One thing about success is, it’s not birth-discriminate. You
can be born rich, you can be born poor, you can even born blind and still be
successful. There is one person who has been very successful with his career as
a businessman. Unlike those rags to riches stories he wasn’t exactly born poor.
Born on June 15, 1950, in India Lakshmi Mittal came from a
family in the steel business. He headed
the international division of the business in 1976, when he had falling out with his family.
He then decided to go on his own. While family conflict is
not something we hope for in this case it set the course for Lakshmi to set out
his own destiny. Steel had been viewed
by many as a dying industry particularly in the U.S. There were many
manufacturers of steel and countries like South Korea also could produce them at
a lesser cost
Lakshmi bet his fortune on steel though. Through stringent management, a good dose of financing
and with enough size and scale he has been able to make his business profitable.
When we talk of scale it has to be in terms of global scale, thus Lakshmi has a
large global operation, with steel mills and mines located all over the world. His
company ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steelmaker.
The size and money involved in the steel business sometimes
include having to deal with governments and Lakshmi has had his share of
bribery allegations but has managed to stay out of trouble. Lakshmi has
actually received many awards and recognition for his accomplishment in the
steel industry. Some of his
awards are “Steelmaker of the Year” by New Steel in the U.S. in 1998; the
Dwight D Eisenhower Global Leadership Award in 2007; and the “Forbes Lifetime
Achievement Award” in 2008. He also sits in the boards of many prestigious
institutions.
His net worth dropped by a staggering $6.9 billion dollars
in 2011 due to a 40% fall in ArcelorMittal share prices. That amount would
already make anyone one of the richest men in the world. Being the global man
that he is, Lakshmi’s net worth was still $19.2 billion making him Forbes
Magazine’s 6th richest man in the world.
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