Jordan Grives believes persistence ad passion are the key drivers for business success

He’s only 31 and worth about $40m but Brisbane’s wealthiest business person under 40 says it been a sh**load of hard work getting to the top.

Brisbane-based entrepreneur Jordan Grives is very clear when asked for the recipe to his success.

“I know it’s a cliche but it’s all about having persistence and passion for whatever you’re doing and being prepared to do a shitload of hard work,” he says.

The 31-year with an estimated $40m fortune is the richest Brisbanite under the age of 40 according to the Australian Financial Review’s Young Rich List.

The St Peters Lutheran College old boy founded Fonebox Group, an inbound telecommunications service for businesses, when he was 18 years old.

Brisbane’s Jordan Grives is taking stock of his success. Picture: AAP: Mark Calleja

He sold it to US internet services firm J2 Global in 2016 for $30m and then founded Fone Dynamics, a messaging and call analytics business which he said was a “sexier” version of his first business.

Ferrari-driving Brisbane entrepreneur Jordan Grives has just offloaded his Fone Dynamics business in a deal worth up to $8.4 million

Jordan Grives gets a mighty buzz when his Brisbane bar Copado is packed and pumping

Jordan Grives sells Fonebox for $30 million

He sold that last year to South Australian internet services provider Uniti Wireless and joined the growing company’s executive team armed with a large slab of shares.

Now called Uniti Group after buying rival OptiComm for $500m plus, the company is nearing $1bn in market capitalisation and knocking on the door of the ASX 200.

Mr Grives said he has taken as step back from the venture capital fund side of the Capital J Investments company and is focusing on his role at chief executive of speciality services at Uniti Group and playing the stock market.

He said he is enjoying working with and learning from a “pretty awesome team” at Uniti Group team.

“Ever since I left school I have sold 1300 number solutions. So you find a niche and you persist at it,” Mr Grives said.

“Nothing changes. You don’t get lucky — although you do make your own luck — it’s the constant grind of thousands of meetings, thousands of plane trips — when we could do them — and tens of thousands phone calls, pitching products and being told no.

“I’m never quite happy with where I am and always think I could do more. Perhaps I should take a step back and be happy where I’m at.”

Other Queenslanders on the Young Rich list are:

● $788m Peter Greensill, 39, farmer and owner of stake in Greensill Capital. Bundaberg

● $107m Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic, 27, owners of teeth whitening firm HiSmile. Gold Coast

● $59m Anson Zhang, 38, co-founder of Brisbane-based One Stop Warehouse (now living in Sydney)

● $37m Jeff Yu, 39, co-founder of Brisbane-based One Stop Warehouse (now living in Sydney)

● $36m Samantha Stosur, 36, tennis player. Gold Coast

● $28m Ash Barty, 24, tennis player. Springfield