From $4/hr to Billions: Jarek Tadla on Inner Wealth, Legacy & Mental Health

0:05Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special edition of the Money Monday's podcast where normally we cover these three core topics, how to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity. But our guest is going to put a bit of a twist on that and talk about the importance of mental health and things that are going on with society, especially with men and what goes on in their world. And so I'm going to be weaving in money, finances, when someone gets rich, what happens to their world, their household, divorces and situations. And he's going to talk about the things that are really, truly impactful to him and his world as he's accumulated this large multifamily commercial real estate portfolio.

0:38He's pivoted in turn is something that's very important to him and what he's seen in our society. He's written a book about it. He's made his own podcast about it. And so we're going to dive deep into that. Now, as you guys know, these podcasts are super important to me because so many people grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. It's ridiculous. We have to talk about money. You've got to be able to talk with your family, your friends, your employees, your co-workers about money because it's part of our daily lives. Money is not the root of all evil. Are there some evil parts to money?

1:03Maybe. But what we do know is money covers your medical expenses, your family, when your mom needs something, when your friends need something, when your kids need something, money is involved. So we've got to remove this concept that money is rude or evil or any of those things. It is a tool and it's functional and it's important to your daily life. So without further ado, I'm going to have our guest give a quick two-minute bio so we get straight to the money. Okay. My name is Yarek Tadla. I'm an immigrant from Poland. I moved here in 93. And it's funny that you talk about money. it's when you don't talk at home about money and that's how you will grow up that's what's going to happen people ask me what is the reason that I accomplish all the successes if it comes to real estate and all the businesses I build because I always have zero emotional attachments to money, zero but people it's like we think the money is something you've got to work hard, you've got to save this is not true And what happened is our parents and our grandparents and our grand-grandparents, they didn't know any better.

2:11So it's our own, if you're listening to this, it's your own responsibility, accountability to break the curse and own it and talk about it. And the more you talk about it, and I'm not talking about like how much this goes, how much this goes. It's just having the awareness how to bring money and that you are the money. You are the value. Like I grew in a communist country, and, you know, the true money doesn't exist. Like you don't look at the account, it just wires from one account to another one. It's a virtual money, and it's the services you provide. So in the communist country, everybody had money, but you couldn't buy anything.

2:47So what happens is if you were, let's say, a mechanic, let's say I fixed your car, and then you give me this and this instead. And that's what we do right now. You are the value. And the second you understand that, that your life will change. What do you think holds people back? Let's focus on men a lot here because it's such an important topic to you. What do you think holds men back from going and becoming not just wealthy in finances, but wealthy in their household, children, family, things that are going on in their world? Dan, it's fear. It's fear. You know, at the end of the day, we—it's funny that I talk about it.

3:27is when you are in a comfort zone, which is for us men is the most dangerous thing. When you're so comfortable, you don't want to try the new things. You have a fear. If I fail, it means I'm not enough. If I'm not enough, I'm not loved. And if I'm not loved, then I'm the failure. And then people can use this against me, and that's the fear. So the second you face the fear and you go against the fear, that's what you break. And that's what you start developing new values, new businesses. And not only that, you start growing inside. So that's the most important thing. But we have this, because you and I know money is an oxygen.

4:20We have access to it. but if you from the early childhood is like you have to work hard I mean yes do you have to work hard brother believe me you do have to work hard but you know what if everybody who work hard right now you know then all those people that we have like you know we would not have 3 ,000 billionaires we would have 7 billion billionaires it doesn't work the way you have to work hard and you have to work smart and that's what you have to invest in yourself That's what I'm big about, the inner world, not the outer world. Because the inner world, your inner world creates your outer world.

4:56So explain the inner wealth concept. What is the inner wealth? You know, like people, I'm big on it because here what happened is my whole life, I was looking for validation from the outside world. So I was accumulating wealth. I was accumulating titles. I was accumulating diplomas, medals. so you know to get the uh kudos or get the validation from society that i'm good enough that i'm love and get the applauses it didn't work because in the same time my inner world was getting emptier and emptier and emptier until i cracked and also commit suicide so there's nothing out there that you can do uh without yourself without building yourself because we you know I'm talking about people, men, that are very successful right now.

5:44They have wives. You know, like I have wives. I have kids. I have cars. I have jets. I have yachts. And by rules of society, I have absolutely everything. But I was emptying on the inside because I was doing to prove everybody but myself. And it's very important to remember that your net worth and your self-worth are not the same. And I lost that. So anybody who's listening right now, so don't chase the money. Don't only lose transactions. Look for yourself and build your inner world the same way you build outer world. But that will build you up. What is your book about? What is your podcast about?

6:22Why did you go down this path? Four years ago,

6:31four years ago, I have, I got sick and I thought I had a flu. Three days became four days. Suddenly all my symptoms left then and I could not get out of the bed. And I couldn't understand. And then four days become seven days, seven days become 10 days, 10 days become 20 days, 30 days. And I'm going like, I completely hit bottom of the bottom. I made all my money during the low market in 2008 and 2020 and the COVID. and I'm like sitting, I'm laying in bed and I'm like, I'm financially have absolutely everything. I'm healthy. Emotionally, I'm healthy. Mentally, I'm healthy. Spiritually, I'm healthy.

7:18Physically, I'm fit. I'm healthy. I have a good relationship with God, good relationship with my kids, good relationship. I just found the love of my life. I have absolutely everything you can imagine and I want to take my own life. because for my whole life, for 50 years, I never took care of myself. I was doing everything for everybody, never me. And I completely broke down. And that's what I wrote a book. My book is called It's Not Enoughness, The Not Enough Voices, because I was motivating myself by negative feedback. And that's why I was getting all the wins, the titles, the medals, the applauses, the stages.

8:00Even in the beginning with the social media, you know, followers, you know, likes. It's addictions. All the successful people then are addicts. But we used to use like what we're doing right now on this podcast. We're using our addictions for the good to help others. But you can use also addictions. We could be right now in the bar and drinking, doing drugs, you know, women, porn, hookers. We can do the same thing. But we're sharing our world to improve and do better. So that's my calling to help men mostly. I don't understand women. I'm on my third wife. So clearly I don't understand women, but I understand how our man mind works, and we always want more.

8:43And they're never going to be enough. You know, we are, the way we are born and the way our human nature is, that we always want more. But what I'm stressing about, not more outside, but more on the inside. You know, more faith, more belief, more resilience, more boldness, more love, more abundance. That's what I, and all the work on a daily basis. And then explain to us, what is the name of the podcast? What's the concept behind the podcast? The name of the podcast is Mastering the Inner Wealth versus Outer Wealth. And we talk about all these issues that, you know, we're going through the mental health, emotional, like I'm big on emotional intelligence, you know.

9:29Can you imagine that me being, I was 40, 48 years old then, and I just realized about the oxygen mask at the plane. Like I would give the oxygen mask to everybody, even the pilots. And I'm the last one. And now I realize like how important it is to like use that, fill your own tank, fill your own, you know, a bucket and put the oxygen first and then so we can help others. So build ourselves from within and then build the whole empire. But your body, you are the biggest essence. Without you, nothing happens. You know what I mean? If you're failing, even because you, it was like, because I was building, yeah, I'm doing good.

10:10I'm doing good at jobs and doing good at the sports. I'm doing good with employees, but I'm failing inside. I feel like I'm the biggest loser. If I tell somebody, then if I open up, it's like, dude, I feel like a loser. I'm a last cause. It's like nobody could relate to me. Like, what are you talking about? Like, you have everything. Your life is going. People want to see you everywhere you come. You know, everybody loves you. But I don't love myself. I cannot take care of myself. Like, when I'm alone, I'm freaking miserable. I'm again with my own thoughts. And the thoughts, I start believing.

10:43And those thoughts become my identity. and I completely crushed. No drugs, no alcohol, having absolutely everything, sober for years. Because you know how people say sometimes the drugs or alcohol just brings, you know, the sedation? I was sedating then. I was sedating my entire life with work. I worked 22 hours a day. Like, you know, I was like falling asleep at the desk and woke up and keep going back to work. and then everybody oh my god he's so successful so everybody was like yeah dude if you see how much i work and not only hard work but you know the work ethics and also how smart i work i always try to learn new things and then i start then i start sedating with workouts doing races iron and then yeah and everybody oh my god he's doing it oh my god he's so fit he's winning he's a blah When I pick up alcohol, after three months, my family, Yarek, we've got to sit you down.

11:45I think you have a problem. I'm like, really? How do I have a problem? You never drink. You're drinking too much lately. Really? Are you escaping something? I've been escaping my entire life, and nobody noticed, but nobody noticed because I'm doing it for the good. And suddenly when you do it for the bad, it's like, whoa, we've got to talk about it. But at the end of the day, we as a man, we have to own, you know, face our own demons. Because nobody can tell you. You got to go in and just figure it out, like, and work on your childhood wounds. Or like, what is the reason I'm doing? Is this the reason to get validation?

12:27Or is this the reason just within me? And going, finding the purpose. You know, God find us. you know we we got here created by god and we on this earth to serve we're not entitled to anything you know you know you hang out with men it's like yo i work so hard they complain about the wife they complain about the kids they're running away after work let's go for happy hour brother well i'm entitled i work too hard it's like dude brother we're not entitled to anything you know We got here. We are lucky that we are born, that we are alive. We wake up every day. You know, we're here to serve and help others and mostly even family, the loved ones.

13:10But it's got to start with it. It's got to start with you. You got to love yourself. You got to fill the bucket. You got to take care of the faith, the resilience, the boldness. It doesn't come from anywhere. If you start breaking promises, the little promises, if you're going through the hard time right now in business, in relationship, with kids, anything you're going through and nothing works, start little. Start the little things. Just, you know, like I have a conversation with my son. It's like, Dad, I hate to read. I'm like, and I read a lot. Like I read a lot. And I was like, read one page a day.

13:49In one year, you're going to read 365 pages. Just little things. It's compound. Compound effect with everything. And the same thing happened with the bed stuff. It starts with one drink. With me, then the two drinks. Then I drink only on the weekend. Then I'm a weekend alcoholic. And suddenly I drink seven days a day. The same thing happened with my pain. Like how I'm laying in bed 40 days. I want to take my own life on the boat. And I'm like, where is all the pain coming from? I was putting everything on the carpet. Everything on the carpet. And suddenly the pain was growing and compounding. pounding and the whole thing just blew up on me.

14:31So the little things to break the new patterns. So as people start to have children, they start to build up their lives, why is the investing side important to help build generational wealth? Why is it important to think about their kids and their grandkids? That's a good one. You know, my entire life I built everything because I want to give the kids all the, in my world, everything. And that's a good question. and you know the only one the only thing i want to give it was inheritance nothing else there was no legacy we all men want to leave legacy giving the the materialistic things it's like the buildings the the cars the jets the yachts businesses this is inheritance and usually we ruin the children what we gotta leave it's a legacy and and a legacy is all the emotional intelligence all their faith all the resilience all the integrity all the values that it stays from generation after generation so it's not what you leave for them when you leave it's what you leave within them so they can take because it's like you know i have you know we have a lot of wealthy friends you know that and then it's like yarek how do we build the hangar with the kids no we don't look at i'm getting goosebumps no we don't our kids were spoiled from the beginning when they were born we were successful how are we gonna build the hunger i was a dishwasher i was broke as hell dude you know now oh wow he's got billion dollars real estate portfolio dude i was a freaking dishwasher.

16:12I was hungry. My kid's never going to have the hunger. Your kid's never going to have the hunger. Ever. So what is our job? Not to give him more. To teach him how to use the resources. Teach them emotional intelligence. Teach them how to use all this stuff, the values, the integrity, the resentness, the boldness to teach them how to apply in life. That's our freaking job. not the hunger, they're not going to have it. They're not going to have it. Look at your daughter. How old is she now? 13 months. 13 months. I have five kids. They never see. They don't know. They fly on the private jets, go to Mediterranean jets, yachts, houses.

17:04Come on, brother. But I got to teach them, not only me. We, as a man, as a human, we got to teach him how to be good human, how to have a faith, how to be resilient, how to use all those resources that we have and grow it instead of ruin it. By giving somebody, if you give anything to somebody, you do a lot of seminars, right? Oh, yeah. Here's a question for you. Did you notice the people that are there that are paid for the seminar? They like. They pay attention. No, they want to pay. People that pay, pay attention. Yeah, because it's like, hey, it came out of my pocket. I pay$500 for the seminar,$1 ,000,$2 ,000.

17:49If I pay$500 for seminar, I want to be up front next time with$5 ,000. You know what I mean? Those people that got paid for it because the employer required them to do it or they got it, dude, they're everywhere. They're on their phone scrolling. They go in the hallways. They don't care. but we have to teach our kids that's what the legacy is that's what we gotta leave them yes do we wanna have their life easier but we wanna make sure not too easy they go to the real world at some point the real world because we gotta help them to find a purpose the fulfillment Tony Robbins is like you know it's big idol of us and friend of ours what he always says success without fulfillment is ultimate failure, right?

18:36That's what he says all the time. And that's true. And that's what we got to teach our kids. Not by giving, brother. I mean, we are here to give. Don't tell me, I'm huge about giving because I'm pretty sure that's where he's going to go now. I'm huge about giving. But we cannot just give and like expect nothing. So we are in the charity portion of the podcast. why is it important for the children, the wives, the husbands, etc. Why is it important for the family household to have some type of charity component or some philanthropy involvement, whether they're donating money, time, or energy? Brother, giving is living.

19:15That's what we're doing right now. Giving is living. And I can tell you, it's nice to write a check, but it's also nicer to give your time and give your energy, start it from the beginning, start from the little things.

19:34And, you know, like you make me like, when I think I'm a charity, like, you know, like you're a huge brother. Like you're my idol when it comes to charity and all the stuff you do with the toys and everything else. And you're like, maybe I don't do enough. And then I started this stupid comparison game. I'm not doing enough. Exactly. I started this cool comparison game. But charity, and I love how you said it, it's not only money. It's your time and energy. For sure. And you got to do it from the beginning because I love how people say, you know, it's like, yeah, I'm going to give when I, you know, when I make a hundred grand, I'm going to give when I give a million.

20:10Brother, if you're not giving when you have a 10 grand or a grand, you're not going to give it when you have a million and you're not going to give when you 10 million. Right. But I notice there's time and energy a lot is a lot more valuable, especially with the kids and wives and even with yourself than just writing the check. because to me it's like riding the check out, I did it. Do you know what I mean? And it wasn't like the true, the time and energy wasn't given. So I think all those three components got to be connected in order to feel it. And the more you give, the more you receive. You know what I mean?

20:47I have a friend who was going bankrupt. It's a true story. And he was lending money to give it away. I'm like, dude, what's wrong with you? there's something wrong with you. And he goes, the more I give, the more I'm going to receive. He got out of the rat hole that he was in, you know, in the bankruptcy and everything else in less than two years. Wow. Giving is living. So there's only one question that I ask on every single episode. And so for 200 episodes, I've asked this one question. It's the only repeat question. I've never gotten the same answer. I'm for sure not going to get the same answer right now.

21:24You built up this billion-dollar portfolio, and it's going to end up being$2 billion or$3 billion over the course of time. you have these five children, what percentage at the end of the day do you leave to those kids?

21:39It's tough, right? I've heard zero, I've heard 100 % and everything in between. You know what, Dan, if you ask me that question 10 years ago, I would say 100%. That's what I'm doing this for. Yep. Like we discussed before, we talk about the difference between legacy and inheritance.

22:04I can tell you, Asop, right now how my will is written. My kids getting percentage. I'm going to have a lot of haters here. They're getting percentage. They start getting the percentage after age of 33, and that's a minimal percentage. They're getting right to vote. to sell, to do anything at the age of 55. Interesting. Because I know how stupid I was when I was 20, 25, or 30. So it's really spread, and hopefully by that time, their emotional intelligence, their readiness, their faith, their understanding principles, their life experience, is going to give them the opportunity to use it wisely.

22:57because the reason I changed then is, can you imagine being my kids my age, knowing that I'm covered? Right. I'm covered. Right.

23:13From 2010 to 2018, I retired so many times then, so many times, and truly having nothing to do for being a man and having nothing to do, the only responsibility, accountability I have is to wake up, take a dump, brush my teeth, take a shower, take my kids to school, pick them up, take them to activities. I was miserable. When you do not have any responsibilities because you know you cover financially, you don't go through the pain, through the struggles to figure out how you don't take advantage of the life that God gave us. That's when you fail. So we got to prepare our kids to go through life and enjoy life.

24:04I know we want to protect our kids. I know we want to give them everything that I didn't have. Don't give your kids anything you didn't have. Give your kids the knowledge that you didn't have. Give your kids the awareness that you didn't have. Give your kids the consciousness that you did not have. The faith, the belief in themselves, the love. That's what we've got to give to our kids, not the money. And I'm not saying money is the root of evil. I'm not saying that. Did the money make you happy? Absolutely not. It buy you time. It buy you opportunities. It buy you opportunities we created, but it gives open a lot of doors.

24:42But I keep saying that, Dan, if you're a douchebag, you're going to be a bigger douchebag. If you're a good human being, the money just amplifies it. but it's nice the journey to even to get to the level to accomplish the money it's not the destination it's just the game that's what the enjoyment of life is yep you know i mean and you you were on my path because remember when you said the story about poker like you know all the website closed and then in two hours in two hours like you i don't know you lost like 65 million 65 million dollars in two hours and can you imagine like develop this mindset and I'm telling you it didn't come from here it truly came from here you were creating building your subconscious mind because these are conscious minds so what happened when you hit something hard you were like what next let me figure it out and you're ready you did not become a victim and you were sitting at the table two hours later and you were still giving and what happened is you were giving and that's the same thing in life so there's no right or wrong answer I don't think there's right or wrong answer at whatever level of awareness consciousness you are you're going to figure it out and even if you make mistakes then how many mistakes do we make?

26:12All the time. It's part of the process. Right? That's a part of the process. Because we're making a lot of decisions. Yes. To make 100 decisions, some of them are going to be mistakes. Yeah. Most people don't try to make decisions. And that's what I – people ask me, what is my superpower? And I always say making decisions. Because I'm not scared to make a decision. Because I can tell you, even if I make a decision – I can make a decision right now. By the end of the podcast, my decision might change. Sure. Oh, that was stupid. I'm going to – and then I pay for it. But, you know, our decisions, we are so quick.

26:41We're making decisions. So the mistakes are bigger and bigger. But we're still going. We know we're going to adjust, adopt, and execute. And that's who we are. So for many years, you were part of Tony Robbins' group. 23 now, 25. 23 years? Yeah. You might be the longest running. Dude, I know Tony. Tony was broke. Like, Tony didn't have anything. That's amazing. Dude, 2002, I think I went to his event in California. In California, that was the first event. A long time. A few years later, he did, I think five years later, he did the first business.

27:26The big conference? Yeah, the business conference. And then we got to spend time together. He created the Zenith Mastermind. This is a quarter of a million dollars,$250 ,000 to join a group like that. Talk to us about investing in yourself. Why do you like to be part of his group for 23 years, now with Zenith, et cetera, with Dean Graciosi? Why spend so much money and time and energy to invest into yourself? You know what? And this is not, and this is for anybody, even if you're 18, 14, 15, 20, 20, 25, 30, whatever you are. You are your biggest investments. There is nothing better in the world than you.