Financial Lessons From:
….CARLOS SLIM, the Current World Richest MAN….
…. 25 Interesting Things About The World’s RICHEST MAN…..
He might be called Slim but this guy is neither slim in size
or wealth. According to the recently published List by FORBES, CARLOS SLIM HELU
a Mexican is currently the WORLD richest man with a net worth of $73bn, while
Bill Gates of United States came Second with a Net worth of the $67bn.
Below are 25 Interesting Things about The World’s RICHEST
MAN, Carlos Slim:
Enjoy Reading:
1-
He makes about $30 million per day (that’s
almost N5 billion naira).
2- The 1st
Mexican to top the list and the first from the developing world, he is worth an
eye-popping $73 billion. To appreciate this, he can spend N200,000 every minute
for the next 100 years before finishing his money.
3- He lost
his wife of 33 years, Soumaya Domit Gemayel) in 1999 to kidney failure, and has
not remarried since. Their marriage produced six children (three sons and three
daughters). He described his wife as the love of his life and he learnt a lot
from her about sculpture and painting. Their honeymoon was full of gallery
visits.
4- First
named the world’s wealthiest in 2007 when he surpassed Warren Buffett and Bill
Gates, he has been ranked by Forbes to be the richest man on earth since 2010.
At a time, he gained $23 billion in just 14 months. That’s like double of
Dangote’s wealth -in just 14 months! Before he broke the jinx, Americans were
the world’s richest for sixteen years. Something tells me Dangote may emerge
the richest man on earth in a decade or two.
5- Born on
the 28th of January, 1940 in Mexico City, he is 73 years old and his parents
were originally from Lebanon before migrating to Mexico.
6- He is a
Maronite Christian. Across the globe, Maronites number just about 3.5 million.
They are called thus because they follow Saint Maron, a 5th-century Syriac
Christian monk who spent all his life on a mountain in Syria. He taught
miraculous healing and Christian monotheism. Like many other minorities in a wicked
world as ours, Maronites have been persecuted over time, with over 50,000 of
them being massacred in the 1800s.
7- Interestingly,
the world’s richest man has some modest sides: he drives himself always even
though his convoy of bodyguards closely follow, he lives in a
not-too-spectacular six-bedroom house for the past 40 years, and is a mile from
his office, a simple building. He says he doesn’t need a bigger house and asks
in Spanish-accented English: ‘What I do with a house 10 times bigger?’ In a big
house, you don’t see your family, never.
8- He has no
interest in luxurious superyachts or palaces scattered across the globe and for
most of the 1990s, he was using a plastic calculator watch (it doubles as his
calculator). He doesn’t indulge in designers but confessed he has a weakness
for expensive Cuban cigars and of course, fine art. His arts are said to worth
$6 billion but funnily, he has a debt of $1.5 billion.
9- He does
not travel widely and has no home outside Mexico, something he is very proud
of. He stays up late at night reading history books, especially about the
legendary Genghis Khan and his art of deceptive warfare. And he never overpays
for anything. At a time in Venice, he haggled with a store owner for hours just
to get a 10% discount on a tie.
10- He is
crazy about baseball, supports the New York Yankees and has a vast knowledge of
the games and player statistics.
11- He is
unassuming and rebuffs criticism saying: “I think sometimes when you are
successful in business, you have others trying to turn public opinion against
you because they are trying to compete with you.” He says money is not his goal
and becoming the richest in the world is not a competition. He just wants to be
a good businessman.
12- He also
said that he has no interest in being the world’s richest, that making money is
not his goal. He has a surprisingly simple strategy for making money: buy up
undervalued companies cheaply and build them into powerful monopolies (why am I
thinking of the Oracle of Omaha here?) Of course, he enjoys broad support from
the Mexican government and is a good friend of the President. When the Mexican
Revolution broke out in 1910, Slim’s father bought the companies of his rivals
who were fleeing the violence at very cheap rates and by the time the dust
settled, he was many times richer.
13- Today, he
owns the largest companies not only in Mexico but in all of South America. One
is America Movil, the 3rd largest mobile network operator in the world,
providing services to almost 252 million subscribers in 18 countries. That
makes him the Adenuga of Latin America, which also brings to mind an
interesting thought: if Mike Adenuga of Nigeria can control all of Africa’s
telecommunications, he can easily become the richest man on earth.
14- He is also
into mining, banking, insurance, railways, bicycles, hotels, construction,
drilling, airlines, tobacco, cement, retail, restaurants and printing. Mexicans
joke that he owns every cactus (a type of desert plant) in the country. He also
owns a part of New York Times, Firestone and Citigroup (owners of Citibank). In
short sha, he controls over 200 companies (he says he has lost count) and plans
to replicate his success on a global scale. Adenuga, buckle up o!
15- He was
taught business practices by his dad, and by 12, he had already bought
government bonds and shares in a bank in Mexico. He later proceeded to the
university to study civil engineering while also lecturing algebra and linear
programming (a mathematical discipline that includes knowing the best outcome
of an event, also related to the concepts of maximum profit or lowest cost). He
keeps costs as low as possible. His dad (who later died when he was 13) also
taught him the art of book-keeping, record-keeping and how to read financial
sheets, a skill that would be with him for life.
16- He owns
the Carlos Slim Foundation, which built the $70 million Museo Soumaya, a
private museum in honor of his wife (see images in the website below). The
museum, covered with 16,000 pieces of hexagonal aluminum sheets to reflect the
sunlight, was designed by his son-in-law, holds over 66,000 art pieces worth
over $700 million and these include works of Da Vinci, Rodin, Van Gogh, Dali
and Monet. That reminds me o, do we have a national museum in Nigeria with
50,000 art pieces? I’m not sure, just asking. His foundation, found in 1986,
has been endowed with $4 billion and it focuses on health, sports and
education.
17- Like
other billionaires, he has come under fire and has been criticized for being a
ruthless monopolist (but seriously, can anyone become a billionaire or stay one
without being aggressive? Forget the baby face of Adenuga jooor…lol!). His
company controls 90% of the landline market in Mexico while he has also been
accused of charging some of the highest fees in the world. His wealth is equal
to 5% of all of Mexico’s economic output in a year (it was 7% at a time). Now,
that’s more than a small slice of pizza. Critics say his domination has
prevented the growth of smaller companies, decreased labour wages and increased
unemployment where 50% live in poverty but he responds: “When you live for
others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be
remembered.”
18- His extent
of influence is perfectly captured by the Telegraph UK: The reach of his
dominion is so large that the average Mexican will wake up on sheets bought
from a Slim-owned store; buy their morning bread from a Slim-owned bakery; and
drive to work in a Slim-insured car. They will call friends on a Slim-owned
mobile phone, lunch at a Slim-owned restaurant, and smoke Slim-owned
cigarettes. It is little wonder that the country is referred to as
“Slimlandia”. Well, is Dangote not doing the same thing to us?
19- He is a
philanthropist but when Bill Gates and Warren Buffett pledged to donate at
least 50% of their charities, Slim stubbornly refused to follow suit. He said:
“But why half? Why half? I think it will be a big mistake that companies like
Microsoft, Apple, the leaders of the world in technology be sold by the
founders to put the cash to fund charities. They shouldn’t. It’s more important
that they continue to manage the companies.” He didn’t stop there: “(Bill)
Gates has to study how he can (fight poverty) in the same way that Microsoft…succeeded
in business, because charity has not solved the problem.” He bluntly stated
that he has no intention of retiring from business to focus on charitable
activities.
“It’s based on my conviction that poverty is not fought with
donations, charity or even public spending, but that you fight it with health,
education and jobs.” “Poverty isn’t solved with donations,” he once said,
stating that building businesses is often more beneficial to for society than
“going around like Santa Claus.” (Do you agree?)
He also said: Wealth is like an orchard – you have to share
the fruit, not the trees. With the orchard, what you have to do is make it
grow, reinvest it to make it bigger, or diversify into other areas.” Me I kuku
trust Naija billionaires, they will give they all they have to charity without
blinking an eye…lol!
20- He left
control to his sons and sons-in-law to run the major arms of his business after
a heart surgery. Talk of keeping it within the family. That reminds me of
Alhassan Dantata, the greatgrandfather of Dangote and the richest man in West
Africa told his kids shortly before he died: they should marry within the
family.
21- He has no
computer in his office and prefers to keep his records in carefully-written
notebooks. (I thought someone would die in this era without a computer) He has
a personal laptop but he doesn’t like using it. He says: “I’m a paper man, not
electronic.”
22- He has
been described as being avuncular and talkative. But hey, watch it, he can also
lose his temper quite easily. For now, he is still untouchable in Mexico, and
according to one government official: “When Slim dies, we can finally regulate
his kids.” His kids also studied in Mexican secondary schools and universities
and did not go abroad to get their degrees.
23-Although Slim has many technology-based business empires,
he agrees he does not understand how the technologies work. When he was asked a
technical question in March 2007, he responded with courtesy: ‘Senorita, I have
no idea what you are talking about’.
24. He has the largest private collection in the world of
the works of French sculptor Auguste Rodin.
25-He said he learnt some of his secrets of spotting
opportunities early by reading Alvin Toffler’s book, Revolutionary Wealth which
he thoroughly read, jotted down, heavily underlined and made comments inside
his own dog-eared copy. He is now very good friends with the author. Many
people today would rather perish in poverty and ignorance than read or gain any
form of tangible knowledge.
WOW!
QUESTIONS
·
Guys, What are the lessons you learnt after
reading this write-up about Carlos Slim?
·
Would you say he is selfish as he refused to
donate heavily to CHARITY?
·
If you are as rich as CARLOS SLIM, would you
live a simple life the way he is living?
·
Do you see DANGOTE ALIKO of Nigeria become WORLD
RICHEST MAN someday?
·
GUYS, Do you Wish and Hope to be the richest
person in the world someday?
·
In your Own way, what are your strategies to get
to the top?