I have been good at investing in stocks since I was a child.
Elu was born in a Lebanese immigrant family in Mexico on 1940, and his parents moved to Mexico on 1902. Elu's father is a businessman who successfully developed real estate in Mexico in his early years and accumulated a lot of wealth. When Elu was only 12 years old, his father gave him a sum of about $20, and Elu quickly made the money appreciate several times, which can be said to be very business-minded. /kloc-By the time he was 0/7 years old, Elu had learned to trade stocks. When talking about his father's influence on himself, Elu always felt that his father was his business mentor. "My father taught me to have courage. No matter what kind of crisis I encounter, Mexico will not disappear. If I have confidence in this country, then any reasonable investment will be rewarded. "
From 65438 to 0962, Elu graduated from the Civil Engineering Department of National Autonomous University of Mexico. After graduation, Elu made extensive investments in business, covering industries from mining, manufacturing, paper making to tobacco, and almost invested whatever he earned. With his business acumen, Elu's industrial empire expanded rapidly. By the early 1980s, Elu's company had employed more than 30,000 employees, and its scale was amazing. This laid the foundation for him to go up a flight of stairs in the mall later. July 3, 2007-A Mexican financial information service website recently said that Carlos Slim He Lu, a Mexican telecom tycoon, has surpassed Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, who topped the Forbes rich list for 13 years, to become the richest man in the world.
Two opportunities make a world-class rich man.
However, Elu's wealth and status today benefit from two historical opportunities. 1982, Mexico suffered an economic crisis and its currency depreciated. In response to the economic crisis, the government nationalized some banks, which led to the withdrawal of foreign capital from Mexico. This is an excellent opportunity for Elu, who took the opportunity to take over many tobacco enterprises and restaurant chain companies on the verge of bankruptcy at relatively low prices, and gradually turned losses into profits. Due to good management, the assets of these enterprises have greatly increased in a few years.
In the 1990s, in the wave of privatization of state-owned enterprises in Mexico, Elu organized a consortium to acquire Telemex from the Mexican government, and he himself owned the controlling stake of Telemex, and invested 654.38+000 billion US dollars to update equipment in the next five years. In this way, Elu successfully turned this heavily indebted state-owned enterprise into a "cash cow". In the eyes of many people, the purchase of Mexican telephone company is the decisive factor for Elu to truly become a world-class rich man. Since then, Elu has grown bigger and bigger, and has been involved in more and more fields, from the previous manufacturing industry to real estate and finance. By 2002, Elou's wealth had reached 1 1 billion dollars, making him the richest man in Mexico and even Latin America.
Make a fortune by monopoly, causing people's dissatisfaction.
Although Elu's business mind is first-class, his success is inseparable from his country besides personal factors. In Mexico, since the independence of the country, it has never been completely out of the oligarchy's control over the economy. Before industrialization, there were big landlords, and now there are industrial oligarchs. Elu's Mexican Telephone Company controls more than 90% of Mexico's telephone business, so Elu can set its own charging standard higher than that of any other developed country, and users have no choice but to pay according to their requirements. Elu also "robbed" 72% of Mexico's mobile phone customers through American Mobile, excluding foreign competitors. Not only in the telecommunications industry, in this year's Forbes rich list, seven of Mexico's richest people in 10 are in a monopoly position, and their huge wealth is also realized through this exploitation of consumers.
Therefore, many Mexicans are quite dissatisfied with Elu's ranking third in the rich list through monopoly profits. They accused Elu of abusing monopoly, hindering the normal development of the national economy and infringing on the interests of consumers. In their view, Elu is the best embodiment of the social contradiction of the disparity between the rich and the poor and the lack of competition mechanism in Mexico. "Why are there only a handful of people with such great wealth, and most Mexicans don't even have enough to eat, and 30 million Mexicans live on less than two dollars a day?" Obrador, the recently defeated Mexican left-wing presidential candidate, said this after learning that Elu was ranked third on Forbes' rich list.
Concerned about charity, some people applaud and some criticize.
Although in the United States, many big entrepreneurs are also philanthropists, in Mexico, the rich who devote themselves to charity are rare. However, in recent years, the performance of Elu in this respect is remarkable. It turns out that the roads in the center of Mexico City are narrow and winding, and there are old buildings in the Spanish colonial era everywhere, and robbers and thieves appear from time to time. With the help of Elu, it has now become a paradise for tourist attractions and artists. In addition, Yilu donated 95,000 bicycles and 70,000 pairs of glasses to poor children for free, and provided scholarships for 6,543.8+0.5 million college students. In the next few years, Elu will announce another major charity initiative. He will invest billions of dollars to set up three charities to help the poor in Mexico receive education, enjoy medical security and daily entertainment, and provide low-cost computers for low-income families.
Some people applaud Elu's charity, while others think it is to beautify the image of its monopoly oligarch. Many critics believe that instead of donating money to society, Elu might as well lower the prices of some services so that people can get tangible benefits. In addition, many people think that although Elu is doing charity, he spares no effort to maintain his monopoly position, and the profits obtained through monopoly are much more than the money donated. "Carlos Slim (Elu) may be spreading his wealth, but he will do his best to protect the monopoly," said Pamela Starr, a Latin American analyst at the Eurasian Group in Washington.
Living frugally but collecting Rodin sculptures.
Despite his huge wealth, Elu's life is still quite frugal. Compared with many super-rich, Elu can even be described as stingy. The place where he works is an old building with two floors. Although the group he controls has such great influence, the place where he works seems to have not changed for decades, and many tall buildings have been built around his office building. Although he is frugal in his personal life, Elu has a more elegant hobby, that is, collecting Rodin's sculptures. Now his collection is enough to be called a Rodin sculpture museum. In addition, Elu is quite fond of Cuban cigars.
As for Elu's family life, it is simple and happy. He and his wife Sumaya have six children, including three sons. His father also has six children, and he ranks fifth in the family. 1999, Sumaya died of kidney disease. After all these years, he never got married again. Some media once joked that he was the most valuable widower in Mexico. In 2000, Elu underwent a heart operation. After the operation, he handed over the daily work of the "Elu Kingdom" to his three sons. It seems that he is going to retire from the front line and devote himself more to charity.