“Meet the richest man in the world”

“MEET THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD”

What international business lessons can we learn from this article?

One international lesson is to “jump” for any available business opportunity, don’tletting it go. That was the way Slim bought what now is Telmex; when the government put the state-owned telephone company, Teléfonos de México up for sale. It’s not a matter of being watching the skywaiting for something to fell down directly to you. It’s a characteristic you can develop: being a person with initiative. Here we have another important lesson to follow; Slim partnered with SBC (nowAT&T) and France Télécom so he can buy 20% of Teléfonos de México. We can see that an efficient business man is also an entrepreneur and is in constant movement looking for achieving new goals and thusdon’t hesitating in making decisions.

This is applicable to real state abroad or in the home country as well. Acquiring real state when countries are in a hard time could bring benefits in a longterm but not always, that is why is important to deeply analyze where you want to invest your money.

Another thing to notice is the fact that the Slims have also had mistakes on their share ofclunkers with the purchase of a 15% stake in CompUSA. The company was squeezed by direct sellers as Dell, so the Slims sold the business. As a business man you cannot give up when you make a mistake becauseyou can learn many lesson from every decision you make whether it succeeds or it fails. In this case, you must go ahead and be perseverant in the following business you have in mind. We have to focuson not doing any mistake, which is almost impossible, but small mistakes are the best mistakes.

Can other firms follow Carlos Slim steps?

Any person with money, vision, determination and passionin business can follow Slim steps, although it’s not likely that every one may obtain the same benefits in the long term as Slim did. That being said, we believe that the point is not just follow...