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LeaderImpact Podcast
LeaderImpact Podcast
Ep. 84 - Adam Babineau - When Success Isn't Enough
What happens when you achieve everything you thought would bring happiness but still feel empty inside? Adam Babineau knows this journey all too well.
Adam stepped into real estate at just 19 years old after a vivid dream pointed him toward this path. His natural curiosity and determination quickly led to financial success—but with it came an unexpected emptiness that shook his worldview. "Tony Robbins has a pretty interesting quote where he says that success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure," Adam reflects, describing how his "curious spirit" eventually led him to a spiritual crisis.
The turning point arrived through an unexpected mentor who remained surprisingly calm after losing over a million dollars in a business deal gone wrong. "Don't worry about it, God's got a better plan," the man told him. Though initially skeptical, those words planted seeds that would later transform Adam's entire approach to business and life.
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Welcome to the Leader Impact Podcast. We are a community of leaders with a network in over 350 cities around the world, dedicated to optimizing our personal, professional and spiritual lives to have impact. This show is where we have a chance to listen and engage with leaders who are living this out. We love talking with leaders, so if you have any questions, comments or suggestions to make the show even better, please let us know. The best way to stay connected in Canada is through our newsletter at leaderimpactca or on social at Leader Impact. If you're listening from outside of Canada, check out our website at leaderimpactcom.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, lisa Peters, and our guest today is Adam Babineau. Adam has been an entrepreneur in the real estate industry for the last 20 years. He began his career as a licensed realtor at the age of 19. He got involved in the development and investment aspects of the industry shortly thereafter. That career path led him down the road of finding his faith, as well as his wife. Realizing that his life, including his business, are not actually his, have been his greatest struggle and his greatest joy. He lives in Ottawa with his wife and two teenage kids, and still sells and invests in real estate today. Welcome to the show, adam.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I'm ready to go. What an intro.
Speaker 2:How does one get involved in real estate at 19? Yeah, great question.
Speaker 1:I know it is and I'm really lucky that I found it because I'm I'm pretty unemployable, Otherwise I don't know what else I would do. I was just going through those those questions that I guess every young person is forced to answer when it's time for them to fly the coop. And, yeah, I just wanted a path without any actual limitations. Maybe I had a lot of ego as a 19 year old kid and just really didn't want to boss, so I was just wrestling through those ideas and I'd like to take some credit for it. But I just had a literal dream.
Speaker 1:Anybody that reads scripture knows that God talks to you in dreams. It's kind of like one of his fun things to do. And I had a dream I went to bed one night and I was hosting open houses and just talking to people in a sales background, and I was going to university at the time and just hating it. And so, yeah, I dropped out, got my real estate license right away. It felt like something where it was not more of an obsession, but something was like possessing me and drawing me into that business. It's a scarier word, possession versus obsession but yeah, that was my path. That's how I got into it.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm excited to hear more about your professional path. I mean, that's what we're about hearing a little bit of your professional journey but really, did you have any pivotal moments? That's what we really want to hear, those pivotal moments along that journey that got you here today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was definitely a big one. So being called into the real estate business was definitely the first one, and then I had the misfortune of becoming successful at it. Tony Robbins has a pretty interesting quote where he says that success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure. So I've always had a really curious spirit and that has served me really well. But I've always needed to figure things out and always wanted to understand everything, and that has its own limitations. And so that curious spirit led me to acquire a commercial real estate property, and that's when God started to really hang me with my own rope, so to speak. And there's actually there's a quote by I think it's William Blake, where he says the path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. I think I got that right and it's like I spent a lot of my time turning over all of like the experiential rocks in life and it's like, okay, what about? This is going to make me happy? What about if I have that it's going to make me happy? And, uh, you get to a certain point where you you kind of get a little bit of despair in your soul, trying to figure out what's going to satiate your spirit. And so that was a pivotal moment where I kind of realized that I was on the wrong path but didn't know how to get back to the right one. And it was like I've, I checked all the those boxes of the material world and it was. It was a blessing. And then, and then, a really hard curse to to deal with that realization that I'm not being fulfilled, like I'm an ultimate failure. Thinking that I'm not being fulfilled Like I'm an ultimate failure, I'm thinking that I've, I've got stuff, but not a soul. It's. It's pretty devastating.
Speaker 1:So, coming out of that experience, I was, um, yeah, late twenties, I went through a divorce, uh, at a young age because I was focusing on, uh, basically not going bankrupt as a young person. And I had met someone in my early 20s and it was on a real estate development deal and I was really broke at the time and this whole deal kind of blew up in my face. And the guy that I was working on as a client, he was just so cool and calm and collected and he wasn't phased by it and I mean, this guy just lost over a million bucks and I would have had a few more words to say than he did and he just said, like you know, it's, don't worry about it, god's got a better plan. It wasn't my money to begin with.
Speaker 1:He said something along those lines and it just frustrated the heck out of me and I'm like I, I need to know your caramel secret of life. Like I, I need to to have what you have. And uh, I said I'm pretty sure it's religion. He goes uh, actually I hate religion but I love relationships and I got a great one with jesus. Uh, come on over and talk. And uh, I heard him but I didn't listen. And uh, he planted some seeds in my mind but I still, I still chased after the world pretty hard and yeah, found out, found out it was quicksand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, you used, you used the word wrong path and I, I, I don't. Adam, if you look on your whole life, I think everything fell in line. You know, if you think, because and it's funny, I'm just reading a book I it's something about God and his humor, his humor with us.
Speaker 1:He's got a great one.
Speaker 2:And it just talks about the disappointments and they're part of our paths. Right, it sucks when we're in it.
Speaker 1:Like I get it. It's tough, it's terrible, yeah, yeah, you just you hit that brick wall and you say why couldn't I just learn things the easy way? You know I struggle with this as a parent, especially with two teenage kids. Please, if anyone's listening, pray for me. But they're, they're on a. They're on a great path At least I think that they are but I see them trying to have to learn things the hard way. It's like it's so much easier. Just listen to your dad.
Speaker 2:She's like no, nah, I have to learn.
Speaker 1:I'll do it the hard way, but it's it's the hard lessons that that we tend to to remember Right, and so, yeah, very, very stubborn, unfortunately, again very capable. It's kind of like our greatest strengths are often our greatest weaknesses at the same time, like passionate person, passionate person competent with, with business and people, and I can do things and it it can. Uh, it's powerful, but anything that's powerful is also inherently very dangerous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good, all right. Uh, our next question is just about your best principle of success. Obviously, you are still in real estate today. You're doing something right. Um, if you have one, and just assure you a story that you can share that illustrates that, yeah, yeah, I think the basic fundamentals of our economy and wealth itself is actually the commodity of trust.
Speaker 1:So a lot of people think it's like coffee or the oil industry or something. But if you actually look at I think it was Peterson that helped me think about this initially, where he said if you look at the country of Venezuela and they have all these natural resources, but everyone's broke, and then you compare that to a country like Japan, that's a small little island, they don't have any natural resources, but they trust each other. If you don't have trust, you don't have anything. Everyone knows that in like a personal relationship or marriage, for example, but it's true in the economy as well too. So if a prospect or a client they don't trust you, they're not going to do business with you. So gaining someone's trust is very, very valuable. Breaking it is very painful and expensive and you'll burn that person in a relationship forever.
Speaker 1:I ended up getting remarried to my wife now, who's an absolute force. Her nickname is the Machine. She's in the same business as I am and we have a very healthy, friendly, competitive nature to our business as well. In our lives it's fun. We push each other, make each other grow as people. It's beautiful, but everyone wants to know what her secret is, and her secret is no secret. She's just very, very good at building relationships that are based on trust with people. We have a lot of different real estate agents come up to us and ask, like, what tools do you use and what systems do you use? Like a lot of us, I'm very guilty of this. I want to know, like, what that thing is, like what the silver bullet or what the tool is. What do you do, instead of focusing on who we are and who we're becoming, so that the secret of success is definitely building trust with people over time. Oh, pretty simple.
Speaker 2:Well, I go right back to your example you used in the last, in the last question, about the man that lost the million dollars and he, obviously he trusted you and I mean it didn't, it didn't end bad, but that's a million dollars. How can you trust someone with your money, with your investments?
Speaker 1:So you are pre COVID dollars to. That was real money back in the day you know.
Speaker 2:I mean we've talked about a few fears, failures. We learn more from them. We learn more from them. We learn from our actual successes.
Speaker 1:So, if you're willing to share a greatest failure and what, you learned from it, so excited to share my greatest failures publicly? Every single mistake I've ever made has been me believing a lie. Everything comes down to some level of lie that I've bought into, whether it is if I have this business, if I make this, if I marry her, then I'll be happy, then I'll be fulfilled. Thinking that my business is actually my own for a long time is very deceptive. My business is not my own. My body's not my own. My life is not my own. We've got to give everything back.
Speaker 1:You know, you think of Job, one of the most awesome statements in human history, where he goes. You know, naked I've come into this world naked. I'm going to leave it. Praise, praise God. It's pretty epic Talk about a man who's been broken down or that things are going to be able to be the answer to a spiritual question.
Speaker 1:I'm coming at a really big existential, transcendental question of the meaning and purpose of life and I'm trying to pack it and fill this boat. That looks like Swiss cheese filled with sugar. It's just not going to work. Everyone's got a God-sized hole in their heart and thinking that stuff's going to fill it's just a disaster. So I mean, I think of the, the scripture of like, from everything that we do comes from our heart. Um, it really does the story and the message of christ really should. It really has transformed, uh, me and us as people, if we take it seriously. So it's changed my business. It's helped me actually become a leader, like a servant leader. It's very important. But I made tons of those mistakes. I mean there's just too many little practical examples to give, but just the overarching theme of going down the wrong path, thinking that stuff's mine, led me to my biggest mistakes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how did you when you talked earlier in believing a lie? How do you know when you're in it? How do you know when you're believing? I'm just, I'm thinking people are listening and going, but how do you know when it's? If I do, and maybe it's the, when you say, if that, then that's probably a lie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whenever, uh, whenever I catch myself grabbing something like the oldest story of time right, like you grabbed the forbidden fruit, um, anytime I'm looking for something outside of myself, uh, for fulfillment or an answer, or an answer I'm already on the wrong path. It's just so comfortable for us to stay on the wrong path. I think we underestimate the pain and the difficulty of repentance. I mean, it's an incredible gift the fact that we can repent and to turn to a source of goodness is the best gift that we can possibly have, the greatest blessing and joy. But it's so detriment, like psychologically damaging, to reorient your life so to recognize that you're on a path like that the personal development community loves breaching on this, like awareness is the first step, um, and but it usually leads you down a path of trying to make more money, um, so that that step of awareness, money, so that step of awareness. I don't even know what is good for me.
Speaker 1:Having the spirit of humility to recognize I'm not wise in my own eyes, lean not on my own understanding, just being able to ask God in the first place of what he wants me to do or to go and what to do, what to say like, just continue continuously submitting to the right path. If I don't do it, I know that I'm going to end up on the wrong path. Like it's pretty it's. It's called the wide path of destruction. For a reason it's a very wide one and it's a very narrow one that that path of life.
Speaker 1:But it's it's the same spirit that led me to get into the business in the first place. It's the same spirit that led me to ask those questions and to get back onto it in the first place. It's it's just seeking first the kingdom of God. I suppose I don't know if that's enough scripture references for one little paragraph, but that's a great question. Like, how do you know you're on the wrong path? And I think it's pretty safe to assume that if we're not seeking God, we're already on the wrong path. Like we're. It's a default setting for humanity is to be on the wrong path.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you touched a little bit on the practical sort of how you see spiritual in your practical life, if that makes sense. But at Leader Impact we're about personal, professional and spiritual for increasing impact. So I'm wondering if you can share another example of how you're actually, how the spiritual makes a practical difference in your life.
Speaker 1:So that guy that I nicknamed him the oak tree because he's got some pretty serious roots, the guy that lost a bunch of money and told me about Jesus back in the day Shout out to Clyde, if you're listening. We started a Bible study just a couple of years ago again, um, and there was, there was only like two or three of us. Now there's 30 guys meeting in his living room. So I'm still, I'm still talking to him. It's pretty cool. Um, he he had something. He went to Dallas seminary and, uh, most people get into like a professional vocation of ministry at that point. And he actually got into the construction business and he had this uh prof come up to him and say, okay, well, like where are you going to go? What are you going to do? What church are you going to go and apply for? And he said I'm getting into construction. And the guy like looked at him with a bit of judgment and goes like shook his head and walked away. And uh, he was just sitting there alone, um, just praying for a minute, and he goes you know what? We're all in the ministry. Like every single one of us is in the ministry.
Speaker 1:So if I continuously go back to that narrow path of having this not be my business. If God wants me to speak with 10 people today for clients, if I'm not looking at them for their best interests, ultimately and spiritually, there's no point. I can sell people a bunch of houses and it's like the two questions that will keep me up at night, or the two questions from before, which is then what Like? What's next? What's next, what's next, what's next? There's a lot of clients that we actually don't sell homes to. We don't put them into a right investment deal because it's just not what's best for them. So I'll actually try to not sell them things. I'll steer them away from a lot of different deals that just aren't good for them and that, honestly, I'd like to say that that comes naturally to me.
Speaker 1:It's it's from a more of a lot, more of a completely a supernatural setting, like what is actually best for this person in their lives, and if it's at the expense of our business, then that's great. I think, like if we were to summarize it in a really black and white terms it's we love people and not money, and a lot of businesses, like you know, especially in a really black and white terms, it's we love people and not money. And a lot of businesses, especially in a corporate setting, it's profit driven. They love profits more than people. There's no shortage of examples with those. But for us, if we can just keep on loving God and loving people you can't separate the two We'll be fine.
Speaker 1:Actually, I love Seth Godden. He's a writer, a big time blogger. He's got a great, great track record with blogging. One of the things that he says about money is that everyone needs rice and beans. You've got the basic fundamentals for finances that you need Anything beyond rice and beans. It becomes a story that we tell ourselves.
Speaker 1:For me, I was actually very afraid of financial abundance and economic prosperity after I really started following Christ. As I said before, anything that's powerful is inherently dangerous and money is one of those things. Money really doesn't care. It doesn't care where it goes, it's just money, um. But what we do with it is very revealing and the character that we have it. It really amplifies our inner character. That's what it does and that's dangerous and powerful.
Speaker 1:So, getting to a point of realizing that I'm just a steward and a manager temporarily of stuff, I've allowed myself to step in to the idea that all of this isn't mine, and that's my new story where I'm not, I'm not thinking that it's mine and it's for me. And then the second part of it was that I'm afraid to that it's mine and it's for me. And then the second part of it was that I'm afraid to manage more of it because I don't want it to corrupt myself. And now to have more of a comfortable foundation in my faith where it's not going to ruin my soul, to be allowed to be a blessing to other people. That's where I'm at now. It's not my business and I might as well really get after it for the sake of other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, you talked about. You just mentioned about following, following Christ. Was Clyde part of that decision for you? Or when, when did you like or did you grow up in faith, or was it?
Speaker 1:No, okay, that's a hard no, that's probably the easiest question I'll have. Uh, no, I was raised by a couple of hippies and uh, they were you know, god love them uh, just very misguided and looking for love in all the wrong places. And the hippie movement, I mean, it's like it's very easy for us to worship our own emotions. You know, if something feels good or if some like trust your heart, you know, like, go fall in love a thousand times. It's, it's just there's no such thing as as free love. Love is very expensive. God is love. It's sacrificial in nature.
Speaker 1:So, no, I was not raised by any type of religious or spiritual. Well, I guess it would be spiritual, but definitely not a Christian background. So, yeah, I met Clyde. He had a really profound impact on me and that kind of cracked open my mind and left me I'll call it like god curious. And then there's I.
Speaker 1:I made the mistake I think a lot of christians make this mistake too like differentiating between salvation and sanctification. Um, like whenever I would make a mistake after I got saved, like, okay, this is it. I'm actually gonna like put my faith and I'm betting everything, not on red, I'm betting everything on on Jesus, on this for my soul, right, like that's step one, my salvation sealed. But then, if I'd make a mistake, I'm like, did I really do that? Do I really mean it? Like hemming and hawing and like, uh, like it's a dangerous place to be.
Speaker 1:It's very disempowering thinking that it's up to me when it's already finished and it's totally complete forever, but then that the there's a really big difference between being saved and not, and a really big difference of making Jesus the God of your life every day. And I think the like the most unhappy people, um, the most painful experiences that I've actually had were not as a lost person. They were as someone who is trying to be a Christian but is still driving their own bus because you know you're on the wrong path but you're not submitting to it. It's very painful. You're living with this sheathing, pain in your soul when you've got a conscience that's awake and it's pulling you in the opposite direction and you're not listening.
Speaker 1:So yeah that process took me a while. I'm very going back to. Our greatest strengths are often our biggest weaknesses. I'm stubborn. I'm very going back to, like the our greatest strengths are often our biggest weaknesses. Like I'm stubborn, I'm curious and I wanted to figure out everything. Like I love knowing things and figuring things out, and so now I'm actually trying to just dumb it down. I'm just trying to enjoy God, like in the little things and and uh, and just to enjoy goodness in the little moments, instead of like the big mountaintops all the time, or the next thing, or what about this and what about that? Like trying, just trying to fix my every problem that comes my way to my own satisfaction, you know.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, just just enjoying God in the little moments has been a journey uh, well then, big shout out to Clyde, because I think I think in everybody's life, um well it, we there's one person, there's many people that drip on you, but there's that one person that's sort of you know, you didn't, you didn't realize the other people that were probably coming in and out of your life with, maybe, messages of God, but then all of a sudden, clyde, he was the one, and I think we I have to remember that that I may not be that person, but I was maybe one of those little drips that you know made them think what, what, you know, what is it? What does she have? Okay, you know she has her faith.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's very encouraging and it's really healthy to hear that too. Like I've struggled, like, oh, I want to be, I want to be useful for God. It's an amazing feeling, right. But I always want to be like the Clyde in everyone's lives, instead of just being entrusted to be a little source of goodness and leave the results to God. Yeah, good. And you look back on it too and you see all the little dots that connect in your life and like, oh yeah, he was always there.
Speaker 1:Yes, Whether or not, I was paying attention.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good point. So at Leader Impact, we are dedicated to leaders having the lasting impact.
Speaker 1:So I'm wondering, as you continue through this amazing journey that you've just shared, have you considered what you want your faith legacy to be when you leave this world? Yeah, that's a little question. I'm really not motivated about a legacy on earth. I mean, I think if I actually have a legacy on earth, I'd probably fail as a person, which might sound weird, but like I definitely don't want a hockey rink named after me or something weird like that. I just want to grow heaven before I get there. I think having like a really simple mission statement in life that's my ultimate driver is really important. I think simplicity and clarity breeds strength and power. So that's kind of our family motto, like help us grow heaven before we get there.
Speaker 1:I was really obsessed with like, oh, what does heaven look like? And when there's streets paved with gold and everything else, you know, and uh, I just I'm really looking forward to hanging out having breakfast on the beach with Jesus frying up some fish, you know, like I don't even care if the sun's really hot and I'm getting a tan, I don't care, it's just the people that are there, the relationships that are there. I'm looking forward to what's next and, yeah, just being a part of that goodness of being able to grow heaven before I get there and I tell my kids that, and sometimes they roll my eyes with their eyes, with how corny it is, you know like, oh, come on, dad, but it's true that's the ultimate legacy is to store up treasures in heaven and to unpack those Christmas gifts under the tree of heaven. Right, that's going to be fun.
Speaker 2:I wrote that down Help us grow heaven before we get there. That is brilliant. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah, now I know in your bio you said realizing that your life, including your business, is not actually his has been your greatest struggle and your greatest joy. So I'm going to ask you about your greatest joy. That was one of my questions, but I don't know. Maybe you answered it, but I'll let you. What is your greatest joy?
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, um, I think Jesus ruins everything. Uh, I mean that literally like everything, you know, he, he rips away our little golden calves and it's uh, he is that cornerstone that we buttress against. So once you get a taste, you know like you've tasted, you've seen that God is good it's really hard to go back and try and get joys in other places, but the Christian journey has really allowed my, my heart and my mind to experience greater levels of joy in the little moments. Um, like we were just talking before, before this kicked off, that I was, I was skiing with my kids, you know, and before I'd I'd have a much greater tendency to take things for granted, um, whereas this time it was. Like man, this is a window of time and opportunity into creation to play in nature, like as this gift that God's given me today, with my kids and I'm in this amazing place in Western Canada, and it was unbelievable. It was a very, very grateful time and moment memory in my life that I was able to really cherish a lot more. So, I mean, I love going on the missions trips with Leader, impact and Global Exchange and, like those mountaintop moments, you know, it feels like we're defeating Goliath with our slingshot Like it's epic, it's so much fun, it's dopaminergic. It feels like it's made for me. Fun, it's dopaminergic, it feels like it's made for me. But when I realize that I'm made for god, um, being able to hang out and be a shepherd boy in the, in the fields, is, you know, that's being able to connect with god in, in nature in little moments, um, whether I'm in my truck, whether I'm listening to music, whether I'm cleaning my kitchen, like being able to experience goodness.
Speaker 1:There's one scripture comes to mind in Corinthians I think it's chapter 10, where it's like, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Like, in the littlest, tiniest moments, being able to unpack that joy in your heart, like I don't need it to be conditional upon an experience anymore. That's pretty cool. It makes me think of our faith leader, of, of Paul, where he's in a like chain to a prison floor and he says I can do anything. Like God's given me strength for I can do all things through God. He gives me strength and he's he's about to have his head cut off. Like that type, that type of strength, like it's. It's a joy you can't explain. No, so it's pretty cool, um, yeah, being able just to, to know where I'm going when this place ends, when my body ends pretty amazing source of peace, very grateful. Feels like I won lottery ticket in life, you know, like that scene in indiana j the end he's like he's, he's grabbing the little treasure. It feels, feels like I got it.
Speaker 2:Good, oh, adam, this has been a fun half hour. I want to thank you for joining us. I I feel like I show up. I mean I show up here not only just as a host, but I show up because all my guests are just little drips into my life of just staying on the path, staying faithful. So thank you for just sharing your story. If people want to find you, connect with you, what's the best place?
Speaker 1:Yeah, if anyone wants to connect with me I guess just by email at adamottawarealestatecom. Not super big into social media. Okay, adam, at ottawarealest estatecom. I'm not super big into social media.
Speaker 2:So okay, adam at Ottawa real estatecom. So is that the name of your? What's the name of your company?
Speaker 1:I work with Remax. I've got an investment and development gig on the side, but that's it's not public, it's just all right, it's smaller.
Speaker 2:Yeah, All right. Well, Adam, thank you for joining us. It has been a joy. Thank you All right. Well, if you're part of Leader Impact, you can always discuss or share this podcast with your group. And if you are not yet part of Leader Impact and would like to find out more and grow your leadership, find our podcast page on our website at leaderimpactca and check out our free leadership assessment. You can also check out our free leadership assessment. You can also check out groups available in Canada at leaderimpactca. Or, if you're listening from anywhere else in the world, check out leaderimpactcom. Or get in touch with us by email info at leaderimpactca and we will connect you. And if you like this podcast, please leave us a comment, give us a rating or review. This will help other global leaders find our podcast. Thank you for engaging with us and remember impact starts with you.
