Mayor Bloomberg On Hard Work Founder Stories

So I guess in closing, if somebody's thinking about starting a company versus, let's say, joining a big company, what would be your top advice? Well, I started out, went to, I was an engineer in school because when I went to study physics, it turned out there was a German requirement. Remember, when I went to school, all of the physics, everything was in German. After three weeks in German class, I decided I wasn't going to make that, and so I became an engineer where there wasn't a language requirement. And then I went to business school thinking that I would go to a big company and use my engineering background. I went to Salomon Brothers, not knowing very much about Wall Street. Why? Because at the last minute, I was supposed to go to Vietnam. At the last minute, I didn't have to go because of flat feet, and I needed a job at the last minute. Somebody said, apply here. I did. I got in, and I went there. Loved every minute of it. Fifteen years later, it was time to go, and they fired me. I'm fine. So I did have a big company, and then I started out a small company. First day, it was me. Second day, there were four of us. Today, there's 15,500 employees, and I know people always say to me, oh, we really miss you. And I say, that's great. How long have you been here? Oh, five years. Well, I've been out of there for 11. Public service has now been 10 years of my life. I think there's an awful lot more commonality than people think. It's hard work. It's being willing to stand up for what you believe. Yes, big companies have more structure, but you have a little more security. Small companies, a lot less structure, but a lot higher payoff. In public service, the payoff isn't in dollars. It's in satisfaction. I would suggest trying all three. I mean, that's what I've done. Now, maybe I was particularly lucky, and I think there was a lot of luck. There's always luck in everything. If you have a vision and you want to go do it, do it. If you want to be a part of a big company, I think it'd be a phenomenal experience. I have a relative who, when he got out of law school, got an opportunity to go to work for one of the best law firms in the country, turned it down for a small thing. And I thought to myself, you know, you can always go to a smaller company. It's harder to go up to a bigger company. I would have preferred this person to start at the top in a bigger company and get that experience. But, you know, there's plenty of good big companies. Because you would never have identified the opportunity you've identified with Bloomberg had you not been in so long. And I don't know whether I would have had the courage to go do it if I hadn't gotten fired. As I said before, I'd probably still be there. But the one thing, I'm not smarter than anybody else, but I can outwork you. And my key to success for you or for anybody else is make sure you're the first one in there every day and the last one to leave. Don't ever take a lunch break or go to the bathroom. You keep working. You never know when that opportunity is going to come along. And at Salomon Brothers, the managing partner of the company, Bill Salomon, was the second person in. I was the only other one in the big trading room. So if he needed to borrow a match, most days people smoke cigars. And if he wanted to ask something about a newspaper or a stock, he came over. And so we became buddies. I would never have gotten to talk to the managing partner of a big company on a first name basis if it wasn't for the fact that the two of us were there. Billy, I'm getting coffee. Would you like some? And I can bring you in there. And at the end of the day, the number two guy, John Goodfriend, he was the last one to leave except for me. And we'd share a cab going uptown or take the subway train going uptown together. And every opportunity I ever had, I think a lot of them was because I was there at the time. And that's the one thing you can control. You can't control your luck, but the harder you work, the luckier you get. You can't control that you're the smartest guy. There'll always be somebody smarter. But if you're there, then you absorb things. You put things together in ways that if you didn't have all that experience, it's like skiing. I've said reading a book on skiing doesn't teach you how to ski. You've got to go and you've got to ski and get lots of miles under your skis. And incidentally, if you don't fall, you're not skiing hard enough and you're not learning anything. So if your career has ups and downs, I got fired, didn't turn out so bad. But you can start a little business and maybe it doesn't work. And after a while, you've got to be smart and say, hey, I tried it. Don't let your ego get in the way. I can't keep doing this. I've got to earn a living. But a year from now, I'm going to come up with a better idea. And then I'll go back and do it again and have that drive to look at the bright side. There's never been a day that I haven't looked forward to going into work. Even the days I knew I was going to get beaten up. Even the day I knew I was going to get fired. I've never been fired before. I wonder what it's like. OK, let's go find out. And I've never looked back. I find it fascinating. People spend, and we're doing this in this country, we're spending all our time trying to blame people and figure out why we got to where we are now rather than focusing on how you get out of where we are now and make it better. And successful people look to the future and unsuccessful people look to the back. Look behind them. I think I've taken a lot of your time. Is there anything else you'd like to say before we finish? No, when you focus on the economic problems that we're having in this country, when you focus on the tabloids showing you everything that's wrong in this country, just get back to remembering that around the world when people pick up their families, want to walk away from their language and their friends and their belongings, but move to a new place where they can pray to whom, however and wherever they want, say whatever they want, be in charge of their own destiny, have people judge them on what they do as opposed to their ethnicity or who their parents were or where they came from or what language they speak. People come to America. They don't go elsewhere. And we shouldn't forget that. Unfortunately, I think we are forgetting a little bit, and we've got to get back and focus on what's wonderful about America. And if you're an entrepreneur or you want to work raising a family, I think we measure success by, well, how much money do you have? That's not the only measure of success. I know some very successful people who measure it by how many lives they've saved or how many kids they've helped in the classroom or how well they brought up their children. Unfortunately, we want a number to measure success, and there's just lots of different ways. And my admiration is for those people who didn't make a lot of money but did things that I don't know that I had the courage to do or the ability to do, and they really changed lives. And hopefully that was why I went into public service. Hopefully I'll be able to look back after a dozen years and say, you know, look to my kids and say, guys, I have two daughters. I've left you a better world, and now it's your turn to take it and make it better for others. Great. Thank you. My pleasure. All the best.