Provident CEO Leon Backes Inspires Graduates at University of Missouri (Mizzou) Commencement
Encourages Students to be “relentlessly curious,” Shares Stories of Humble Beginnings & Hard Work
Growing up as the eldest of nine kids in a small chaotic house next to the railroad tracks, Leon Backes recalls his early lessons about hard work and tenacity as a youth in Osage City, Missouri.
A little town where his dad and uncle ran a gas station and tire shop, Leon got his first job washing dishes at the diner next to the gas station in Osage, the summer after sixth grade for 75 cents an hour.
“That summer I saved $300 and from then on I never had to ask my parents for money again. I remember that it was an incredible feeling of freedom to be self-sufficient.,” he said. It was a pattern repeated throughout his school days, working weekends and later nights at the gas station saving for college. Leon recalls with a laugh how he’d try not to get too dirty on Friday nights, so he could go to a high school party afterwards. “Invariably, about a half hour before closing an 18-wheeler full of livestock would show up with a flat tire,” chuckled Leon. He’d crawl under and change the tire, leaving him smelling of cattle. Party plans went out the window.
“So, I've been told that that builds character,” he said. “Now I don't know about that, but I know one thing, it certainly showed me that I need to go get a college education and not change truck tires for a living.”
It was just one of many amusing and inspiring anecdotes Leon shared as the keynote speaker at the Winter 2026 graduation ceremony for Mizzou’s Trulaske College of Business– the same place Leon earned his degree in 1979. Today, he is the founder and president of Provident, a $7B privately held real estate and investment firmbuilding shopping centers, master planned communities, data centers and industrial parks around the country. But back then, he was a young college student trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life.
That answer came during a college career day at Mizzou, when a young real estate developer came to speak to the business students about what he did for a living. “He diagrammed out on the blackboard how he had just built a Kroger shopping center. Nobody ever explained this to me before, so it was kind of like a light bulb went off. He described how he found the land, negotiated the lease, and brought the project to life. Well, that was it. I knew I'd found my calling.”
To land his first job, Leon started cold calling every commercial real estate firm in the Kansas City phone book. Almost all of them said the same thing. “Rejection was constant. You had to learn to get a thick skin,” he said. “But I learned to persevere, I learned that success doesn't come from talent alone. It comes from showing up every day, even when it's really hard.”
His diligence paid off and Leon ended up working for twin brothers, who were top real estate salespeople. After a couple of years of learning the ropes, he and a partner decided to launch their own firm. Leon was just 26 years old. “We bought and sold land and built shopping centers, office buildings and self-storage projects. We were the young guns of Dallas real estate making lots of money.” In 1986, it all came crashing down when the Texas oil and gas industry and banking industry collapsed. Suddenly, their projects were in trouble.
“My partner left to move to California. I had a young son and a mortgage, I couldn't leave. I remember those days. I remember fearing every time the doorbell rang that it was another process server serving me with another lawsuit over another deal that had gone bad.”
At the time, Leon realized he had two choices. “Give up, file bankruptcy, get a real job or gut it out. Leon chose to gut it out. “I learned how to renegotiate debt, restructure deals, and just survive, he recalled. “It was the hardest part of my life, but also really the most transformative.”
Those years of struggle became the foundation for everything that followed, said Leon. Today, Provident has over 100 employees, has invested in more than $9 billion in real estate projects nationwide to date, and has partnered with some of the largest financial institutions on the planet. Leon’s incredible success was honored in 2021, with his induction into the North Texas Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame.
“So you might ask, ‘well, what does this story mean for you?” he said directly to the graduating class. “Well, I think it means you don't have to have it all figured out today. I didn't. It means your background doesn't define your future. It means grit, hustle and heart matter more than pedigree. You'll face rejection, you'll face setbacks. But if you keep showing up, keep learning, keep persevering, keep believing and gut it out, you'll find your own way to success.”
For his parting words, Leon left the graduates with some advice for entering today's business world.”Be relentlessly curious. The world is changing fast with AI. It's not just a buzzword. It's reality. Learn to use it, learn to leverage it. Don't let change be an excuse. Aggressively embrace change. Expect it, own it. Learn constantly. Build relationships, not just resumes. Your network will open more doors for you than your GPA ever did. Be the person others want to work with.”
“Your journey starts now,” he concluded. “Make it count. Thank you and congratulations.”
Watch the commencement speech from Trulaske College of Business, Missouri State University.
