The richest man in the world says that you should be working only THREE days per week

Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican telecommunications mogul worth approximately $79.6 billion, told attendees to a business conference in Paraguay on Friday that it was time for 'a radical overhaul' in people's working lives.

As of July 15, 2014, Forbes announced that Slim was the richest man in the world, edging out Bill Gates' $79.1 billion fortune.

According to Slim, 74, people should take more time off in the course of their professional lives, working only three days a week instead of the standard full-time five days per week.

However, according to Slim, the benefits for such a short work week are plentiful.

'With three work days a week, we would have more time to relax; for quality of life. Having four days [off] would be very important to generate new entertainment activities and other ways of being occupied,' he told the conference

To a certain degree, Slim has been applying this train of thought to his own businesses.

According to the Financial Times, Slim's phone company Telmex has implemented a system where workers on a collective labor contract who joined the company in their late teens can retire before they reach 50, and can continue to work for full pay four days per week.



Slim also applies this philosophy to his own work life. He is still active as a businessman at his age, 74.

He also maintains a life full of hobbies, such as art collecting. He opened the Museo Soumaya, an art museum dedicated to both his love for art and religious relics as well as the memory of his late wife, Soumaya Domit.

At the same meeting, Slim also commented on the state of education, saying that education should 'not be boring, but should be fun' and that students should learn 'not to memorize but to reason; not to domesticate but to train'.