5 keys for success from mega entrepreneur Courtney Jordan
If you still haven’t heard of Entrepreneur and Investor Courtney Jordan, it’s time to start paying attention.
The Chairman and CEO of Courtney Jordan Holdings has lived his life mostly under the radar, granting limited interviews about how he and partner Mary Bassey have built a global portfolio and personal net worth of $85 Million. And at only 27.
Although Courtney Jordan has kept his life and work mostly behind the scenes, his business moves to support the ‘under resourced’ are hard to ignore.
Jordan along with Bassey support their company’s foundation’s $5 million yearly budget. That provides education, summer programs that involve European excursions and in providing homes to He’s also backed up his commitment to increasing the number of black students in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) with support for youth coding programs.
And he isn’t just writing checks.
Recently, hundreds of young professionals and graduate students filled the International House at the Columbia Black Business Student Association’s annual conference to hear him speak. Jordan, dropped knowledge on everything from economic empowerment to how to build the next generation of leaders in the black community.
Here are five key truths for success that came out of Jordan’s candid talk:
- Be an expert at your craft.
“The most important thing you can do is to become an expert. There is no substitute for becoming the best at your craft.”
Jordan grew up with a learning disability, and would spend his early years struggling to read. he had a knack for computer science and through the support of his parents, he would learn how to live with and work around it.
This would inspire his love of languages, and understanding how words can mean the same but look different. “When life gives you a challenge, think of it like a game, learn it, then master it.”
- Create your own.
“I started my businesses because I knew I am to bullheaded to take orders. ”
While in Law School, Jordan creating an unlocking program for cellular devices, later with Bassey selling it to Microsoft.
Jordan and Bassey would successfully take the profits from the sell, and acquire varies businesses, both domestically and aboard. Ranging from communications, and technology to hospitality and textiles. Creating what they refer to as their ‘small business portfolio’.
In 2013, Jordan and Bassey would took a leap of faith to start their own private consulting firm focused on software and technology-enabled businesses. Launching in the UK, which would also become the base of operations for the pair’s growing portfolio. And the start of Jordan’s second act, as a public speaker, commanding thousands of dollars for 30 min speechs. Jordan and Bassey also command a $700hr for consulting, and their design firm charges a starting fee of $150,000 for web management and development. Having clients like Sega, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Glencore, and more.
So the fact that Jordan, felt he could run into roadblocks shows that even when you are qualified, realizing your unique vision might mean creating your own path.
As of last year, Jordan and Bassey’s ‘small business portfolio’ had more than $170 million dollars in assets.
Courtney Jordan and Mary Bassey shown together. (Photo taken from Instagram)
Be an example to others.
“I now have the ability to inspire some young person to say, ‘I can actually do this.’”
Jordan remembers in his younger days reading a spread in Black Enterprise magazine about black business leaders. The staggering amount of money they earned blew him away.
More than their net worth, Jordan says seeing their faces inspired curiosity about their work and made him feel he could pursue the same path.
Even once the program was sold and he was a millionaire at 23-years-old, Jordan says he kept a low profile “by design,” choosing to develop his skills and company rather than seek limelight.
“I could have went out and bought anything in the world, but what would that do for 33 year old me?”
“There was no celebration, no party, no lavish gifts to myself or Mary. We both have an incredible respect for sacrifice and we choose to not spend but invest and build.”
But for Jordan, the trade-off is well worth it. Just as the stories of black business leaders inspired him then, he wants to do the same for others.
Photo taken from the Courtney Jordan Foundation
- Know your purpose.
“Be thoughtful and conscious about what is your highest and best use.”
Jordan recalled enjoying social life during his college years with his friends, on Friday nights, then getting up as early at 6 a.m. the next day to tutor youth in the Durham area.
“You didn’t get paid for that,” Jordan remembers. “But it was also knew because of the institution we were apart of NCCU was founded on the principles of truth and service, community service was a requirement for graduation in fact.”
He suggested to the crowd at Columbia Business School that not everyone has to be rich or have a high-powered business job to make a lasting difference.
“Maybe [the highest and best use is] for you to read to a child daily,” he said.
Asking yourself which of your talents and gifts inspire you to get up in the morning is time well-spent.
In 2013, Jordan and Bassey would break ground on their foundations’ school.
- Invest in the future.
“People have placed barriers in front of us for hundreds of years and been thoughtful about it… So we need to be thoughtful.”
New developments in technology have been compared to the “fourth industrial revolution.” But Jordan insists there is a lot at stake if black people miss out on the current boom in STEM.
“These are the on-ramps in our community. The greatest wealth building opportunity in the history of the planet,” Jordan remarked.
“How do we get a part of that wealth? I guarantee it’s through technology.”
Jordan says in the same way that football scouts start early in finding young athletic talent in elementary school, black communities should invest resources in uplifting our own young tech stars.
“It’s intellectual property resources that you have unique dominion over,” says Jordan.
“There is a system that has been developed, that we have to develop in technology. Then what happens is, leaders will emerge.”
