A Review of Carlos Slim: The Richest Man in the World/The Authorized Biography

I really wanted this biography to be a good one. I mean “really wanted.” For me Carlos Slim personifies the very word “tycoon.” I find stories about men who started off with little in life, worked hard to save up a grubstake, and then parlayed it into a fortune over time far more interesting and inspiring than most of the post-1995 stories about tech people who went from zero to billions almost overnight mostly by virtue of having been in the right place at the right time. Yes, luck often played a significant role in their success. Whereas with the traditional tycoon route to success it’s far more the result of a long term commitment to building something lasting.

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