The wealthy businessman Carlos Slim Helú, is the person with the most money in all of Mexico. Slim is a businessman of Lebanese descent who, according to the latest listing in Forbes magazine, has a fortune amounting to USD 55,930 million.
This, in addition to giving him the title of the wealthiest businessman in Mexico, also places him 16th among the richest in the world. In addition, Slim became the richest person in the world from 2010 to 2013, surpassing the one who had long remained in the top position, American businessman Bill Gates, owner of the Microsoft company.
Throughout his life, Slim has been followed by some journalists and documentarians to publicize the magnate's life. What are his hobbies, what his life has been like since childhood, who his parents were, and at what point his fortune began to grow, are some of the facts that have been released about Slim by these journalists.
Some of the communicators who have followed their lives in this way to make it known in books, have been Diego Enrique Osorno, a Mexican journalist who wrote the book: Slim. Political biography of the richest Mexican in the world. Another journalist who followed Slim is José Martínez Mendoza, author of the book The Secrets of the Richest Man in the World. Carlos Slim.
This last writer has mentioned that, on some occasion, he asked Slim what his salary was, to which he replied that he had been allocated a salary of 300,000 pesos, and that with this money, he should have enough for his expenses, and also save.
Slim owns some of the most important companies in Mexico, which have an international presence, such as Grupo Carso, a name that comes from the initials of his name, Carlos, and the initials of his wife's name, Soumaya; Grupo Sanborns, Telmex and América Móvil, among others.
Carlos Slim Helú was born on January 28, 1940, so he is currently 82 years old. His father arrived in Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century, from Lebanon, fleeing the yoke of the Ottoman Empire, which forced young people to join the army when they were 15 years old. Julián Slim Haddad, his father, arrived in Mexico when he was just 14 years old, without knowing Spanish.
Slim Haddad was able to take advantage of some opportunities that came his way. Slim's father, during the Mexican Revolution, took advantage of the fact that many people fled the country and finished off their properties, to buy them. He also teamed up with one of his brothers, and set up a store called The Star of the East, which made his fortune grow.
Slim learned from his father to have an impeccable financial education, because he taught him to have all his income and expenses written down in a notebook, so that at the end of each week, he would sit together and analyze what he had spent his money on, advising him not to spend it on unnecessary or banal things. He also did this with his brothers, and in this way, Slim learned to manage his money in a correct and efficient way, which eventually paid off.
In addition, Slim had his first approach to business from a very young age, because as a child, the tycoon began selling sweets under the stairs of his house, which was in front of Lincoln Park, in Polanco. There, he sold his products to his relatives, like his cousins and uncles.
Carlos Slim Helú studied Civil Engineering, at the Máxima Casa de Estudios de México, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and was married to Soumaya Slim Gemayel for 33 years, until she died in 1999, due to kidney problems. The couple had, in total, six children.
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