Photography: Ray Kachatorian
“The middle class is the most oppressed group of people on the planet financially” says real estate tycoon Grant Cardone, and with a net worth of $1.5 billion and real estate assets of $5.2 billion, when Mr. 10X himself shares financial advice, we’re paying close attention.
Salesman sensation Cardone enjoys a lifestyle of abundance most can only dream of, and when it comes to amassing vast generational wealth, he seems to adopt the stance of ‘if in doubt, flat out’. It’s telling therefore, as to why he holds such strong views about the middle class way of life and why he openly admits he’d rather go for broke than exist in the mediocrity of the middle.
“The whole money game is changing right now in a violent way” begins Grant in a recent sit-down with Muscle and Health’s Editor-in-Chief, Danni Levy. “I think we’re walking into a major recession worldwide that’s going to affect people terribly. The media are lying to us, and nobody really knows what to do. Part of my goal is to try to help educate people so they’re able to create some financial freedom for themselves.”
First in line to bear the brunt of the mounting cost of living crisis will be the middle class according to Grant, who insists he never wants to be in the middle of anything.
“If you’re in the middle class, you have to surrender to the notion that the middle class is not a target you want to achieve,” he says.
“A lot of people are like: ‘My parents were poor, my grandparents were poor, and man, I have so much more than they had’. The middle class, therefore, is basically a justification of a class based on another class of people that have it worse off than you” Grant explains. “I don’t really ever want to be in the middle of anything. It doesn’t sound like a good place to be. I want to get on top of stuff.
“I don’t want to be in the middle financially because those guys end up solving everybody’s problems. The middle class is the most oppressed group of people on the planet financially. They work the hardest, pay the most taxes, and end up with the least.
“They don’t really have enough for an emergency” he continues. “If anything changes violently like we’re seeing right now, they’re worried. They’re often scared to go on holiday and when they do go, they’re worried about how much they’re spending. Then when they get home, they worry about how much they spent. This is how people get fat. They get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Grant Cardone believes the immigrant mentality creates more opportunities than the outlook shared by working-class American citizens, insisting the hunger for success drives as a catalyst to instil the grit and determination required to attain class-breaking levels of wealth.
“If you’re an immigrant, you have many more advantages than if you were born and live in your home country,” he says. “In America for instance, you’re at a disadvantage if you don’t have this immigrant mentality. If you compare an American with five hundred bucks and an immigrant with five hundred bucks, I can guarantee 90% of the time the immigrant is going to parlay that money because their motivation is so much higher, their appreciation for the country is so much higher, and they’re trying to get someplace. The worker in America is trying to stay someplace, whereas the immigrant is trying to get someplace. It’s all about how much motivation you have to turn $500 into $5,000, $50,000, $5 million.
“If you’re working-class and you’re down to your last $500, just admit you’re already broke. I’d rather invest the $500 and go back to zero. In Undercover Billionaire, I spent 90 days in a town with no money, no food, no water, and no shelter, and I turned it into a five and a half-million-dollar business without using my name, in 90 days” reveals Grant. “I did that to prove you don’t need money, but you do need a hustle. You don’t even need a name for yourself or a good economy, but you do need a strategy and you do need a motivation.”
