Zambrano completed his basic studies in private schools of Monterrey, but despite his wealth his upbringing was far from nonchalant. His grandfather died in a car accident at the age of 50, barely four years after merging his company with "Cementos Hidalgo" of the Brittingham family, and the Bittingham's longstanding accountant, Jesús Barrera Rodríguez, maneuvered over the Zambranos to overtake control of the business. To aggravate matters, while Lorenzo was studying high school at Missouri Military Academy, in the United States, his father died and the teenager precipitously found himself responsible for his mother and four younger siblings: Patricio, Hernán, Jorge and Nina.