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

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special edition of the Money, Money's podcast, where normally we cover these three core topics: how to make money, how to invest money, how to give 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 in his world. As he's accumulated this large multifamily commercial real estate portfolio, he's pivoted and turned to 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 coworkers 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? Maybe. 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 got to remove this concept that money is rude or evil or any of those things. It is a tool, it is functional, and it's important to your daily life. So without further ado, I'm going to have our guests 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. 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 success if it comes to real estate and all the businesses I built? Because I always have zero emotional attachments to money. Zero. But But people, it's like, we think the money is something you got to work hard, you got to save. This is not true. And what happened is our parents and our grandparents and our grandgrandparents, they didn't know any better. So 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 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. I grew in a communist country, and the true money doesn't exist. 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. So what happened is if you were, let's say, mechanic, let's say, I fix your car, and then you give me this and this instead. And that's what we do it 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 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. At the end of the day, it's funny that I talk about it is when you are in a comfort zone, which is for us, man, 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. We have access of 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, then all those people that we have, we will not have a 3,000 billionaires.

We would have seven 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 wealth, not the outer wealth. Because the inner wealth, your inner wealth, create your outer wealth.

So explain the inner wealth concept. What is the inner wealth?

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 to get the kudos or get the validation from society that I'm good enough, that I'm loved, and get the applauses. It didn't work. Because in the same time, my inner wall was getting emptier and emptier and emptier until I I almost committed suicide. So there's nothing out there that you can do without yourself, without building yourself. Because I'm talking about people, men, that are very successful right now. They have wives. I have wives, I have kids, I have cars, I have jets, I have yachts. And by rules of society, they and I have absolutely everything. But I was empty on the inside because I was doing to prove everybody but myself. And it's very important to remember that your networth and your selfworth are not the same. And I lost it. So anybody who's listening right now, so don't chase the money. Don't onlude transactions. Look for yourself and build your inner world the same way you build the outer world.

But that will build you up.

What is your book about? What is your podcast about? Why did you go down this path?

Four years ago, I Four years ago, I got sick, and I thought I have a flu. Three days became four days. Suddenly, all my symptoms left then, and I couldn't 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 I'm off the bottom. I made all my money during the low market in 2008 and 2020, the COVID. And I'm sitting, I'm laying in bed and I'm like, I'm financially have absolutely everything. I'm healthy, emotional I'm healthy. Mentally, I'm healthy. Spiritually, I'm healthy. Physically, 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 I 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 where I wrote a book. My book is called 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 applaudises, the stages. Even at the beginning with the social media, followers, likes, it's addictions. All the successful people then are addicts. But we used to use 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, women, porn, hookers. We can do the same thing, but we're sharing our world to improve and do better. So that's It'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 men mind works, and we always want more. And they're never going to be enough. The way we are born and the way the human nature is, that we always want more. But what I'm stressing about, not more outside, but more on the inside. 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 we're going through on the mental health, emotional... I'm big on my emotional intelligence. Can you imagine that me being... I was 48 years old, and I just realized about the oxygen mask at the plane. I would give the oxygen mask to everybody, even the pilots, and I'm the last one. And now I realize how important it is to fill your own tank, fill your own bucket, and put the oxygen first, and then so we can help others. So build ourself from within and then build the whole empire. But your body, you are the biggest asset. Without you, nothing happens. You know what I mean? If you're failing, even because I was well, then, yeah, I'm doing good. I'm doing good at jobs and doing good at the sports. I'm doing good with the employees, but I'm falling 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 last course. It's like, nobody could relate to me. What are you talking about?

You have everything. Your life is going. People want I see you everywhere you come. Everybody loves you. But I don't love myself. I cannot take care of myself. When I'm alone, I'm freaking miserable. I'm again with my own thoughts. And the thoughts, and the thoughts, I start believing, and 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 the morning, the sedation, I was sedating. Then I was sedating my entire life with work. I work 22 hours a day. I was 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 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, Ironman. Everybody, oh my God, he's doing it. Oh my God, he's so fit. He's winning. He's blah, blah, blah. When I pick up alcohol, after three months, my family, Jarek, we got to sit you down.

I think you have a problem. I'm like, Really? How do I have a problem? Why 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 do it for the good. And suddenly when you do for the bad, it's like, whoa, we got to talk about it. But at the end of the day, we as a man, we have to face our own demons. Nobody can tell you. You got to go in and just figure it out and work on your childhood wounds. What is the reason I'm doing? Is this the reason to get validation or this is the reason just within me? And going finding the purpose. God find us. We got here created by God, and we on this Earth to serve. We're not entitled to anything. You hang out with men. It's like, I work so hard. They complain about their wife, they complain about their kids. They're running away after work. Let's go for happy hour. Brother, I'm entitled. I work too hard. It's like, Dude, brother, we're not entitled to anything. We got here.

We are lucky that we are born, that we are alive. We wake up every day. We're here to serve and help others, and mostly even family, the loved ones. But it's got to start with him. 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. I have a conversation with my son. It's like, Dad, I hate to read. And I read a lot. I read a lot. And I was like, Read one page a day. In 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.

I'm laying in bed 40 days. I want to take my own life on the boat. And I'm like, Where's all the pain coming from? I was putting everything on the carpet, everything on the carpet. And suddenly the pain was growing and compounding, and the whole thing just blew up on So 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 with 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 in my wealth everything. And that's a good question. And the only thing I want to give was inheritance. Nothing else. There was no legacy. We all, men, want to leave legacy. Giving the materialistic things. It's like the buildings, the cars, the jets, the yards, businesses. This is inheritance. And usually, we ruin the children. What we got to leave is a legacy. And a legacy is all the emotional intelligence, all their faith, all their resilience, all their integrity, all their 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 So they can take. Because it's like, we have a lot of wealthy friends. You know that. And then it's like, Yarek, how do we build the hunger with the kids? No, we don't. Look at him getting goosebumps. No, we don't. Our kids were spoiled from the beginning when they were born. We were successful. How are you going to build the hunger? I was a dishwasher. I was broke as hell.

Now, he's got billion dollars real estate portfolio. Dude, I was a freaking dishwasher. I was hungry. My He's never going to have the hunger. You all, he'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 resent, 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? Thirteen months. Thirteen months. I have five kids. They never see.

They don't know.

They don't know. They fly on the private jet, go to Mediterranean, jet, yacht, house. Come on, brother. But I got to teach him, not only me, we as a man, as a human, we got to teach him how to be a 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 pay attention. No, the one they pay.

The people that pay, pay attention.

Yeah, because it's like, Hey, it came out of my pocket. I pay 500 bucks for the seminar, thousand, 2000. If I pay 500 dollars for a seminar, I want to be up front next time with five grand. You know what I mean? Those people that got paid for it because the employer required them to do it or they got 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 where we got to leave them. Yes, do we want to have them live easier? But we want to make sure not too easy because-They go to the real world at some point. The real world, because we got to help them to find a purpose, their fulfillment. Tony Robbins is like, it's big idol of us and friend of ours. What he always says, Success without fulfill is ultimate failure, right? That's what he says all the time. And that's true. And that's what we got to teach our kids. None but giving, brother. We are here to give. Don't tell me I'm huge about giving because I'm pretty sure that's where it's going to go now.

I'm huge about giving, but we cannot just give and expect nothing.

So we are on the charity portion of the podcast. Why is it important for the children, the wives, the husbands, et cetera, 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. That's what we're doing right now. Giving is living. I can tell you, it's nice to write a check, but it's also nicer to give you time and give you energy. Start it from beginning, start from the little things. You make me like, when I think of a charity, you're huge, brother. You're my idol. If 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 person game.

I'm not doing enough.

Exactly. I started this cool person 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, it's like, yeah, I'm going to give when I make 100 grand. I'm going to give when I give a million. Brother, 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. But I notice there's time and energy 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, I did it. Do you know what I mean? And it wasn't the true, the time 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? I have a friend that 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, in the bankruptcy and everything else in less than two years. Wow. Giving his living.

So there's only one question 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. You built up this billion dollar portfolio, and it's going to end up being two billion or $3 billion over the course of time. You have these five children. At what percentage, at the end of the day, do you lead to those kids? It's tough, right? I've heard zero. I've heard 100 %, and everything in between.

You know what? Then if you ask me that question 10 years ago, I would say 100 %. That's what I'm doing this for. We discussed before, we talk about the difference between legacy and inheritance. I can tell you right now how my will is written. My kids getting percentage. Oh, my God, I I'm not 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, the emotional intelligence, their readiness, their faith, their understanding of principles, their life experience is going to give them the opportunity to use it wisely. Because The reason I changed then is, can you imagine being my kids my age, knowing that I'm covered? I'm covered. From 2010 to 2018, I retired so many times then, so many times, and truly having nothing to do for being a man, 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. I 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 got to give to our kids, not the money. I'm not saying money is the root I'm not saying that. Do the money make you happy? Absolutely not. It buy you time, it buy you opportunities. It buy you... Not opportunities we created, but it gives open a lot of doors. But I keep saying that then 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. You know what I mean? And you were on my part because remember when you said the story about poker, all the website closed and then in two hours, I don't know, you lost I got... 65 million. 65 million dollars in two hours.

Can you imagine, develop this mindset? And I'm telling you, it didn't came from here. It truly came from here. You were creating, you're building your subconscious mind. Because these are conscious mind. These are subconscious mind. So what happened when you hit something hard, you were like, Okay, 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. It's like, and you were still giving. Yeah. 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. Sure, not for sure not. At whatever level of awareness, consciousness you are, then you're going to figure it out. And even if you make a mistake, then how many mistakes we make?

All time. It's part of the process.

That's a part of the process.

Because we're making a lot of decisions. If you make 100 decisions, some of them are going to be mistakes. Most people don't try to make a decision.

People ask me, what is my superpower? And I always say making decisions because I'm not scared to make a My decision because I can tell you, even I make a decision, I can make a decision right now. By the end of the podcast, my decision might change. Oh, that was stupid. And then I pay for it. But our decisions, we are so quick with 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 where we are.

So for many years, you're a part of Tony Robbins group.

23 now, 25.

23 years?

Yeah.

You might be the longest running.

I know Tony. Tony was broke. Tony didn't have anything.

That's amazing.

In 2002, I think I went to his event in California. In California, That was the first event. A long time. Years later, I think five years later, he did the first business...

The big conference?

Yeah, the business conference.

And When we got to spend time together, he created the Zenith Mastermind. It's 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 Greciosi? 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, 25, 30, whatever you are, You are your biggest investment. There's nothing better in the world than you. You are the only one out of eight billion people, and you always have to invest in yourself. When people ask me, what is the best investment? You. You, me, you always got to invest in yourself and can never, ever stop. So we are the biggest investment because we are the value, and we the value that we bring. So if you stop investing in yourself, then you stop growing, you stop evolving. And I did that. I told you between 2010 and 2018, and I was miserable. Having absolutely zero, zero drive because I didn't have to. And you have to You have to build your value by... Let me tell you a story. I was the smart kid out of my siblings, and my parents always wanted me to be a doctor. I'm like, I'm not going to be a doctor. I don't want to be learning my entire life. How stupid was that? We're going to learn. We're going to invest in ourselves all the time.

And the more you invest in yourself, the more you bring the awareness and consciousness level goes up, you change your patterns, and you start opening new door, and you start connecting with better quality people. That's why you constantly have to invest in yourself to grow your value, to grow your awareness so we can connect and open more doors. I think there's no bigger investment than ourselves. Absolutely. Forget the real estate, forget the stock options, forget the businesses. We wouldn't be sitting here if we did not spend... And people, not only money, It's not only money, because for us to write a check for $150,000 is like nothing. But how do you find the time then to go meet with all those people, go on those events three, four times a year in the middle of all the chaos, all this stuff? And this is not the only one. There's a lot of groups. We do this 24/7. And then in the middle, we still run businesses, we still run family, we still run everything. How do you find time? You do. You figure it out. But you got to... It's Every day then, I have a date with Yarek.

I love that.

I spend the time with me. My office knows everybody, knows nobody talks to Yarek, nobody touches. And this is the hour that I have with myself. I don't run errands. I don't do anything. I truly spend myself with me sitting, meditating, praying, just going through everything, me and myself, as zero, zero distractions. So I can invest in me, invest with how my inner dialog goes, how my thoughts are going and everything else. And just, I mean, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, with connections, connection with God, you constantly need to fill the bucket because the fuller the bucket is, the more you give. And then the people like, you know what I mean? Gravitate towards you. Gravitate towards you.

All right, guys. I think you can feel the reason for this episode is about investing into yourself and your body, your mind, your soul, your spirituality, the things that he's been talking about, that is the butterfly effect. If you become a better person inside for yourself, you're a better husband, a better father, a better leader, a better better at everything in your world once you invest into yourself. If you are deeply depressed, if you're going through hard things, make sure to check out his book, check out his podcast, and really try to grasp what are other people doing out there to help themselves fill their buckets. What are they doing to invest in themselves? How do they get through the hard times in their personal lives, their careers, their divorces, their marriages, their children? There's so many aspects that go on in our worlds. We just don't talk about it enough because we feel like it's the same concept of it's rude to talk money. Sometimes people don't want to talk about hard stuff, but hard stuff is part of our daily reality. So I appreciate you guys listening. Again, this isn't just for you.

It could be people from your past, present, and future that should listen to this episode. Check out his book, his podcast, and everything on social media because you might be able to change someone's life just by pulling them in the direction of someone that's been through a lot of hard times in their world and still have built this impressive career along the journey. So listen to us on themoneymondays. Com. Share with your friends, family, and followers, and we'll see you guys next Monday here at themoneymondays. Com.