Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Monday, January 6th. Today on Forbes, how daily border

crossings helped turn this Mexican-American into a billionaire. Decades before his holding

company, Leon Capital Group, became a nearly $3 billion in estimated value conglomerate, Fernando de Leon was a kid living in

poverty in Mexico and crossing the border daily to go to school in Texas.

The only one in his family born in a U.S. hospital, which guaranteed him citizenship and access

to American schools, he'd finished classes in Brownsville, then commute back to his hometown of

Matamoros, where he yet again went to school at night with farmers' kids.

His Mexican teachers sometimes covered the same material, but earlier in the year, helping him

stay ahead of his U.S. peers. De Leon, now 46 years old, says that when he was later accepted to Harvard, the first

person to whom he showed his letter was the U.S. border agent, quote, who had seen me growing up

since I was five years old every single day. That daily trek led him beyond the Ivy League

to a brief stint on Wall Street, but ultimately steered him back to

Texas, where he struck out on his own. He says, quote, it's company ownership that creates wealth.

That's one of the most hidden secrets in American capitalism. The other, for him, has been leaning

into what he knows, starting with developing working and middle-class home

lots and apartment buildings, then building other businesses that provide consumer essentials,

such as health care.

Today, his Leon capital has 12 operating companies, over a third of which are worth nine

figures that span 11 industries.

You won't find him developing casinos or ultra-high-end mansions.

Instead, he makes lower-risk bets on the services that people always need,

meaning their markets are less cyclical and have more predictable growth.

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