Forbes 2011: The top 10 richest people in the world

Country: Mexico

Worth: $74 billion

Business: Telecom

Slim, 71, first showed a business talent as a 10-year-old selling drinks and snacks to his family.

After studying engineering, he founded a real-estate company and worked as a trader on the Mexican stock exchange.

Cigar-smoking Slim is known for a "Midas touch" in acquiring struggling firms and turning them into cash cows.

His enormous wealth contrasts starkly with his frugal lifestyle.

He has lived in the same house for about 40 years and drives an aging Mercedes Benz, although it is armoured and trailed by bodyguards.

He has become involved in combating poverty, illiteracy and poor healthcare in Latin America and promotes sports projects for the poor, but has never voiced plans to give away large chunks of his wealth to charity.

Text: Reuters & Agencies

Images: Reuters