55 Things You Need to Know About Mike Bloomberg
"...1. His father was a bookkeeper at a dairy and never earned more than $6,000 a year.
2. His mother convinced the family’s Irish attorney to buy a house in suburban Medford, Massachusetts, and quickly resell it to the Bloombergs because the realtors wouldn’t sell to Jews.
3. One of Bloomberg’s favorite television shows as a boy was John Cameron Swayze’s “Camel News Caravan.” He wrote a letter to Swayze explaining that the one-humped mascot on the cigarette package was not in fact a camel but specifically a dromedary.
4. An Eagle Scout, he escorted elderly residents to polls—including, twice, the mother of aviator Amelia Earhart.
5. His favorite book as a teenager was Johnny Tremain, the novel by Esther Forbes about the poor boy who becomes a spy for Paul Revere. He read it, he has said, “at least 50 times.”
6. At Medford High School, he was the president of the slide rule club and a member of the debating society. In the yearbook, which described each senior with one word, Bloomberg was called “argumentative.” He wrote a paper as a senior contending that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew in advance about Japan’s plans to attack Pearl Harbor and let it happen because he thought World War II was going to happen anyway and it would lead the United States into the conflict and out of the Depression.
7. At Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, he was an engineering major, a mostly C student, the first Jewish member of Phi Kappa Psi, the president of his fraternity and the president of his class. He talked to his friends about wanting to be the president of the United States.
8. When he got into Harvard Business School, his mother said, “Don’t let it go to your head.”
9. Flat feet kept him out of Vietnam.
10. His first job after grad school, starting in June 1966, was at Salomon Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank, where he counted securities by hand and made $9,000 a year.
11. His first three months at Salomon coincided with a heat wave in New York City, during which he was assigned to work “in an unairconditioned bank vault” counting securities by hand. He and his coworkers stripped to their underwear and shared “an occasional six-pack of beer.”
12. He prided himself on getting into the office by 7 a.m, earlier than anyone else except managing partner Billy Salomon (son of the company’s founder), which endeared him to Salomon.
13. He smoked until he was in his early 30s. He quit by imagining his worst enemy outliving him. Who that was, or is, he has never said.
14. In August 1972, he was passed over for a partnership in Salomon, which he found out when his name was noticeably absent from a very public list of new partners. “I had been passed over and, with such a big group accepted, humiliated as well,” he wrote in his memoir. “It was so bad, there wasn't even anyone left with whom I could commiserate. I was devastated.”
15. Three months later, he was named a partner.
16. In January of 1976, he piloted a helicopter that was on fire, touching down on a tiny island off Connecticut. “All pilots learn to make a commitment and stick to it, follow the book, and depend on others to do the same,” he would explain. “Those who don’t, don’t survive.”
17. He got married, later that year, at 34, to the daughter of a retired Royal Air Force wing commander. Together, they had two daughters.
18. In 1979, Bloomberg was demoted (allegedly because of criticisms he aimed at colleagues) and was shifted off the trading floor to oversee information systems. He used the next two years to learn more about early computers and come up with essentially an embryonic Bloomberg Terminal.
19. He was fired in 1981 after Salomon was purchased. Bloomberg, as a partner, voted to accept the acquisition bid after realizing that he personally would receive a hefty payout of $10 million in cash. He used the money to start his own company.
20. In 1986, he changed the name of his company from Innovative Market Systems to Bloomberg LP, part of a conscious effort to make himself central to the brand’s image.
21. Here are some things he’s said according to a gag gift some staff gave him for his birthday in 1990: “Make the customer think he’s [EDITED] .” “The three biggest lies are: The check’s in the mail, I’ll respect you in the morning, and I’m glad that I’m Jewish.” “If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they’d go to the library instead of to Bloomingdale’s.” “Whenever my wife catches me eyeing some broad, she’s very careful to turn to me and say, ‘That’s the most expensive [EDITED] in the world.’”
22. He got divorced in 1993.
23. He has never remarried.
24. In 1997, for his memoir, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, he tried but failed to get a promotional blurb from the pope.
25. In 2000, in London, he hosted 1,500 employees at a “Seven Deadly Sins” gala at a converted warehouse where areas were labeled lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. For gluttony, there were sweets, sushi and truffles; for lust, there were drag queens, massage rooms and a massive silk-covered bed; for greed, there were entertainers waving bills and shouting, “Money, ain’t it gorgeous?”..."
"...1. His father was a bookkeeper at a dairy and never earned more than $6,000 a year.
2. His mother convinced the family’s Irish attorney to buy a house in suburban Medford, Massachusetts, and quickly resell it to the Bloombergs because the realtors wouldn’t sell to Jews.
3. One of Bloomberg’s favorite television shows as a boy was John Cameron Swayze’s “Camel News Caravan.” He wrote a letter to Swayze explaining that the one-humped mascot on the cigarette package was not in fact a camel but specifically a dromedary.
4. An Eagle Scout, he escorted elderly residents to polls—including, twice, the mother of aviator Amelia Earhart.
5. His favorite book as a teenager was Johnny Tremain, the novel by Esther Forbes about the poor boy who becomes a spy for Paul Revere. He read it, he has said, “at least 50 times.”
6. At Medford High School, he was the president of the slide rule club and a member of the debating society. In the yearbook, which described each senior with one word, Bloomberg was called “argumentative.” He wrote a paper as a senior contending that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew in advance about Japan’s plans to attack Pearl Harbor and let it happen because he thought World War II was going to happen anyway and it would lead the United States into the conflict and out of the Depression.
7. At Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, he was an engineering major, a mostly C student, the first Jewish member of Phi Kappa Psi, the president of his fraternity and the president of his class. He talked to his friends about wanting to be the president of the United States.
8. When he got into Harvard Business School, his mother said, “Don’t let it go to your head.”
9. Flat feet kept him out of Vietnam.
10. His first job after grad school, starting in June 1966, was at Salomon Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank, where he counted securities by hand and made $9,000 a year.
11. His first three months at Salomon coincided with a heat wave in New York City, during which he was assigned to work “in an unairconditioned bank vault” counting securities by hand. He and his coworkers stripped to their underwear and shared “an occasional six-pack of beer.”
12. He prided himself on getting into the office by 7 a.m, earlier than anyone else except managing partner Billy Salomon (son of the company’s founder), which endeared him to Salomon.
13. He smoked until he was in his early 30s. He quit by imagining his worst enemy outliving him. Who that was, or is, he has never said.
14. In August 1972, he was passed over for a partnership in Salomon, which he found out when his name was noticeably absent from a very public list of new partners. “I had been passed over and, with such a big group accepted, humiliated as well,” he wrote in his memoir. “It was so bad, there wasn't even anyone left with whom I could commiserate. I was devastated.”
15. Three months later, he was named a partner.
16. In January of 1976, he piloted a helicopter that was on fire, touching down on a tiny island off Connecticut. “All pilots learn to make a commitment and stick to it, follow the book, and depend on others to do the same,” he would explain. “Those who don’t, don’t survive.”
17. He got married, later that year, at 34, to the daughter of a retired Royal Air Force wing commander. Together, they had two daughters.
18. In 1979, Bloomberg was demoted (allegedly because of criticisms he aimed at colleagues) and was shifted off the trading floor to oversee information systems. He used the next two years to learn more about early computers and come up with essentially an embryonic Bloomberg Terminal.
19. He was fired in 1981 after Salomon was purchased. Bloomberg, as a partner, voted to accept the acquisition bid after realizing that he personally would receive a hefty payout of $10 million in cash. He used the money to start his own company.
20. In 1986, he changed the name of his company from Innovative Market Systems to Bloomberg LP, part of a conscious effort to make himself central to the brand’s image.
21. Here are some things he’s said according to a gag gift some staff gave him for his birthday in 1990: “Make the customer think he’s [EDITED] .” “The three biggest lies are: The check’s in the mail, I’ll respect you in the morning, and I’m glad that I’m Jewish.” “If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they’d go to the library instead of to Bloomingdale’s.” “Whenever my wife catches me eyeing some broad, she’s very careful to turn to me and say, ‘That’s the most expensive [EDITED] in the world.’”
22. He got divorced in 1993.
23. He has never remarried.
24. In 1997, for his memoir, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, he tried but failed to get a promotional blurb from the pope.
25. In 2000, in London, he hosted 1,500 employees at a “Seven Deadly Sins” gala at a converted warehouse where areas were labeled lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. For gluttony, there were sweets, sushi and truffles; for lust, there were drag queens, massage rooms and a massive silk-covered bed; for greed, there were entertainers waving bills and shouting, “Money, ain’t it gorgeous?”..."
Last edited by a moderator:
