#228 Michael Bloomberg
Founders
From Humble Beginnings to Business Success
This chapter reflects on an individual's journey from a middle-class upbringing, emphasizing the foundational lessons of hard work and ambition instilled by their parents. It narrates the transformative experiences that shaped their early career, including pivotal moments on Wall Street and the importance of practical skills over academic prestige. Through anecdotes of working under influential leaders and navigating the challenges of business growth, the chapter highlights the significance of relationships, customer feedback, and the relentless pursuit of success.
What I learned from reading Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg.
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[2:08] Answering to no one is the ultimate situation.
[3:02] Twitter thread on Michael Bloomberg by Neckar.Substack.com
[5:28] We never made the error that so many others have: mistaking their product for the device that delivers it.
[6:27] We knew our core product was data and analytics.
[7:01] We were motivated by an idea that we could build something new that just might make a difference.
[9:04] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger
[10:05] I was willing to do anything that they wanted. I would have never left voluntarily.
[16:00] Street smarts and common sense were better predictors of career achievements.
[17:40] Almost all occupations have a big selling component: selling your firm, your ideas and yourself.
[18:20] It is the doers, the lean and hungry ones, those with ambition in their eyes and fire in their bellies, who go the furthest and achieve the most.
[21:36] Comparing John to Bill on leadership, I always thought John was more egalitarian, but less effective.
[22:55] It was a lowly start. We slaved in our underwear and an un-air conditioned, a bank vault.
[24:22] Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity by Frank Slootman
[27:20] David Geffen biography: The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood
[30:07] It's said that 80 percent of life is just showing up. I believe that. You can never have complete mastery over your existence. You can't choose the advantages you start out with, and you certainly can't pick your genetic intelligence level. But you can control how hard you work.
[31:20] Life, I've found, works the following way: Daily, you're presented with many small and surprising opportunities. Sometimes you seize one that takes you to the top. Most, though, if valuable at all, take you only a little way. To succeed, you must string together many small incremental advances-rather than count on hitting the lottery jackpot once. Trusting to great luck is a strategy not likely to work for most people. As a practical matter, constantly enhance your skills, put in as many hours as possible, and make tactical plans for the next few steps. Then, based on what actually occurs, look one more move ahead and adjust the plan. Take lots of chances, and make lots of individual, spur-of-the-moment decisions.
[32:12] Don't devise a Five-Year Plan or a Great Leap Forward. Central planning didn't work for Stalin or Mao, and it won't work for an entrepreneur either.
[34:16] I truly pity people who don't like their jobs. They struggle at work, so unhappily, for ultimately so much less success, and thus develop even more reason to hate their occupations. There's too much delightful stuff to do in this short lifetime not to love getting up on a weekday morning.
[38:48] Did I want to risk an embarrassing and costly failure? Absolutely. Happiness for me has always been the thrill of the unknown, trying something that everyone says can't be done, feeling that gnawing pit in my stomach that says danger ahead. I want action.
[40:28] Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
[41:37] I rented a one room temporary office. It was about a hundred square feet of space with a view of an alley, a far cry from my previous place of employment. I deposited $300,000 of my Salomon Brothers windfall into a corporate checking account. And fifteen years later, I had a billion-dollar business.
[45:25] By endurance we conquer.
[46:50] Zero to One by Peter Thiel
[47:14] Made In Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita
[51:19] The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness
[54:35] Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games
[58:30] Each news story is a product demo. More demos lead to more revenue. More revenue leads to more stories and then even more revenue.
[1:03:24] He's got a lot of these like roundabout ways to get in front of potential customers. He’s repurposing the information that his unique business collects.
[1:15:53] When it comes to competition, being one of the best is not good enough. Do you really want to plan for a future in which you might have to fight with somebody who is just as good as you are? I wouldn't. —Jeff Bezos
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
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