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

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

In this episode of The Money Mondays, Dan Fleyshman sits down with real estate developer, investor, and author Jarek Tadla to explore the deeper side of wealth.Jarek shares his remarkable journey from earning $4 an hour as an immigrant dishwasher to building a billion-dollar real estate portfolio. But his story isn’t just about money—it’s about the mental, emotional, and spiritual battles that come with success.Together, Dan and Jarek dive into:Why fear and comfort zones hold people backThe difference between inheritance and legacy when raising childrenHow chasing external validation nearly cost Jarek his lifeThe importance of inner wealth, emotional intelligence, and self-worthWhy giving your time and energy matters more than writing checksThis is an unfiltered conversation about money, mental health, family, and fulfillment—and why true wealth begins within.

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 running 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've got to remove this concept that money is rude or evil or any of those things. It is a tool, it is functional, and is 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 Yarechtadla. I'm emigrant from Poland

I moved here at 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 grow up that's what's going to happen you know like people ask me

what is the reason that I accomplish you know all the successes if it comes to you know real estate and all the business I built because I always have zero emotional attachments to money zero but people it's like we think the money something got to work hard you 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 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 like how much this goes how much this goes it 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.

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 your life will change what do you think holds people back when let's going to 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 you know children family things that are going on in their world then it's fear it's fear

you know what on the end of the day we it's funny that I talk about it is 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 even I'm not loved that 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 there, 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, you know, then all those people that we have like, you know, we would not have a 3,000 billioners.

We would have seven billion billioners. 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 wealth. Because the inner world, your inner world, create your outer world. So 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 kudos or get the validation from, decided that I'm good enough, that I'm love and get the applause. It didn't work. Because in the same time, my inner wall was getting emptier and emptier and emptier

until I cracked and almost committed suicide. So there's nothing out there that you can do without yourself, without building yourself. Because we, you know, I'm talking about many people, man, that are very successful right now, they have wives. You know, like I have, I have wives, I have kids, I have cars, I have jets, I have yachts, and by rules of society I have then 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 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 do 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 why did you go down this path four years ago I um um um four years ago I have I got sick and I I thought I have a flu three days became four days suddenly all my symptoms left then and and I I couldn't get out of the bed. And I couldn't, like, understand that. And then four days become seven days, seven days become ten days, ten 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 like, I'm financially have absolutely everything. I'm healthy. Emotionally unhealthy. mentally I'm healthy spiritually are 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 a 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, It's 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, you know, the aplouses, the stages. Even at 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. And 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 and versus outer wealth. And we talk about all these issues that, you know, we're going through the mental help, emotional. Like, I'm big on my emotional intelligence, you know. Can you imagine that me being, I was 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 less 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 fell in, even because you, it was like, 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 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 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 tasks I start believing and those tasks 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 falling asleep at the desk and look up and keep going to back to work. And then everybody, oh my God, he's so successful. So everybody was like, yeah, 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 sedating with workouts doing races, iron man. And everybody, oh, my God, he's doing it. Oh, my God, he's so fit. He's winning. He's a blah, blah, blah. when I pick up alcohol after three months my family

I've got to sit you down I think you have a problem I'm like really how do I have a problem why you've been you never drink you're drinking too much lately really are you escaping something I've been escaping my entire life

and nobody notice but nobody notice because I'm doing for the good and suddenly when you do for the bad you know 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

there's nobody can tell you you got to go in and just figure it out like and work on your childhood wounds all like why what is the reason I'm doing is this the reason to to get validation or this is the reason just within me

and going finding the purpose you know God find us you know we got here created by God and we on this earth to serve. We're not entitled to anything, you know? You hang out with men.

It's like, you all work so hard. They complain about the wife. They complain about the kids. They're running away after work. Let's go for a 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 to hear. We are lucky that we are born. We're alive. We wake up every day. You know, we're here to serve and help others. and mostly even family, the loved ones, but it's got to start with it. It's got to start with you.

You've got to love yourself. You've got to fill the bucket. You've got to take care of the faith, the resilient, 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 thing. Just, 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. 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 best stuff. It starts with one drink with me. Then the two drinks. Then I drink only on. 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 and the whole thing just blew up on me. 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 build generational wealth? Why is it important to think about their kids and their grandkids? That's a good one. You know, by 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 in it 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 yachts, 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 the resilience, all their 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 Yadik how do we build the hangar with the kids no we don't look at them getting goosebumps no we don't our kids were spoiled from the beginning where they were born we were successful how are we going to build the hunger I was a dishwasher I was broke as hell

dude you know now oh wow he's got a billion dollars real estate portfolio dude I was a freaking

dishwasher I was hungry my kid's never going to have the hunger your 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 they created the integrity

the the resentless the boldness 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's 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. Come on, brother, but I got to teach him, not only me, we as a man, as a humans, we got to teach him how to be good human, how to have a faith, how to be resilience, 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? 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.

They, no, they pay, the one that pay. The 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. If I pay $500,000 for a seminar, I want to be up front next time with $5,000. You know what I mean? Those people, they got paid for it because the employer required them to do it or they got to do, dude, they're everywhere. They're on the phone scrolling.

in the hallways. They don't care. But we have to teach our kids. That's what the legacy is. That's what we've got to leave them. Yes, do we want to have them life easier? But we want to make sure not too easy. They go to the real world at some point.

The real world, because we've got to help them to find the purpose. The fulfillment. Tony Robbins is like, you know, it's big idol of us and a friend of ours. What do you always say? success without fulfillment is ultimate failure, right? That's what he says, all the time. And that's true. And that's what we've got to teach our kids.

None 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 we're 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 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. That'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 you time and give your energy, started from beginnings, from. start for the little things.

And I'm, you know, like, you make me like, when I think of a charity, like, you know, like you're huge brother, like you're like, like you my idol if it comes to charity and all the stuff you do with the, you know, with the toys and everything else. And you're like, maybe I don't do enough. Right. And then I started a stupid person game. I'm not doing that.

Exactly. I started to do the cool person game. But charity, and I love how you said it, it's not only money, it's your time and energy. And you've 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 make $100,000. I'm going to give when I give a million.

Brother, if you're not giving, when you have a $10,000 or a grant, 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 writing the check

I did it do you know what I mean and it was like 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 I was going bankrupt and 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 rathole that he was in, you know, in the bankruptcy and everything else

in less than two years. Wow. Giving his 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. And 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 three billion over the course of time you have these five children at what percentage at the end of the day do you leave 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 like we discussed before we talk about the difference between legacy and inheritance I can tell you as of right now how my wall is written okay my kids getting percentage I'm gonna 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 age of 55 because I know how stupid I was when I was 20, 25 of 30 so it's really spread and hopefully by that time the emotional intelligence the readiness their faith they understand the principles their life experience is going to give him the opportunity to use it wisely. Because the reason I changed then is, can you imagine like being my kids, my age, was like knowing that I'm covered? Right.

I'm covered. Right. From 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 into 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 fell. 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 him 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, their 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, do 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. But I keep saying that, Dan, if you're a douchebag, you're going to be a bigger douchebeck.

You know, if you're a good human being, the money is as amplified. 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 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 less like how to, $65 million. $65 million in two hours. And, yeah. And can. 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, you're building your subconscious mind. Because these are conscious mind.

This is a 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.

So giving, yeah. And what happened is like 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, that you're going to figure it out. And even if you make a mistake, like, then how many mistakes we make?

All 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. You 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 I make a decision, I can make a decision right now. By the end of the practice, my decision might change.

Oh, that was stupid. And then I pay for it. But, you know, 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 what 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. Dude, I know, I know Tony, 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. There was the first event. A long time. A few years later, he did six. Five years later, he did the first business business, business. The big conference? Yeah, the business company.

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 for anybody even for 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 you are the only one out of 8 billion people and you 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,

that you stop growing, you stop evolving. And I did that. I told you, between 2010 and 2018, and I was miserable. Like having, you know, absolutely zero-zero drive, you know, because I didn't have to. And you have to build your value by and let me tell a story like I was the smart kid out of my of my siblings and my parents always

want 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 you can connect and open more doors. I think there's no bigger investment there 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 are not only money, it's not only money, because for us to write a check for $150,000, it's 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, you know, in the middle of all the chaos, all the stuff? And this is not the only one.

There's like a lot of groups. Like, 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 it is you know that i have a 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 spent myself with me sitting you know meditating praying just going through everything me and myself know as zero zero distractions So I can invest in me, invest with how my inner dialogue goes, you know, 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 kind of 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, 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 that 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 world and we just don't talk about it enough because we feel like it's the same concept of it's rude to talk about 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 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 pointing them 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 the money Mondays.com, share with your

friends, family, and followers, and we'll see you guys next Monday here at the Money Mondays.com.