The Corner Office

Self-made billionaires are something to behold, their ambition and drive to achieve their status as the richest men and women in the world is a feat to be learned from. Many of us wonder how men like Carlos Slim Helu, the richest man in the world, knew where to start and what to buy and sell in order to get to where he is today. Dubbed the richest man in the world by Forbes, Helu’s net worth accounted for $63.3 billion in 2011.

Born in Mexico to Lebanese parents Carlos Slim Helu was taught the art of good business by his father, Julian, who first started an Arabic magazine for the Lebanese community in Mexico and then went on to buy a dry goods store – La Estrella del Oriente – and turn it into a success. At the tender age of 12 Carlos used the business savvy his father had passed on to him and bought shares in a Mexican bank. At an age where boys are more interested in riding bikes, watching movies and looking at girls, Carlos Helu was already setting his future in stone. In 1966, at the age of 26 Carlos Slim Helu was already worth a whopping $40 million. For a man who started out in a dry goods store with his dad and not professional serviced offices in London, New York or Hong Kong, Carlos Helu knew that regardless where he was, he knew where he was going.

Carlos could easily have sat back and enjoyed what is not only considered a huge fortune now but was a mammoth amount of money in the 1960’s, instead he chose to further expand his empire by concentrating his efforts on construction, mining and real estate businesses. At a time when Mexico was going through one of its worst economic runs, banks and businesses were closing and collapsing, Carlos, using the same principles as Warren Buffet, invested heavily in large corporations that were crumbling, only to gain substantially from these investments when the economy began to recover.

Like most multi-millionaires and billionaires, Carlos Slim Helu is a philanthropist who understands that in this world very few people enjoy the luxuries, perks and benefits allowed the super-rich, and in May 2011 he was noted in the Forbes Biggest Givers, for donating $4 billion dollars of his fortune to the various organisations he set-up.

Still voted as the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim Helu concentrates his efforts in South and North America. With time, perhaps one of his six children will set-up shop in offices in Cardiff, and bring some of Helu business-minded direction to the other side of the pond.