Chapter 5Elie Horn
1Cyrela Brazil Realty, Sao Paulo, Brazil

There is no reward without risk
Elie Horn has built a real estate empire in Brazil, but he wasn’t born there. As a young boy, he left Syria (Aleppo) behind for the streets of São Paulo. A devout Jew and an aficionado of contributing to the world, he has given away the majority of his money to charity.
His desire to help the less fortunate began long before most of us earned our first penny. Way back during his schoolboy days, Elie Horn was raising money to help those living on the streets in his adopted home.
He believes God brings you into the world and tests you along the way and plans on doing everything possible to pass those tests and leave the world a better place than he found it. He and his wife were the first members in South America to sign Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’s Giving Pledge, promising to give away more than half of their wealth to charity. Elie Horn is truly committed to giving away wealth in ways that will help those less fortunate.
According to Forbes, Brazil ranks no. 8 in the world on the list of countries with the “most billionaires” and has generated 42 new billionaires worth a combined $172 billion in the past 30 years.1 Elie Horn hopes that his decision will lead his fellow billionaires to take similar actions.
More than anything, Elie Horn’s desire to give is motivated by his deep religious ...