherever I go, I have to mow the lawn, because the grass is going to grow, there's going to problems with it, there will be all the time maintenance, and America for the most part is not interested in getting rich quick, if you look at that, every body that does that, they get spanked, and spanked hard.
Bruce Edwin: (laughs)
Grant Cardone: And so my point is, (...) I'm interested in the answers, what are the answers to me keeping a job? What are the answers to me making my business work no matter even when the economy is terrible? Look, the economy is problematic, you know the old saying, don't blame me, it's the economy stupid, well that’s a lie that Clinton used to simplify his campaign, the reality is the economy is problematic, it ain't the problem, I am the problem, I am in my way, and you know, the economy is the opportunity right now, it's not the problem, its problematic, but its the opportunity. Can you get in there, and be more efficient? Can you get in there and drive revenue to a company, can you get in there really practically and discuss with people new ways to do things? If you can do that, if you can make a movie cheaper today, that’s going to make more money? You know can you do things faster and quicker? Can you be more efficient for a consumer? You know, those things are going to continue to sell the marketplace, and will allow you to be successful, and so while the economy, it might be problematic, it is not the problem.
Bruce Edwin: That makes sense. What would be your advice for actors and models and musicians to increase their market and revenue?
Grant Cardone: Artists must embrace the sales and marketing sides of their business. It's impossible for me to get away from the idea that somebody has to learn how to sell themselves, look at Julia Roberts, what was the one she did, Pretty Woman, right?...
Bruce Edwin: Right, a great one, a huge film.Grant Cardone: Right, was she the number one pick for that movie?
Bruce Edwin: No, I don't think so, they didn't initially want her...
Grant Cardone: No, I don't think so. What was her first one? Mystic Pizza, her first film, she covered her hair with shoe polish, to make it darker, and showed up, crashed an audition, that she was already late for, and made herself known, stood out, even broke the social protocol and sold herself, that's not acting, that is full blown hard selling! Had it not worked, they would have said she was obnoxious and an idiot, but it did work and now they call her a star!This is a big problem for lots of artists, the unwillingness to sell themselves, promote and market. In any contracting and highly competitive industry you are required sell your products, in this case yourself! Take Van Gogh- a great artist who created over 400 original masterpieces in his lifetime, yet, he never collected more than four hundred bucks in sales! In total, he only ever sold one painting, he?sold it a nephew, or to a friend of a family member. Here was a brilliant artist that will be remembered and known forever, but refused to embrace how to sell and market himself while alive.You know the thing is, artists think, you know, well, "Artists have to suffer." That's completely ridiculous. That's so ridiculous! It's like what are you thinking man, you have to suffer?! "Oh, well, I'll really be known when I'm dead." Well, maybe, maybe not! You know, so the reality is, why be known when you're dead when you can be known right now? This is not a task the artist should turn over to the manager or PR firm but take responsibility for themselves.- Grant CardoneThe Hollywood Sentinel: That's great yeah, that's so true.
Grant Cardone: I mean, look at Robert De Niro, it doesn't look like he's suffering to me. So did he get a break? Yeah, I'm sure he did, but I'm sure there's plenty to that story that you don't know, which is that 'he showed up.' He showed up and pitched himself when nobody knew him. He sold himself and probably had to do so over and over. The thing about Hollywood is, when you push through and make it, you get this sticky thing going, where people want you over and over again as long as you stay in demand through continued appearances. I talk about this in my new book, 'If You're Not First, You're Last.' It's about how to be first in people's minds.I don't know anyone that has made it that didn't have to do some things they didn't like, even things they hate, man. Do things you hate to do and that you know others don't like to do and you get an immediate advantage.
People hate the word selling. You can see it on their face! They'll say, "Oh, I hate that idea, I'm not a salesperson," well you know what? You need to be! Because the people that did and are making it in this country, from Obama to Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, even Jesus Christ, all sold themselves or their ideas. If you can't sell yourself and make yourself known, make your ideas known, make your product known, then ain't nobody going to know how brilliant you are and you won't make your dreams a reality.You know, there are six billion people on this planet that have a dream of some kind, everybody has a dream, it's not how good your dream is or even the quality of your trade, it's how good of a job the artist can do at being first in the minds of those that make the choices. Thus the Kardashians, Paris, and how about Ryan Seacrest- master examples. If you want to get the career you dream of and become known, learn more than just the arts, learn to sell.
Bruce Edwin: That makes perfect sense, thank you.
Q. The Hollywood Sentinel: What would your advice be to actors and models in order to get more auditions and work?
A. Grant Cardone: I've never been invited to an audition, but I've been on probably thousands of them. The difference between me and someone that complains about not getting auditions, is nobody's ever invited me - I create the audition, convince them to see me and then I audition. I literally built my first business from calling on hundreds of businesses, convinced them to stop doing whatever it was they were doing and allow me to present (audition) to their employees.
The actor who was invited to the audition (to present their product) and didn't do well, so what? (...) Be grateful you were invited to an audition and get up again, wipe yourself off, and go do another one! And if you have to break the social norms, if you have to crash one like Julia Roberts did, if you have to be or do the unacceptable, and people are actually going to talk about you, and criticize you, and judge you, then you know what? At least they are talking about you, and I guarantee you that if you are willing to do that you are getting close to booking a job.
Q. Hollywood Sentinel: (Laughs), That's great, I love that. Do you believe that when we are gone, do you think anything is beyond this life, do you think that we're here, and that's it, or do you think we will carry on in some way?
A. Grant Cardone: Wow what a transition- from auditions to immortality.
Hollywood Sentinel: (Laughs), I believe that how people function, either consciously or if they not consciously aware of it, is based largely upon their belief in what happens after death. So I think this is an important topic to know about oneself in order to be happy and succeed.
Grant Cardone: Well, I absolutely believe there is something after this life- this is what I would tell you. Everybody plans for tomorrow, but nobody knows for sure if they're gonna' get it. So I'm like then, whether you know there is something after this life why don't you go ahead and plan on it?
So when people ask me like, "Hey, what do you think happens to you when you die?" I'm like, "Well, I like flowers a lot, OK? And impatiens for instance... if I plant impatiens, the flower, and they come in white, pink and all colors, and then I go out there in the winter time and I cut the head of it off, and just leave it in the ground, its coming back next year. Now, if a plant can come back, you know- well, maybe there's a chance I get to come back too." So, I am planning on the comeback. I'm not planning on the next 30 or 40 years of my life, I'm planning for the next 500, so when I make the decision to do something...see, if you think you're going to die in 10 years, and I think I'm never going to die, basically me as a being- as a spiritual being- to continue on, I'm much less at risk than you are. I am willing to take much more risk than the person that is only concerned about the next few years.
Q. Hollywood Sentinel: How so?
A. Grant Cardone: Because you're trying to protect the next 10 years, and I know I can't die, you don't want to be up against that guy.
Hollywood Sentinel: (Laughs)
Grant Cardone: Because when you're in a fight with a guy that can't get hurt, can't die, you're gonna' lose. When you're competing with a business person, or you're going up for an audition, and you know for sure you cannot be eliminated, you will continue to survive, in your actions, your thoughts, your creativity, regardless of what happens in that audition, you know you cannot stop and you continue on? Man, I don't want to compete with you, because you are one bad dude (...) in your posture, regardless of whether there is afterlife, or no afterlife, I want to approach it like you know? I'm coming back. So how I am going to take care of this planet right now, now while I'm here? How am I going to take care of my life? How am I going to take care of my family? I'm gonna' survive, so how am I going to survive now? What risk would I take, if I knew there was no risk? And that is the value, for me to go after it, like, you know what? I don't die here.
Hollywood Sentinel: I like that.
Grant Cardone: And you know what? It may be a place for people to get motivation.
Hollywood Sentinel: Yeah.
Grant Cardone: And Bruce I want to tell you how much I enjoyed doing each of these interviews with you. You ask great questions and you have really done a good job of duplicating exactly what I stated. Oh and by the way that one question you asked me in one of the earlier interviews is the one I liked best- remember the one about 'the new world order," and my answer was, before you worry about the new world order you should get your own world in order! Thanks again for having me here.
Bruce Edwin is editor of The Hollywood Sentinel and President of Starpower Management, the celebrity model and talent firm. Contact Bruce at TheHollywoodSentinel.com
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