Jordan Lutalo Evora is the founder of Beverly-Hill based JLE real estate Company and JLE Asthma and Cancer Foundation that benefits all the people around East Africa that were diagnosed with respiratory diseases as Asthma and another hard and dreadful disease as cancer.
Below are excerpts from the interview:
Let’s meet you Jordan?
Jordan is a 37 year old American/Ugandan former MMA fighter. I am a businessman and a real estate development manager. I graduated the Vrije Universitate (VU) University of Amsterdam and I currently live in the United States of America.
At what point did you become a MMA fighter? Was that while you were in school?
When I was 18 I traveled from Uganda to the Netherlands … was a very poor kid. And I was homeless for a year at my 19 my ex-trainer took me from the streets and made me a fighter …and that’s how I became a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter.
I was a little talented too, that is how I started to make my first money.
That’s interesting. How did u find your way to Netherland your financial situation at that time?
My story is kinda crazy if you think about it.
I used to work and help people with anything they needed in my country, cleaning the gardens, fishing whatever was needed. That’s how I used to put money together and buy myself a one way ticket to the Netherlands. Well I was literally sleeping on the streets, in Biljmer city a known city for drug dealers for such people. I was involved most of times in street fights.
They used to give me 10 Euros to fight with other bum persons around. And my trainer saw me and took me at his fighting academy. He helped me a lot i was lucky with him. After I had the chance to study in this academy we talked about and slowly with a lot of struggle I became a real estate developer manager.
So what’s your trainer name?
Lucien Carbin. He is from Suriname.
What business (es) are you involved in at the moment?
As I said I am a businessman, Real Estate development Manager. I am a real estate investor with business interests in the United States of America, Europe and East Africa.
I control many companies around these three continents including my own Real Estate Development company called JLE REAL ESTATE based in Beverly Hills CA, Miami FL, Switzerland Bern, and I am also cooperating with a known real estate development company in Florida called Terra Group. These two companies’ principal activities are property development and investment, project management, construction, hotel operation, department store operation, finance, investment holding and infrastructure which has yielded over $2 billion in sales.
I also own a residential 5 stars complex in Palms Beach Florida called Kampala villas and condos as well as a Sports Academy and Athletic Center in San Diego called JLE Sports Center Academy.
Any business interest in Africa?
Currently I am involved in the construction of a five stars Residential Complex in Maputo Mozambique, and I was working on a big project of a Teaching and General Hospital in Kampala Uganda, the project will start around 27th November this year 2015.
What sparked your interest in entrepreneurship given the fact that you are a former MMA fighter?
My interest in entrepreneurship came as a challenge for me. I was a former athlete so I had no intentions in getting involved in such a hard market called the Real estate market but since I was an athlete I love challenges. I love to try new things and make the best of them. I say that in life we have to take unknown risks that could benefit us in the future or maybe teach us a lesson. So it was a challenge I accepted in my life and I actually made the best of it.
Although the world of business was totally strange and unknown, with a lot of motivation and ambition and commitment, it was a total success that benefits me, the people around me, my future kids and probably my future nephews I can say that I proudly hold a net worth of 3.5 billion dollars in the last 3 years of being an entrepreneur in the real estate market.
As I said it was a challenge and human beings love money and we tend to want more from this life. So I did. I wanted more and I tried my luck in this real estate market and I ended up being successful.
So what’s d estimated worth of your investment in Africa?
An estimated worth of my investment in Africa would be around 10.000.000 dollars or more. The hospital project I have will cost me 5.000.000 USD plus i invested around 5.000.000 in hotels and residential complexes in Maputo.
What’s your perception of Real Estate Development in Africa?
Real Estate development has its own risks everywhere not only Africa but everywhere around the world. You need a dose of craziness if I can call it like that to risk to do something and actually succeed with it.
In our case in Africa we have to consider many risks caused by social, technological, environmental, economic and political factors. As you can see in Africa the many realtors I know are not Africans. They are actually investors from other continents that are coming in Africa to invest but again there are few smart African investors that are doing a very good job in Africa but the ones that are dominating the most in this Real Estate market in Africa are the foreigners in my opinion. I do think that we must encourage and educate our youth in Africa to take these risks and join the Real Estate marked, because out there are a lot of smart people waiting on opportunities, so we need to promote and encourage our youth a lot more than we doing, give them more opportunities than obstacles in their way of becoming maybe successful people in the Real Estate market.
Africa has a lot to learn from the outside, a lot as I answered you here in Africa the foreigners are the ones that are investing in Africa.
Briefly tell us about your foundation?
JLE Foundation was founded last year somewhere in 2014. I decided to actually create this foundation for people with Asthma and Cancer in Africa because of a very deep personal reason close to my soul. It’s a non-profit foundation that benefits all the people around East Africa that were diagnosed with respiratory diseases as Asthma and another hard and dreadful disease as cancer. We are working together with City of Hope a national medical center a not-for-profit clinical research center, hospital and graduate medical school located in Duarte, California, United States, together we are organizing many educational and fundraising programs in East Africa.
As a young entrepreneur, what’s the most important lesson you have learnt?
The first lesson I learnt on my journey to a successful career was that you really have to be committed to that one thing you want to do, and as I always said make the best of it, and the very last lesson I have learnt was humility. After all the work and dedication I have put on, after I started to enjoy the success of my work and to enjoy the benefits of my work I learnt to be humble more than I was before, because I am a man that believes and fears God and I can’t remember a verse of the bible that says …*God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble* so in this journey to success you really have to be focused, and motivated but also have a faith in something in my case is God always .
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