You’ve probably seen Flip or Flop before. Even if you’re not a home flipper, it’s hard to not get sucked into the glitz and glamor of watching Tarek El Moussa and his team rip out old fixtures from the 1950s and replace them with brand new, beautifully designed upgrades. Tarek is one of the most recognized home flippers in the world and has inspired thousands of others to start building wealth through real estate. He’s an inspiration to all of us, but how did he get to such a peak point?

Tarek wasn’t a great flipper right out the gate. He electrocuted and burned himself on his first deal, but that wasn’t enough to deter him. Before the great recession, Tarek was living large, making forty-thousand dollars a month in his early twenties. But when the crash came, he had to sell everything and start from scratch. After attending a real estate seminar he caught the flipping bug and realized he needed to invest in real estate full-time.

After a successful first flip, he pitched the idea of Flip or Flop to different television networks, with HGTV finally giving him a chance. He describes the first season of Flip or Flop as working eighteen-hour days, constantly stressing, and forcing himself to build a business, not just a side-hustle. This allowed him to delegate by buying more flips and building wealth faster. Funnily enough, his main piece of advice for flippers isn’t to try and make more money—it’s to start losing it instead.