Mexico's Richest Man Ranks Just Below Steve Ballmer On The Global Billionaire Index — But They Both Have Something In Common That Shaped Their Lives

Despite coming from precise antithetic backgrounds, Carlos Slim and Steve Ballmer stock a heavy passionateness for numbers, a trait that has helped some men ascent the ranks of the world's wealthiest.

Slim, the Mexican tycoon and Academy Class of 1994, attributes overmuch of his occurrence to an aboriginal fascination with numbers.

"I selected engineering due to the fact that I similar numbers," Slim said, adding that immoderate radical link with letters, others with numbers. He said numbers spoke to him and that shaped his career.

"I americium a … antheral of numbers," helium stated.

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After earning a civilian engineering grade from the National Autonomous University of Mexico successful 1961, Slim founded Inmobiliaria Carso, a operation company, astatine conscionable 25.

Over the decades, helium expanded into mining, telecommunications and retail, acquiring Telmex and Grupo Condumex and aboriginal merging mobile operations crossed Latin America nether America Movil.

Today, Slim's nett worthy stands astatine $127 billion, ranking 15th connected the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

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Former Microsoft CEO Ballmer, who ranks conscionable supra Slim astatine 14th with $132 billion, besides credits mathematics for shaping his concern acumen.

As a child, Ballmer faced disapproval for struggling successful math, but a supportive teacher helped him drawback up.

"I had a batch of my motive force, if you will, successful math. I'm bully astatine it," Ballmer said. "Numbers archer stories."

Ballmer, the lad of a Ford manager who besides worked arsenic an interpreter astatine the Nuremberg trials, attended mathematics campy during his childhood.

He went connected to survey mathematics and economics astatine Harvard University, wherever helium managed the shot team. He besides lived conscionable down the hallway from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

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Photo Courtesy: Octavio Hoyos connected Shutterstock.com

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