The Story of the 50 Billion Dollar Man. Entrepreneurship Report on Carlos Slim Helu

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 73, , course: Business Management, language: English, abstract: 50 billion US$! The figure Forbes magazine estimates Carlos Slim´s (4th richest person on earth) wealth at the moment (09/03/2016). The Mexican phone Mogul was the person chosen for this paper to explain the essential characteristics for becoming a successful entrepreneur. As mentioned this essay is going to explain how Carlos Slim´s most important characteristic influenced his career and his success. To enter into the topic, the essay will compare different views from several experts on what an entrepreneur is. These views range from a risk taking person to someone who seeks opportunities and makes the best out of situations to create wealth. After discussing what an entrepreneur is, the paper will again compare subject experts´ views on the characteristics needed to be successful in starting and running a business. Here many different traits are mentioned, including; learning from mistakes, being action-orientated and having an open mind. The three sources examined show 15 different characteristics as each of their unique Top 5 needed to be successful. Staying focused on your chosen goal is Carlos Slims' major characteristic that makes him so successful. After showing a brief insight into his life, the focus will be worked out further and then linked to events and people influencing him in his life. Carlos Slim was educated from young age by his father Julian Slim, who was an entrepreneur himself opening a dry goods store after fleeing from Lebanon at the age of 15. He taught his son the importance of keeping finances organized, updated and easily understandable. Carlos Slim then studied civil engineering in Mexico and later on Economics in Chile. He started to develop his trait of being focused throughout all his early life. His dream was to be rich enough to grant his family access to the best life possible and to not have any financial worries. He followed this goal from the beginning of his career until present day. His goals and the value he put towards them changed throughout his time, but that did not affect his focus on them in any way. He always tried to get as much money out of his investments and work as possible, whilst thinking about how this supports his family and affects his family life. Carlos Slims´ will to get rich was very clear to see, while he worked at the Mexican Stock Exchange where he made a personal profit of 400,000$ over 4 years.