Being fired, laid off, or removed from a powerful company can feel like a career ending. But for some, it becomes a drive towards success. Mexican-American real estate mogul Fernando De Leon quit his job at Goldman Sachs after being told he wasn’t the best fit for the $293.4 billion bank — and that setback put him on the path to creating a billion-dollar empire.
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, De Leon recalled that, early in his career, he was told by a boss: “You should find something else to do.”
Also read:
Continues after advertising
“Basically it was like, ‘Dude, you might be the worst analyst Goldman Sachs has ever hired.’”
The billionaire who built his own fortune was surprised to hear the criticism, but now credits it with making a positive change in his life. De Leon began his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs in 2001, after completing his bachelor’s degree at Harvard University.
But after just a few years, his colleagues at the global bank realized his true potential lay outside the company.
He was praised for his entrepreneurial spirit while being gently ushered out of the influential financial institution; however, leaving the Wall Street bank ended up being a blessing in disguise that propelled his career to its current level.
“He said, ‘Look, one day you’re going to come back as a customer of this company, but today you really need to find something else to do.’ And it was great advice,” De Leon said. “For five seconds, it hurt, but it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me, because it was true. I belonged out there, building something.”
The Texas-born businessman says he left Goldman Sachs with about $80,000 to $100,000 in savings from bonuses he received at the bank, money accumulated throughout his youth and income from some properties he owned.
Continues after advertising
From then on, De Leon dove headfirst into the real estate market, starting to negotiate land purchase options: paying an initial fee to obtain the exclusive right to acquire an area for a previously defined price and within a previously defined period.
In the early years, the billionaire said he made some bad deals and even considered abandoning the sector, convinced that he would not be able to succeed.
“I had a string of bad deals. I made enough mistakes that I almost gave up,” explained De Leon, saying that he even told his wife that he would look for a regular job.
Continues after advertising
“She said, ‘Look, you can’t do this, because if you do, it’s going to drive me crazy. You can’t work for anyone. You need to get back out there, get back on your feet again. Just try again… You need to believe in yourself.'” And the rest is history.
In 2006, he founded Leon Capital Group, which began as a modest real estate development company in Texas. Since then, the company has expanded its activities into financial services and healthcare; De Leon himself made real estate investments with an equity value of over US$15 billion.
Thanks to success in several sectors, De Leon, now 47 years old, has a fortune estimated at an impressive US$3.1 billion.
Continues after advertising
Meet leaders who turned rejections into billion-dollar returns
Just like De Leon, every professional will face rejection or disappointment at some point in their professional life — but some manage to turn difficulties into opportunities.
Julia Stewart — a veteran executive who ran operations at several billion-dollar American casual restaurant chains — had an especially gratifying time after being passed over for the CEO role.
It was 1998, and Stewart was president of Applebee’s. The restaurant chain, which was facing difficulties, presented her with a plan: to get the company back on track and prove that she was ready to take on the coveted role of CEO.
Continues after advertising
But after spending three years transforming the business — and even doubling the company’s share price during his tenure — his boss wasn’t convinced when it came time to discuss his promotion. He told him, “No, never.”
So Stewart left the company and found the perfect opportunity to expand another brand and turn IHOP around. In 2007, it made a major acquisition: purchasing its former employer, Applebee’s, for between $2.1 billion and $2.3 billion. After the deal was completed, she called the company to announce a change in leadership.
“I called the chairman and CEO of Applebee’s and said, ‘I just wanted to say hi.’ And he said, ‘I’ve been waiting for that call,’” Stewart recalled on The Matthews Mentality podcast last year.
“And I said, ‘As you know, we announced this morning that we bought the company for $2.3 billion and we don’t need two people in the same role, so I’m going to have to let you go.’”
Spanx founder and former CEO Sara Blakely also faced constant rejection when she started getting her business off the ground in 1998.
With no prior experience in business, fashion or retail to present to investors, she began her journey with US$5,000 of her own money to transform her idea into a billion-dollar empire. But at first, most manufacturers didn’t believe in his vision.
“They always asked me the same three questions. They said, ‘And you are?’ Sara Blakely. ‘And who do you represent?’ Sara Blakely. ‘And who finances you?’ Sara Blakely,” Blakely told Fortune in a 2024 interview. “They would show me the door and say, ‘No, thank you.’”
By trusting her intuition and sticking with her business idea, Blakely turned Spanx into a $1.2 billion success in the body shaper market. In 2012, she also joined the ultra-rich list as the youngest female billionaire to build her own fortune that year, according to Forbes.
And when it comes to the founding of FedEx, one of the best-known delivery companies in the United States, the idea that would give rise to the billion-dollar giant in the sector was initially met with skepticism.
In 1965, the late founder and former CEO of FedEx, Frederick W. Smith, first presented the company’s basic concept in a paper for an economics class when he was an undergraduate at Yale University. But his professor didn’t see potential in the idea and gave the project a low grade: a C.
Smith, however, was undeterred by a bad grade. After returning from military service in the Vietnam War in 1971, he put his business plan into practice. Today, FedEx has a market value of US$98.4 billion.
2026 Fortune Media IP Limited
