How did Bernard Arnault became the richest man in the world?
Originally published: April 21, 2024
Last updated: April 4, 2026
Probably through a series of strategic acquisitions. But more fundamentally, by deeply understanding/sensing (on a conscious or unconscious level) one of the most powerful forces of human nature—social validation— recognize that we are so deeply wired and desperate for it that the founder and CEO of LVMH has amassed a net worth of >$210B as of April 2024.
Yet one of the most common lie we tell ourselves is: “Whatever, I don’t care about the opinions of others.“
Yeah okay, you might be the exception, but for about 99.9% of us, that’s probably not true.
I hate to sound politically correct, but this topic is probably more of a spectrum than a binary thing. So, it doesn’t make sense to categorize yourself strictly in one extreme or another. You are wrong either way. A far deeper question to ask yourself to clarify where you lie in this spectrum of “don’t care-ism” would then be: “To what extent do you care (or don’t care) about the opinions of others?“.
Let’s stop kidding ourselves by thinking that we are so original and accept the fact that human nature drives most of our actions.
That doesn’t mean you aren’t original, but common sense is uncommon. True and deep critical thinking is even rarer. Thus, coming up with contrarian ideas and/or truly original thoughts is so scarce that even if you have just a few, you are actually special. It’s just that you are probably not special in the traits you originally thought you were. What makes us special from an intellectual perspective is mainly shaped by your personal experiences.
What can we learn from that from an actionable standpoint?
Not much actually. This is mainly a matter of self-awareness and intellectual humility, which, in the case of the latter, is hard for people to accept because our egos prevent us from getting closer to the truth on many subjects. The main takeaways are related to business opportunities that lie in human behavior. (Steven Pinker wrote a book on this topic titled “The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature”).
Food for thought form a business perspective.
I used Bernard Arnault, an outlier who scaled his business to an international level, as an example to prove the point and provide undeniable evidence from a data-driven framework of thinking. However, obviously, most of us won’t become billionaires. So, I encourage you to reflect on this with a great quote that offers valuable insights from an entrepreneurial perspective, adding more detail and addressing related subjects. This is from (in my opinion) one of the greatest founder and thinker.
Trying to copy somebody else’s profit pool to your country will not be a wise idea because the country’s values are demonstrated in what profit pools exist. Let’s take an example. In a thousand most profitable companies in India, the number of retailers would be probably 2 or 3. But if you look at the Western market, you’ll see a bunch of them. Because it’s a consumption market, plus very high divorce rate which means you’re always peacocking again in the market. You’re trying to be fit and be cool and all of that. India has a very low divorce rate (less than 1%) and arranged marriages. And because we have a lower female participation of labor, India is probably the only market where female fashion spends is less than men’s fashion spends. Everywhere else, it’s probably 5x or 6x more for them. So what happens is you start appreciating what the country values. For example, I have noticed that many patriarchal societies have very significant market cap in financial services versus consumption.
— Kunal Shah
Random thoughts from Seivin Juh.