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Hello dear blog readers! Who is Carlos Slim Elu, we briefly told you in this article. Today I want to provide more detailed information about his biography and how he managed to win the title of the most influential person on our planet.
Biography
Detstvo
Our hero was born in 1940 in Mexico City in a Maronite family. His father, Julio Slim Haddad, migrated from Lebanon in 1902 to avoid military service. He married the daughter of a wealthy Lebanese merchant and opened his own business, providing real estate services, and later in a prestigious area of Mexico City — a supermarket. From the very childhood of all his six children, of which Elu was the penultimate one, he taught entrepreneurship, passing on his knowledge and skills.
As first-graders, the children worked hard for their father, receiving a salary that they learned to manage. They incited and planned expenses in a notebook, which was specially issued by the father. Among the rest, Carlos was distinguished by the fact that he had a business sense, although he spent everything he earned on sweets, soda and other sweets. But by the age of 12, he decided to start investing. He opened an account dedicated specifically to stocks and acquired the assets of Banco Nacional de Mexico. And at the age of 17 he was able to earn his first million.
Entering the National Autonomous University of Mexico as an engineer, he continued to engage in stock trading, managing to teach algebra and linear programming as a student. After graduating from university in 1961, he did not want to work in his specialty, and five years later he founded his own real estate agency. Calling Inmobiliaria Carso, creating an abbreviation from the initials of his name and his beloved wife (Sumai Domit Gemayel). Having amassed a considerable fortune, Elu began to acquire various hotels and shops, with an emphasis on ensuring that even the poorest residents of Mexico could afford the goods necessary for life.
prosperity and success
Crisis in Mexico
In 1982, an economic crisis occurred in Mexico due to the inability to pay the accumulated foreign debt. And while Mexican investors in a panic sold their assets en masse, Carlos did not lose his head and bought most of them for a penny, adding part of the capital inherited from his father. This is how the Carso Group holding, known to the whole world today, appeared. Further, he became interested in the chemical, mining and metallurgical industries.
Literally by the end of the eighties, almost every resident of his country daily encountered at least one of Elu’s business sectors. By the way, it was during this period that he struck up friendly relations with Mexican President Carlos Salinasi de Gortari, which provided him with connections in the field of politics, which only added to his power and status. It was this relationship that played a decisive role in relation to the purchase of Telmex, a telecommunications company, since it was Slim who won the competition among other investors.
Monopoly
The real value of Telmex was at least $12 billion. Al managed to close a deal with a very large discount — the amount was 400 million dollars. Moreover, he paid for it for several years, taking the so-called installment plan. The President of Mexico City reported for a long time to the government and, in general, to the inhabitants of the country. But apparently, the deal between Carlos was very promising and successful. Because both did not pay much attention to the fact that the reputation was a little tarnished due to this event.
During these years (1990-2011), he was able to achieve an absolute monopoly in the telecommunications sector, also acquiring part of the assets of companies such as The New York Times, CaixaBank, America Movil, and others.
In just 10 years, despite the crisis and the poverty of the Mexicans, he managed to quadruple the number of Telmex clients. That until the 2000s was about 30 million users, thanks to the fact that he provided a loan to buy a cell phone, and a good discount on the starter package. This helped even the most impoverished citizens of Mexico City to be always in touch. The success story of a telecommunications company gave him the idea that it was worth organizing a separate holding for her, with the main focus on further promotion. So in 1996, Carso Global Telecom appeared.
No. 1 in the world
In 2002, Forbes magazine included him for the first time in their list of the richest people on the planet, thanks to a net worth of $11 billion. And in just 8 years, approximately $ 43 billion was added to his fortune, which ensured him the title of the first rich man on the planet. In 2011, he decided to relieve himself of the leadership of his empire, leaving only a seat on the board of directors of the investment company Impulsora. Despite this, his income is growing rapidly, and in 2016 his capital amounted to $ 86 billion. To date, there is no exact data on how much money he has, but it is known that Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, along with Mark Zuckerberg, ousted him from the first positions, according to Forbes magazine. But he is still rightfully considered the most influential person in Mexico.
Family
Slim tied the knot with Sumai in 1966. They were happy together for 32 years, until disaster struck — their beloved died in 1999. Together they gave birth to six beautiful children, 3 sons and 3 daughters. The eldest son, named Carlos Domit, is now the chairman of his father’s holding company, while the rest manage America Movil and Grupo Financiero Inbursa. Slim argues that parents usually want to do everything to ensure that their children have a happy life, but his other principle is to teach them so that they can do it on their own and at the level they want.
Elu grew up in an atmosphere from childhood, where the most important value in a person’s life is the family. Therefore, he brought up his children in the spirit of the old traditions. He even once said in an interview that each person should work no more than three days a week in order to devote the remaining four to close people, for whom it is worth living and giving everything to the fullest. Devotion to his wife ensured him the title of the most desirable widower in all of Mexico City.
Unlike many famous and rich men, he is not at all greedy for models and other glamorous young ladies. Carlos prefers to spend his free time on the coast of his country not in the company of beauties, but with his children and grandchildren. By the way, there is a museum that he created and named after his beloved wife «Sumai».
Character
Hobbies
Elu, in addition to his family, loves baseball very much. So much so that it can tell about the statistics, rating and results of any athlete from any tournament. The players themselves probably do not remember such details. Only for some reason he owns three football clubs, not baseball teams. He also loves art, collecting a collection of works by Picasso and Van Gogh, as well as works by Rodin. He is fond of history, and loves to «dig» dossiers on every famous or familiar person.
That is, before meeting with someone, the entire biography of the interlocutor will be studied, and not a single slightest detail will be left without attention. Carlos lives by the principle of «forewarned is forearmed», thanks to which he has so many useful and necessary connections. By the way, at least once his sons gave him a laptop for Christmas, he does not use it at all, preferring to keep all the information in his head, trusting only his memory.
Economy
In the business world, he is known as a very economical and frugal person. You will not believe it, but, despite his billions, at important business meetings, when he shakes hands, Rolex watches not worthy of a magnate become noticeable, but old ones with batteries, remember, there used to be such ones with a built-in calculator? Yes, and he lives, in principle, not in the coolest mansion, but in the house where his family has been living for several decades.
Slim is not embarrassed by the usual plastic lighters that are sold at every gas station, he calmly lights his favorite cigars with them. What can we say, if his office is not on the top floor of a skyscraper, but in the basement, where there is not a single window. And he teaches employees this philosophy, saying that even in the simplest and most successful years a person is obliged to save money, restraining impulses of extravagance. Then, in the event of a crisis and any other trouble, he will be able to stay afloat, maintaining balance and stability.
For a long time, Slim was considered a miser, due to the fact that in a country where poverty reigns, he grows rich and refuses to help the unprotected population. He explained the refusal of charity quite logically, declaring that he was not Santa Claus to fulfill someone’s desires. Despite his condition, he will not eradicate poverty in any way, because the problem itself is in people and their attitude to money. And if we compare wealth with a garden, then we need to share the fruits, and not the trees, emphasizing that those who are unable to earn will squander what they have been given and return to their former lack of money. Therefore, instead of deductions, he built schools and tried to create as many jobs as possible so that people themselves could provide for themselves without relying on anyone.
Charity
But after the death of his beloved, he revised his values and created his own institute to fight cancer and diabetes, which he called the Carlos Slim Institute of Health. And after he was diagnosed with heart problems, Slim completely changed tactics. He donated about $4 billion to charitable foundations. Having explained the changes by those, after death he will still not be able to enjoy his wealth, taking it with him.
He is also the main sponsor of the Nicholas Negroponte program, which consists in giving a laptop to every child. And in the fund of Bill Clinton, 42 on the account of the President of the United States, which is concerned about the poverty of Latin Americans, Slim credited approximately $ 100 million.
By the way, freely dealing with such large sums, our tycoon to this day carefully keeps in his office that first notebook with which he began his acquaintance with finance.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today, dear readers! As you can see, hard work and the ability to find your niche, to understand what exactly you want in this life, when work brings not only profit, but also pleasure, are the main companions of all successful people, whether they are millionaires or even billionaires. For example, Eugene Kaspersky works at least 27 days a month, and the working day was more than 8 hours, to which many are accustomed. You can read more about his development path here. Subscribe to updates, so as not to miss the release of new articles. Good luck and strength on the way to your dream!
The material was prepared by Zhuravina Alina.