This Kedger has published a guide to finance your dreams of adventure through real estate!

To begin, tell us about your educational background. What did you study, both before and at KEDGE? 

I have an urban and land use planning degree from an engineering school (Polytech' Tours). After that, I followed KEDGE’s Wealth & Real Estate Management Specialised Master (IMPI) programme. 

IMPI - KEDGE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Tell us what you did after your studies were finished. What positions have you held? What did you learn in those positions? 

I worked for more than six years in different real estate companies in different capacities: 

• An internship with JLL in India providing strategic real estate advice to promoters, companies, and investors on projects in the Southeast of India and Sri Lanka. This experience was clearly what gave me the wish to discover more developing countries and new cultures, as well as to get take a step back from a world that is in perpetual growth, particularly in the West;
• An internship with Bouygues Immoblilier to put together a montage of residential real estate projects;
• Several positions at La Française, a leading agency in real estate asset management, where I worked in Paris and London in real estate investment for investments funds (such as the SCPI and OPCI) and institutional investors. 

At the same time, I made some personal investments with the intention of quitting my job, travelling, and becoming an entrepreneur.

LINKEDIN - ADRIEN HARDY   INSTAGRAM

What are you doing today? What gave you the idea and the desire to do what you’re doing today?

I decided to go on an adventure and travel for six months in Asia and Central America to meet the local people and discover new activities, such as diving with the splendid thresher-shark, practising Korean mediational martial arts in a Buddhist temple, and caring for animals in the Guatemalan jungle.

BLUE GREEN EXPEDITION

I wanted to write a book “Financer ses rêves d'aventure grâce à l'immobilier” (Finance your dreams of adventure through real estate) with this approach and how investing in real estate over the long term allowed me to create freedom for myself, to travel, and to live from my passion. Available on Amazon and Fnac. 

In short, this book is about new ways of living and working, Generation Y, travelling, digital nomads, and the importance of time (the one thing in life you can't get back). It is aimed at novice travellers (or those who want to travel) who want to break free from their daily routines and/or change their life while having complete financial security. The idea is to set off on an adventure and go against the grain of traditional ideas; not "giving up everything" for freedom but to taking a trip financed through real estate investments and being able to prolong your trips. 

So my plan was the following: write a simple and practical guide to real estate investment followed by the story of my six months of travel and adventure from the perspective of my experiences during the backdrop of current events (in particular, the disruptions caused by the lockdown). I convey a sense of personal development, and a strong message is contained in each chapter. All these elements link to my original intention: real estate investment that is liberating.

What are your development plans for the future?

I’m now in the process of creating a real estate investment consulting firm, Blue Green Capital, and have joined Schoolab’s start-up incubator. I’m looking to build a team, so don’t hesitate to contact me if you’re interested.

FIND OUT MORE

If you were to give advice to any KEDGE graduate who wants to do something similar, what would it be?

I would tell him or her to not wait to get started. Life is short. We live 30,000 days on average during our lifetime, and time is the only thing that we can’t get back (contrary to money). As Bronnie Ware says in his book, "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying", you must do what you really want to do every day!

KEDGE helped me develop my financial and business skills, which complemented what I learned at engineering school. In particular, I was able to quickly find a permanent position because of the way the IMPI Master programme is set up (I did it as a work-study). 

DISCOVER ADRIEN’S BOOK