Grant Cardone
Founder and CEO of Cardone Capital, Creator of the 10X Rule
Cardone Capital founder and author of The 10X Rule, he used a Franklin Planner before the company went public and still writes his goals twice a day.
About Grant
Grant Cardone is the founder and CEO of Cardone Capital, a real estate private equity firm with a multifamily portfolio worth more than $5 billion, and the creator of the 10X philosophy. He is a New York Times bestselling author of 11 business books, including If You're Not First You're Last and The 10X Rule, which grew into the 10X Growth Conference and 10X Wealth Conference. He owns and operates more than seven privately held companies, has raised over $2 billion in equity through social media, and starred in Season 2 of Discovery Channel's Undercover Billionaire, building a million-dollar business in 90 days.
For more than 35 years Cardone and Cardone Training Technologies have provided business and sales training and consulting. The online platforms he created serve more than 850,000 individuals, businesses, and Forbes 100 clients, with over 8,000 interactive video segments, live workshops, and personalized coaching. Forbes named him a top marketing influencer to watch, and he uses a following of more than 16 million to support the Grant Cardone Foundation, which mentors underprivileged and troubled youth in financial literacy. His daily rules are simple: beat the sun, get the workout in, write goals every morning and night, and post something before opening any social app.
On the Franklin Planner Podcast, Cardone sat down with George Wright III for a conversation about personal responsibility, thinking 10X, and why leadership is work you do rather than a title you hold. Asked what matters most, he answered with self-respect: finishing the task, cleaning the dishes nobody rinsed, and going to sleep feeling good about himself. He explained why he refuses to blame anyone, even when they are to blame, walked through the system behind filling a Miami stadium with 34,000 people, and offered a reframe of the tool he once carried: the Franklin Planner was designed to create time, not manage it.
Key ideas from Grant’s conversation
The moment you blame someone else for your problem, you lose control and become a victim.
Cardone refuses to blame anyone — the government, the economy, inflation, parents — even when they are at fault. The reason is practical: you cannot fix other people, only yourself, and blame makes you blind to the opportunity on the other side of the problem. Rewrite the sentence so you are the cause.
Finish the task and do it well, and money follows completion.
After a lunch at the office, Cardone went back and cleaned dishes someone had loaded unrinsed, not out of obligation but because he would not feel good about himself otherwise. He treats every task, paid or unpaid, as a gift. Complete it, do a good job, then start the next one.
Write your goals fresh every morning and every night instead of rereading old ones.
Cardone writes goals on a legal pad twice a day, and a third time whenever he is discouraged. He writes new ones each time because what he wants today differs from a year ago. He pairs it with one more rule: never open a social app without posting something first.
A planner should create time, not manage it.
Cardone once treated his day planner as a time manager, then realized the Franklin Planner was built for something else. The dangerous blind spot, he says, is believing something you know to be true that is not. A written plan is there to make room for what matters most.
Leadership is a system of things you had to do, not a quality you possess.
When Cardone filled a Miami stadium with 34,000 people in 2019, John Maxwell called it leadership. Cardone's description was plainer: commit to a date, pay for the venue, market empty seats for a year, sell tickets, follow up so people show up, and book entertainment. He is too busy leading to talk about it.
