The most prestigious charge card in the world is not made of plastic, it’s made of anodized titanium. The numbers of the card are laser etched into the metal. The criteria for getting this card isn’t made public, but people say you have to spend upwards of half a million dollars a month to even be considered. I can promise you that you won’t find an application for this card anywhere online. If your net worth is not far north of 8 digits, you will not get an invitation anytime soon.
Rumor has it less than 20,000 people on the planet have a black American Express card. You can’t just be a 1%er, you need to be a 1%er of the 1%ers. For the select few that get an invitation, you pay $10,000 upfront with Initiation fees and membership. Once you have a black Amex, it can’t be denied anywhere for any amount. You could walk into a showroom of Lamborghinis and buy the whole place on your card.
You might have heard Kanye West rap about his black Amex. Other known card members include Jerry Seinfeld, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Gordon Ramsay, Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Tiger Woods, and Ice Cube. I’ve been a member for quite some time, and the benefits of the card are what you might expect.
I charge a lot to my black card, but I don’t need the points for airfare or access to premium lounges at airports—I gave all that up in favor of flying private 2 years ago. There is a 24-hour concierge at your service, so if you want a bucket of sand from the Dead Sea for your kid’s school project, they can dispatch someone by motorcycle to the shores of the Dead Sea and have it overnighted across the world.
If you ever want to qualify for the most prestigious card in the world, then it’s time to get your money right. Quit listening to people who tell you things like “money won’t make you happy”—they don’t have any money so how would they know? Being broke doesn’t make people happy either, so if you’re going to be unhappy you might as well have some money to go along with it.
Whether or not you would want to roll with a black Amex, wouldn’t it be nice to at least have the freedom to choose if you want one or not? The only way to get that choice is to get yourself an invite. If you reverse engineer it, to get an invite requires you to first get rich—so here are 3 tips to get your invitation for a black Amex card:
1. Get in the Right Vehicle
The rich get in with the right company where there is an opportunity for growth. My VP of sales Jarrod Glandt started working for me 7 years ago for $2500 a month. He wasn’t making anything but he was in the right vehicle. He grew his skill set and has been able to multiply his monthly income many times over because he knew I was looking to expand. Too many people just look for a “job”. You need a job, but you need the right vehicle. All companies live from revenue. Get commissions rather than just a salary and you will be in control of how much you earn. Look for ways to increase your pay at the company you are at.
2. Do Some Math
One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they never do millionaire math. You have to do the math. You must sit down and write out what it will actually take to get rich. You could make a million dollars by selling a $500 product to 2,000 people. Or sell a million people a $1 product. I tell people all the time they need to do the math. Before I go after a target I sit down and do the math.
3. Get Sales Skills
The bottom line for most people is that they don’t know how to go out and get money. You can have anything you want in life if you just learn to sell. We live on an economic planet and your economy depends upon your ability to sell yourself, your ideas, and your products to the marketplace. When I was 25 years old I got serious about becoming a professional salesman and started studying and training daily. Nobody is born with the ability to sell—you have to educate yourself and then train. That’s why I created Cardone University—it’s a platform where you can learn the skills you need to get money.
Keep in mind that a real player is not trying to impress people with sports cars, designer clothes, or their black card. The wealthy don’t try and impress people they don’t know. They seek freedom, not friends. The wealthy are not trying to say “look at me and what I have.” When it looks like they are throwing their money around, it’s all relative. When the wealthy spend money on ridiculous things like cars, boats, planes and homes, the truth is that no matter what poor investments they make, they can afford to waste money.
There are 3 kinds of money you need to know about:
Scared Money
Grown Up Money
Baller Money
Baller Money is for people who have total confidence in how they position themselves in life. Not because they are cocky, but because they threw down and it paid off. Baller money has nothing to do with what you drive or the shoes you wear or the credit card you carry. Baller money is when you start making big-time investments that change your life forever.
There are lots of rich people that will never see “baller money” because their “grown up” money went back to being “scared money.” When you first start making money the tendency is to want to protect it. But scared money can’t grow up. The purpose of money is not to make you safe, it’s to give you choices. To get the courage to move into “grown up” money status, you must read, listen and study those who have gone from “scared money” to “baller money.”
There was a time in my life when I had scared chicken money, and I had trouble paying a few hundred dollars for rent at my tiny apartment in Louisiana. If a guy like me can pick himself up and become a baller, you can too. When you do get your black card invitation, give me a shout out.
Speaking of black card holders, there will be more than a handful at 10XGrowthCon. Guys like Clickfunnel’s Russell Brunson and Vivant CEO Todd Pedersen will be there. School of greatness Lewis Howes and WFG chairman Ed Mylett will be there. Come and network—it will be the best opportunity of the year for you to learn from the best of the best and to make new connections.
Be great,
GC
Grant Cardone is a New York Times bestselling author, the #1 sales trainer in the world, and an internationally renowned speaker on leadership, real estate investing, entrepreneurship, social media, and finance. His 5 privately held companies have annual revenues exceeding $100 million. Forbes named Mr. Cardone #1 of the "25 Marketing Influencers to Watch in 2017". Grant’s straight-shooting viewpoints on the economy, the middle class, and business have made him a valuable resource for media seeking commentary and insights on real topics that matter. He regularly appears on Fox News, Fox Business, CNBC, and MSNBC, and writes for Forbes, Success Magazine, Business Insider, Entrepreneur.com, and the Huffington Post. He urges his followers and clients to make success their duty, responsibility, and obligation. He currently resides in South Florida with his wife and two daughters.