I was born in communist Poland. My father once faced arrest for trading corn on the black market. When I was six, we escaped to Toronto, Canada with no money and no English — my dad became a mechanic, and my mom, who had studied medicine, started over in whatever work she could find. Nobody handed them anything, and nobody was coming to save us.

My first lesson in leverage came at ten: a $40 loan from my parents for a bicycle, so I could grow my paper route. I was a painfully shy kid, so I forced myself to join Toastmasters to beat the fear of speaking — and went from carrying for-sale signs for real estate agents to talking my way into private equity with no experience, eventually raising capital for Ken McElroy's MC Companies. I started in this business in 2008, just as everything was falling apart. In 2010, on the tail of the crash, I launched my first eight-figure fund.

Since then I've personally raised multiple nine figures of private capital, and my team and I have done over $3 billion in transactions. But what I believe is simpler than any number: money you worked hard for should work just as hard for you. The people who put capital to work get to write their own story. The people who don't, wait and hope.

So whether you spent thirty years building a practice or a business and want your money working in real assets — or you're the one finding the deals and want systems that match your ambition — my promise is the same: straight talk, real numbers, no sugar-coating. Look around. When you're ready, you'll know which door is yours.