Advice from the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim

Advice from the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim

The world’s wealthiest man, Carlos Slim offers unbelievably powerful advice to anyone with a dream. Defining real success.

Carlos Slim, in a letter to the university community,  gives advise to the most outstanding students on what, in his opinión, are the  most important things in life.

 

Mexico City, June 1994

I write to you this letter in order to share some of my life  experiences, hoping it will contribute to your  education, your way of thinking and living, your emotional well-being, your  sense of responsibility to yourselves and to others, your maturity, and above  all, to your happiness, which should be the result of your daily existence.

You  are privileged within society due to your talents and efforts, and for the best  reason, your own worth.

Success is not about doing things well or even very  well, or being acknowledged by others.   It is not an external opinion, but rather an internal status.  It is the harmony between the soul and your  emotions, which requires love, family, friendship, authenticity and integrity.

To be as exceptional as you are is a privilege, but it  also entails many risks that can have an impact on values that are much more  important than professional, economic, social or political “success”.  Emotional strength and stability are in the  interior life, and in avoiding emotions that erode the soul such as envy,  jealousy, arrogance, lust, selfishness, vengeance, greed and laziness, which  are a poison that is ingested little by little.

When you give, do not expect to receive.  “Fragrance clings to the hand that gives the  rose,” says a Chinese proverb.  Do not  allow negative feelings and emotions to control your mind.  Emotional harm does not come from others; it  is conceived and developed within ourselves.

Do not mix up your values or betray your  principles.  Life’s road is very long,  but it is traveled fast.  Live the  present intensely and fully, do not let the past be a burden, and let the future  be an incentive.  Each person forges his  or her own destiny and it may influence reality.  Do not ignore it.

Live with positive feelings and emotions such as love,  friendship, loyalty, courage, joy, good humor, enthusiasm, peace, serenity,  patience, trust, tolerance, prudence and responsibility.  Do not allow their opposites to invade your  soul, may they pass quickly from your mind, do not allow them to stay there,  banish them.  You will make mistakes many  times, it is normal and human; but try to make them small, then accept, correct  and forget them. Do not be obsessed by them; heaven and hell are within  us.  What is most valuable in life does  not cost anything but is very precious:   love, friendship, nature and what man has been able to achieve with it;  the forms, colors, sounds, smells that we perceive with our senses can only be  appreciated when we are emotionally awake.

Live without fear and guilt; fear is the worst feeling  men can have, it weakens them, inhibits action and depresses them.  Guilt is a tremendous burden in our lives,  the way we think and act.  Guilt and fear  make the present difficult and obstruct the future.  To fight them, let us have good sense and  accept ourselves as we are, with our realities, our merits and our sorrows.

Staying occupied displaces preoccupation and problems,  and when we face our problems, they disappear.   Thus, they make us stronger every day. We should learn from failure, and  successes should be silent incentives.   Act always as your conscience dictates, because it never lies.  Fear and guilt will then be minimal.  Do not block yourself in, do not ruin your  life, live it with intelligence, with soul and senses aware and on the alert;  get to know their manifestations and train yourselves to appreciate and enjoy  life.

Work well done is not only a responsibility to  yourselves and society; it is also an emotional need.

At the end we depart with nothing, we leave behind  only our work, family and friends, and, perhaps, a positive influence which we  have planted.

 

My very best wishes, Carlos Slim Helú

 

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