The 70 best quotes by Carlos Slim

This Mexican businessman offers his thoughts on the economy, business and life.

Carlos Slim (Mexico City, January 28, 1940) is a renowned Mexican billionaire. He is currently the sixth richest man in the world according to the prestigious Forbes magazine.

His academic career led him to earn a degree in civil engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He later began buying and selling real estate, businesses with which he began to amass a small fortune.

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Carlos Slim's famous quotes and phrases

Subsequently, he immersed himself in different businesses in telecommunications and internet, with which he gradually forged the largest fortune in Mexico and one of the largest in the world, ranking only behind Microsoft magnate Bill Gates.

In today's article we are going to know the best phrases of Carlos Slim to get closer to the mentality of a successful businessman..

1. Competition makes you better, always, always makes you better, even if the competitor wins.

You learn from everything, especially from those who are better.

2. The greatest things in life are not material.

Despite his immense economic fortune, Carlos Slim does not live on bills.

3. If you are in business, you need to understand the environment. You need to have a vision of the future and you need to know the past.

Without a strategic vision you only have a product that, sooner or later, will perish.

4. You have to have an international benchmark of competence. You have to go beyond your home.

If you limit yourself to your comfort zone, you are likely to hit a ceiling very quickly.

5. When there is a crisis, that's when some are interested in getting out and we are interested in getting in.

Crises are great times to invest, as prices are at rock bottom.

6. Any time is a good time for those who know how to work and have the tools to do it.

If you know how, the rest flows.

7. When I was very young, maybe 12 years old, I started making investments.

His entrepreneurial mindset started at puberty.

8. Each person forges his or her own destiny.

According to Carlos Slim, you are the owner of your own future.

9. I have always said that the better you are, the more responsibility you have to help others.

Humility should be greater the more successful you are.

10. It is important to give a better country to our children, but it is more important to give better children to your country.

Education is the key to everything.

11. When we decide to do something, we do it quickly.

Things that are going to turn out well usually require a short period of reflection.

12. The only way you end poverty is with jobs.

With wages and giving people a chance.

13. I believe that anything that has privileges has responsibility and all people who are clear about their responsibilities have commitment.

A desideratum for life.

14. In this new wave of technology, you can't do it all by yourself, you have to form alliances.

The system is so complex that it is unfeasible to want to do everything on your own.

15. Live the present intensely and fully, do not let the past be a burden, and let the future be an incentive.

Enjoy each day, without anxiety and without fear of the future.

16. Do not allow negative feelings and emotions to control your mind. Emotional Pain does not come from others; it is developed and conceived within us.

One of Carlos Slim's most profound and psychological phrases.

17. Mistakes are normal and human. Eat them small, accept them, correct them and forget them.

There is no point in punishing yourself. Turn the page and move on.

18. When we face problems, they disappear. Learn from failure and let success be the silent incentive.

Along the lines of the above famous quote.

19. Firm and patient optimism always pays off.

Constancy, perseverance and a long look.

20. Poverty is not solved by donations.

Misunderstood solidarity is certainly not a long-term solution.

21. All companies make mistakes. The trick is to avoid the big ones.

A tip to avoid big ones.

22. I don't believe much in luck. I believe in circumstances. I believe in work.

A phrase repeated by many millionaires.

23. Use any personal crisis to become stronger.

Certainly, a bad streak should make us come out stronger.

24. The truth is that you leave this world with nothing. What you are is a temporary manager, and you must manage well... the wealth under your care, and generate more. The surplus can be used to do many things for people.

His view on money and life.

25. Competition makes you better. It always, always makes you better, even if the competitor is stronger than you.

Competition should push you to be better.

26. Money is not a goal. The objective is to make companies grow, to develop, to be competitive, to be in different areas, to be efficient, to have a great team within the company.

Companies have their beginning and their end... and the objective should not be to get rich.

27. Education and employment are the remedies for poverty.

Without these weapons, the battle is lost.

28. The best fence to have is to create opportunities in Mexico, so that people do not leave.

On the situation in the North American country.

29. Success is not doing things well or very well and being recognized by others. It is not an external opinion, it is an inner state. It is the harmony of the soul and its emotions, which needs love, family, friendship, authenticity, integrity.

Brutal reflection on success.

30. Our premise is and always has been to keep in mind that we leave with nothing; that we can only do things during our lifetime and that the entrepreneur is a creator of wealth that he temporarily manages.

Another phrase that removes iron to the economic subject.

31. A job well done is not only a responsibility to society, it is also an emotional need.

When we work efficiently, we will sleep more peacefully and happily.

32. Simple structures, organizations with minimum hierarchical levels, human development and internal training of executive functions. Flexibility and speed in decision-making. To operate with the advantages of the small company, which are what make large companies great.

This is how a company should be, according to Carlos Slim.

33. What counts is to have your feet on the ground, the concept of family, friends; to appreciate things that have real value, not only material, not only physical.

Ironically, a multimillionaire who does not give importance to material profit.

34. A person is not successful because he does well in business, does well professionally, or gets an A in school. Success is measured by how many people smile at you, how many people you love, how many people admire your sincerity and the simplicity of your spirit.

A recipe for emotional success.

35. Busyness displaces worry, and problems disappear when faced.

A great play on words that serves as a guide for day-to-day life.

36. Problems should make us stronger, from failures we should learn, and from successes we should make quiet stimuli.

Focused on the future.

37. There is no challenge that we cannot reach by working together with clear objectives and knowing the instruments.

Cooperation leads to the highest goals.

38. The money that leaves the company evaporates. That is why we reinvest profits.

There is no point in wasting it.

39. It avoids the bitter dramatic adjustments in times of crisis.

Laying off employees is not the solution to the company's problems.

40. Maintain austerity in good times. This strengthens, capitalizes and accelerates the company's development.

Great advice for successful corporations.

41. Success is about whether you are remembered when you leave. It refers to how many people you help, how many you avoid harming or if there is no rancor in your heart. It's about whether your dreams are in your triumphs and whether your achievements don't hurt your fellow man. It's about your integration with others, not your control over them.

Positive emotions and optimism in abundance.

All times are good for those who know how to work and have the means to do it.

One of those phrases by Carlos Slim that extols the value of perseverance and professionalism.

43. In wealth itself, the important thing is not how much you have, what you have, but what you do with it.

You decide what kind of life you want.

44. Ever since I was a little boy, I liked investments.

Another famous quote explaining his precociousness with business.

45. I believe that success is not economic.

Many other facets of life are more relevant.

46. Success depends on whether you used your head as well as your heart, whether you were generous, whether you loved children and nature, whether you cared for the elderly. It's about your kindness, your desire to serve, your ability to listen and your courage over behavior.

Being a good person is above all else.

47. You cannot have people in your organization who are pessimistic. They will lead you to mediocrity.

Flee from pessimism and from people who are ashes.

48. When we meet, groups cannot compete with each other within the company. We need to go in the same direction, we do not compete inside, we compete outside.

A great maxim for success.

49. My father used to say: Do it right and do it on time.

A great reflection of Carlos Slim's father.

50. When you don't have money, it's a problem. But it's a bigger problem when people who have excess money are not running businesses and making investments or creating jobs and doing things for society. They're just thinking about possessions.

The nouveau riche often make lousy decisions.

51. If we have to make mistakes, we make small mistakes... We'd rather not make them, of course, but small mistakes are the best.

At least they tell you where not to go without squandering large amounts.

52. I learned from my father that you should invest and re-invest continuously, even in times of crisis.

Always with an expansion mentality.

53. In business, you invest when things are not in good shape. When you invest in those times, you position yourself better against the competition. When there is a recession and your competition does not invest, they are giving you an advantage.

Great financial lesson.

54. When you live on the opinion of others, you are dead. I don't want to live thinking how I will be remembered.

Make your own way, some will follow you and some will not.

55. It is important for business leaders to create human capital, a team with the same sense of belonging and willingness.

A great team makes everything work properly.

56. Profitability comes from productivity, efficiency, management, austerity and the way the business is run.

It all adds up, if you do it right.

57. Our philosophy is to provide non-profit money for health, nutrition, education, culture and sports.

A philosophy that is right and respectful of the human environment.

58. I believe that everything that has privilege has responsibility and all people who are clear about their responsibility have a commitment to others.

On altruism.

59. It is not necessary to increase taxes on rich people, since they create capitalization and investment. But it needs to impose taxes on speculation, i.e. capital gains.

A tax recipe.

60. If you're in business, you're not enjoying yourself. You are working.

In fact, "business" is, etymologically, the negation of leisure.

61. I buy companies for strategic reasons and exploit them.

A way of accumulating assets.

62. There are people who are good with letters and others who are good with numbers.

Everyone is born with specific talents.

63. It is not possible to create thousands of universities or hundreds of thousands of teachers, but with technology and the Internet it is possible to have excellent courses and create a digital university.

On the future of training.

64. The artistic part of all of us, I think the easiest way to appreciate this, is through architecture. Architecture is very impressive; the beauty of the buildings, temples.

His passion for architectural art.

65. It is a society of knowledge and experience. You have better experience and knowledge when you are 60, 65 and 70 years old.

Great reflection on valuing experience.

66. In business, you invest when things are not in good shape. When you invest at these times, you take a better position than your competitors. When there is a recession and your competition is not investing, they are giving you a head start.

Take advantage of these small concessions.

67. You can't live without doing something.

You must always be active.

68. It is important to give your children a better country, but it is more important to give your nation better children.

Important reflection.

69. I still have my laptop but I haven't used it. I am a paper man, not an electronic one.

It seems unbelievable that a financial genius still uses a computer.

70. When you are convinced of what to do and what you should do, it is not hard to do that.

Self-confidence, an essential part of business.