The Richest Man In The World Today

 Carlos Slim Helu is the son of Julian Slim Haddad, a Lebanese immigrant to Mexico, and Linda Helu. He was born on January 28, 1940 in Mexico City as child number five of six children.
At an early age his businessman father instilled in his kids the habit of tracking income and expenses by giving them a savings book to track their weekly allowance and what they spent it on. His father died when he was just 13 years old.
Carlos Slim went on to study engineering at university while at the same time lecturing in Algebra and Linear programming.

In 1966, when he was only 25 years old he started building what was to become one of his flagship companies, Grupo Carso. Carso was derived from the start of his name and that of his wife, Soumaya Domit Gemayel, whom he also married later that year. He would buy businesses that  was under-performing and turn them into more profitable enterprises. This is a strategy he learned from his dad - buying when there is blood in the streets (which his farther learned during the early 20th century Mexican revolution).
For most of his early business life, Carlos managed to stay out of the public view and avoid criticism. This ended however when he won a bid for Telephonos de Mexico (Telmex) in partnership with France Telecom and Southwestern Bell during privatization of the industry. He bought a stake for around $1.7 billion which today is worth more than $11 billion.
Having a monopoly in the fixed line sector allowed Telmex to set their own prices and thus increase profitability. This did not endear him to the public, but most of that was reinvested in the telecoms infrastructure.
The wireless spin-off from Telmex is the biggest value creator that Carlos Slim Helu has added. This turned into America Movil which is now the largest mobile operator in Latin America with over 100 million subscribers. They managed this by being innovative and offering better prepaid services (than their competitors at the time) to the lower end of the market. Carlos Slim's stake in America Movil contributes to more than half of his wealth, around $25 billion.
In the late 1990's Carlos Slim Helu started handing over operations of his businesses to his sons (Carlos Slim Domit - heads Grupo Carso, Marco Antonio Slim Domit - Inbursa, Patrick Slim Domit - Chairs America Movil) and sons-in-law (Daniel Hajj Aboumrad - America Movil CEO, Arturo Elias Ayub - Telmex Foundation). His wife also died in 1999.
His philanthropic contributions has increased dramatically since the 90's and he heads up the Latin America Development Fund. This fund invests in the things he believes will make a difference Latin America - infrastructure, health, education and employment.
Slim's discipline and courage to buy when everyone is selling ('blood in the streets') allowed him to expand his reach considerably at rock bottom prices. Having handed over the reins of most of his businesses Carlos Slim Helu now have the time to focus on his philanthropic efforts. Though not much liked in his native Latin America, the story of Carlos Slim Helu is an inspiration for entrepreneurs and those who wish to run their own businesses (or those who want to become fabulously wealthy).