Lesson #4: You Can Control Your Own Destiny

“Those who say that I am taking over the city centre,” says Helu, “that I have already bought up everything, are not going to stop me from continuing my project.” In the early 1980s, Helu began investing in real estate, construction, mining, tires, and paper goods. From there, he moved into telephones, computers, and even clothing. But, it was not so much what he was buying as the rate and scope at which he was buying them.

Today, there is nary a Mexican who does not come into contact with Helu at least once during their normal day. In the mornings, perhaps they awake from their comfortable night’s sleep in one of the bed sheets they bought from the Helu-operated Sears. Or, perhaps they were awoken by the sound of their cell phone ringing, thanks to the mobile service provided by Helu. Later in the day, maybe they ate lunch at one of Helu’s restaurants, took a flight with his new budget airline, Vuela, or watched the news on a TV station also controlled by Helu.

His success throughout Latin America has been unparalleled. What makes it even more impressive is that Helu could have stopped after Telmex. Many others might have been satisfied with establishing a complete monopoly over their country’s telecommunications industry. He could have stopped after one of the many acquisitions he continued to make over the decades. But, he did not.

Helu was not like those many others who would have been satisfied with one success. Instead, what made Helu keep on going, what differentiated him from others, was his ambition – his relentless ambition and his hunger for more.

After realizing success in Mexico, Helu decided to take his business global. One of his first stops was Colombia, a country in which Helu says he had “enormous confidence…enormous confidence in its government and enormous confidence in Colombia’s future.” But, Helu was not thinking small scale. Indeed, nothing about Helu was small scale. In just a few months, Helu said he expected to see “one cellular phone for every two Colombians.” He had no prior business experience in the country, but what he did have was ambition.

Helu’s empire now reaches far and wide not only across Latin America – with more than 61 million subscribers, his America Movil is now the largest cell phone provider in the region – but also into the U.S. Indeed, for Helu, there is no task of greater importance than entering and conquering the American market. After all, he says, “The buying power of Americans is so much higher than Mexicans.”

Ambition alone would not have been enough to fuel Helu’s impressive rise to becoming the second richest person in the world. But, he surely would not have gotten there without it. By refusing to be satisfied with the status quo and by never giving up, Helu used his ambition to take control of his destiny. And, with a sprawling empire that now includes everything from an airline to a music store chain, Helu seems to be in control of more destinies than just one.



Lesson #4: You Can Control Your Own Destiny

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