On March 11th 2011, Carlos Slim Helu
was declared the richest man in the world for the second consecutive time by
Forbes magazine. While many people admire, criticize or detest his achievement;
not many know how he came about his wealth.
Now how did Carlos Slim Helu become
the richest man in the world? How did he become a billionaire? Well, read on as
I highlight Carlos Slim
Helu’s secret to becoming the richest man in the world.
Carlos Slim
Helu is a Mexican entrepreneur and businessman involved in a varied
group of companies that include telecommunications, retail, banking and
insurance, technology, and auto parts manufacturing businesses. He is the
wealthiest Mexican man, the richest Latin American, and one of the top ten
richest men in the world.
His father Yusef Salim Haddad emigrated from Lebanon and opened a dry goods
store in Mexico. His father has always emphasized understanding finance to all
his children. Carlos showed special interest in finance from his childhood but
he faced hardships after his father death when he was only 13. He spent
subsequent 13 years focusing on business and grew his fortune to $40 million.
He completed his engineering from the Universidad National Autonomy de Mexico.
After few years, he started his business venture Inversora Bursáti, a stoke
brokerage. In 1982, when Mexico was in economic crisis, he took over Mexican
Affiliates of General Tire, Reynolds and Sanborn’s chain stores and cafeterias
and his fortune accelerated with the recovery of country. After some times, he
bought some US based brands Hershey’s chocolate, Denny’s coffee shops and
Firestone tires and merged them into a large firm named Seguros Inbursa.in
1990, he took over the Teléfonos de México with his American and French
partners. Gradually he started promoting handsets with prepaid service which
became tremendously successful. In recent years, his company America Móvil is
called to be the Latin America’s largest wireless service provider. By 2007, his
companies estimated value reached $150 billion. Besides being the owner of ISP, the Largest Internet Service Provider in Mexico and Prodigy of United States, he is also the owner of over 200 retail stores and computer retailer CompUSA across the Puerto Rico and USA.
According to Forbes 2012, he is the world’s richest businessman whose net worth is $69 billion.
Awards and recognition:
He has been honored with Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor by Mexico’s Chamber of Commerce.
In 2003, Latin Trade Magazine chose his CEO of the year.
He is also a Commander in the Belgian Order of Leopold II and “gold patron” of the American Academy of Achievement.
There are too many things we can understand it and learn it from Carlos Slim Helu; actually I learned something is nice from this success person like:
Lesson 1: Don't Follow the Crowd or the Market maybe you will not get what you are looking for if you follow it.
Lesson 2: Everything Has a Bottom Line.
Lesson 3: You Can Control Your Own Destiny.
Lesson 4: Make Your Company a Lean, Mean, Operating Machine.
