'Rankings do not matter': Gautam Adani has THIS to say on being the world's 3rd richest person

Gautam Adani does not care about the rankings of the world's richest, the billionaire industrialist told India Today on Wednesday.  

Adani, the first-generation entrepreneur and Chairman of the multi-billion-dollar Adani Group, is the richest person in Asia and the third richest in the world with a total net worth of $126 billion, as per Forbes.

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He is only behind Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnault ($181 billion) and Elon Musk (137 billion) of Tesla.

However, this doesn't excite him, Adani said in an exclusive interview with Raj Chengappa, Group Editorial Director (Publishing) at India Today.  

"These rankings and numbers do not matter to me. They are only media hype," he said when asked how he felt to be that wealthy.

Also Read: Gautam Adani says his professional success is not because of any individual leader

Adani, who surpassed Reliance's Mukesh Ambani this year to become the richest person in India, said he is a first-generation entrepreneur who had to build everything from scratch.

He further said he gets his thrills from handling challenges – "the bigger they are, the happier I am".

For him, the opportunity and ability to make a difference in the lives of people and contribute to the growth and building of the nation are far more satisfying and important than being on some wealth ranking or valuation list.  

"I am thankful to God that he has given me a great opportunity to serve the nation through infrastructure building," he added.

When asked what really makes him happy, Adani said on his 60th birthday, which he celebrated this year, his family committed Rs 60,000 crore to the Adani Foundation to support three social causes close to his heart — education, healthcare, and skill development.

"This has given me immense satisfaction and happiness which no professional achievement can ever give," he said.

Adani, whose wealth soared from about $50 billion in 2021 to $126 billion in 2022 [mention source here], also talked about what motivated him in business or life itself. As an ordinary man, he said the courage, strength, resilience, and tenacity of the average Indian were very inspiring and motivating for him.

Founded by Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading company, the Adani Group has morphed into one of the behemoths in India with interests in ports, airports, power generation cement, coal, and real estate, among others. Recently, the group also entered the media space with the acquisition of NDTV.