“Success doesn't always lead to happiness”: Carlos Slim's advice for young people

Last Wednesday, Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helú, who is the person with the most money in Mexico, and one of the richest men in the world, participated in the 14th edition of the Youth Congress, organized by the Alumni Association of the High School of the Panamerican University.

Slim sent a message to the young people attending the congress, and spoke about various topics, including a letter he wrote in 1994, and what success is for him.

The magnate, who has an estimated fortune, according to the American financial magazine Forbes, of USD 55,930 million, was asked what he recommended to young people to be successful in the new technological and knowledge civilization. Faced with this, he replied that he had a letter to young people, explaining that success is something external. “I think we need to go beyond success as a satisfying intern. Success at work, success in sports, success is a recognition of third parties (...) success does not always lead to happiness,” said the businessman.

He commented that if someone's goal is success at any cost, it wasn't the best thing, because some other values and principles must be put before what can be professional, economic, or in the activity you carry out. “The most important thing, as I told you, in my opinion, is family, and within all that, that you have various successes, you have to take great care of yourself, you have to manage them, that they don't lose you, that they don't take you out, that you don't lose your floor, don't get alienated with it, we see it in the athletes, in the actresses, in the actors, how they alienate themselves, then of the success they earn.”

He said that if that happens, he begins to lead a life without passion, so he believes that one should seek the path of happiness, inner peace, harmony, family atmosphere and friends, and not have as his sole objective growth, to be the best boxer, or to be a champion in something.

Slim talked about taking care not to fall into these external temptations, which he described as “poison” that they get into people. He also explained that we must have positive thoughts, not negative ones, and be optimistic, “but with a firm, patient optimism that always pays off. When young people go down the pessimism route, and they feel that they can't do this, that the other can't, they end up in mediocrity, then you have to take care not to be mediocre, you have to take care of what kind of competitiveness one seeks in life, but above all, you are always satisfied with yourself, because we can't to deceive”.

The telecommunications magnate said that preparation is very important, because “in the agricultural society, I think that 95%, if not 98% of the population, were illiterate. When the printing press was invented, it had little significance because people could not read (...) at that time it didn't matter either, there was no social mobility, there was no interest in people who were born very marginalized joining society at higher levels or getting educated, only progressing by arms, the military side, or for example, the Aztecs who were very advanced, there it was interesting, that the sons of slaves were born free (...) today, in a world of knowledge, information, technology, you have to prepare yourself, for example, in my case, I haven't used ATMs, but after a while when I have to change money or pay something in which the credit doesn't work, the ticket doesn't work, the checkbook doesn't work, I don't know how I'm going to do it,” he said.

He said that you have to learn and prepare, because whatever your interest is, you must be prepared, “in addition, the more culture you have, the more knowledge you have about it, the better your life is, the fuller your life,” he said.

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