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David Nightingale: Bloomberg (1942 - )

Michael Bloomberg
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What do you have to do to find yourself worth, today, $47 billion?

Sadly, there are too many examples to choose from, but this essay is a peek at the life of Michael Bloomberg, three-time mayor of NY City.

The biographer Joyce Purnick has described him as an intensely private man, but has nevertheless included in her biography [ref.1], photos of three very nice-looking houses. One is of a wide two-story house on the Bermuda waterfront, another is a five story house in London's expensive Cadogan Square, and there is also a photo of his pleasant-looking house on E.79th Street in Manhattan.

In his book, "Bloomberg by Bloomberg"[ref.2] he points out that he didn't come from wealth. His father, a son of Russian immigrants, was an accountant for a dairy company in Massachusetts, and his mother a book-keeper with an accounting degree from NYU. The family lived in a small house in Medford, Massachusetts, where Michael went to Medford High. There are photographs of a 12 year old Eagle Scout, and a 1960 graduating senior who had not excelled in either sports or scholastics. Bloomberg says "We were like everyone else [ref.1,p.12] ...we had one car, the women didn't work... It  was blue collar... and I never experienced any anti-semitism." In two math courses at Medford High he got one D and one A, and nearly failed French. He was interested in science but never particularly applied himself -- until it was SAT time and he earned high SAT scores. He applied to various colleges, and was accepted at Johns Hopkins. His major became Electrical Engineering, but by his own admission his heart wasn't entirely in it [ref.1, p26].

Again, after mediocre grades, he worked hard in his senior year, gaining admission to Harvard. Two years later, with his Harvard MBA, he was hired by the financial services company Salomon Brothers, work which he says he absolutely revelled in. He stayed there 15 years, learning all their business -- Equities, Bonds, Securities, Systems Development, becoming a partner -- but, upon reorganization, was let go. He writes that his exciting life of 12 hour days was over; "here's $10 million; you're history." [ref.2, p.1] .

Thus at 39 years old he had to start again. The $10 million was enough to support his family -- and he decided to combine his wide financial information experience with the (seemingly obvious) use of computers (this was the early 80s.) He rented a one-room temporary office on Madison Ave, and hired 3 others -- experts in programming and more. Within a year they had introduced their own machine, not unlike a PC, that they were able to rent out to businesses, which gave instant information on shares, world-wide trading, trends, graphs, news and more -- and which apparently other companies found indispensable. By dint of 7a.m.-7p.m. days his small company grew into the billion dollar enterprise that is evident today, on Lexington Ave -- or for that matter in London, Amsterdam and elsewhere.

Bloomberg was always a 'do-it-yourself-er'. Skiing, and flying planes and helicopters were favorite activities. Once, in his 30s, when his helicopter engine failed, thick black smoke filled the cockpit [ref.2,p.214]. He had to disconnect the engine to let the rotor spin free, thus landing by autorotation -- and he just managed to come down on a small island in LI Sound... ice floes all around. Another time, in his 50s, flying his nephew in a propeller-driven plane, the pitch of the propeller dropped to zero. Managing to glide down to a small airport, rather than the Hudson river, he explains that he had read up what to do in emergencies.

Today, Bloomberg is 75, and he and his company are still successfully selling up-to-date financial information, and much more -- with offices all over the world.

References:

1. "Mike Bloomberg; Money, Power, Politics"; Public Affairs, a member of the Perseus Group, 250 West 57th St, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107;  2009.

2. "Bloomberg by Bloomberg"; John Wiley & Sons, 2001.

Dr. David Nightingale is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the State University of New York at NewPaltz and is the co-author of the text, A Short Course in General Relativity.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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