“The truth is that I have had to do a bit of everything. I have been a footballer, baker, telephone operator and reporter. I don’t know if they know but, for example, I was the director of the El Globo patisseries for a while, that’s why I’m telling you that I’m a baker. I have been a telephone operator, I was in Telmex for many years; I have been a reporter because now I am the director of Uno TV. I have been a soccer player because I was president of Pumas, that is, it has touched me a bit of everything, “said the businessman in a video chat for students of the University of the Valley of Mexico (UVM).
Despite all that experience and baggage in business, there is a job that Elías Ayub does not have and he would love.
Being part of a telecommunications emporium, it would be logical that Elías Ayub also wants to lead the global entertainment giant that is The Walt Disney Company. But he specifically explained what attracts him to that position.
“The idea of selling smiles drives me crazy. I have a business that sells illusions, that sells joy, that sells smiles; and I would love that. “
What fails many entrepreneurs (and Mexico)
In a talk of more than an hour, the investor in Shark Tank México reviewed his career since he was a child, when he started with sales, which have been the books that have influenced him the most ( The Greatest Seller in the World , by Og Mandino; and Caín y Abel , by Jeffrey Archer), as well as the areas of opportunity that entrepreneurs have to improve, and Mexico in general.
There are many shortcomings in education, but the author of the book The Negotiator did not hesitate to point out the main shortcoming.
“ I see that we are limping very hard in financial education . It is very difficult for me to see entrepreneurs everywhere who cannot read an income statement or balance sheet. Let’s not talk about doing it anymore, they can’t read it. It has cost me a lot of work to see that the financial education of our young people, of a majority, is very limited ”.
It is not surprising that in Mexico the level of financial culture, not to understand the markets, but to manage personal finances, is very low, and some solutions have already been proposed to reverse this situation. In September 2020, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) showed that if people are taught financial education at an early age, the likelihood that they will manage their finances better and start saving over the years is much greater. .
For this reason, the agency considers it pertinent that financial education is a compulsory subject in schools in Mexico and Latin America .
But for Elías Ayub, the fact that this subject is not taught in schools is no excuse for not learning it.
“If they are not taught at school or at university, there are thousands of very easy ways that are two clicks away to acquire this knowledge, even the basic ones. I beg you: learn to read an income statement, learn to read a balance sheet, to do it . “
What is the best career to study today?
Elías Ayub recalled that when he was young, there were few careers to study in Mexico, “either you studied business administration, or you were a lawyer, doctor or architect,” when now there are thousands of careers and study plans. When asked which career he would choose today, he said any that is related to information management and analysis.
“ Today I believe that whoever knows best how to use information is going to have a competitive advantage over others . You can call it Data Mining, you can call it the elegant way you want, but at the end of the day, whoever knows how to obtain the information and know how to break down that information appropriately so that it serves for what you are going to do, whatever it is. I, Arturo, would be a business career with a specialization in information management. “