Michael Bloomberg: Success Comes from a Series of Small Steps Rather than Winning the Lottery
In a lengthy interview about his work style, Michael Bloomberg reiterated that after being fired from Solomon Brothers, he lost his only full-time job and subsequently built Bloomberg LP by parallelizing sales, working hours, and products. He stated that to eat, someone has to sell; a comment from Ken Griffin was also brought up—"You are always selling, overcome it if you don't like it."
He denied that life can be completely controlled: the starting point and intelligence cannot be chosen, but working hours can be controlled. He believes that "80% is showing up" and claimed he has never seen anyone succeed by "maintaining balance and not pushing too hard"; those who work more achieve better results. He himself always works harder than his competitors; otherwise, it would be them writing the memoirs.
He reduced planning to a tactical level. He does not write five-year plans, stating that central planning failed for both Stalin and Mao Zedong and is equally ineffective for entrepreneurs. Numerous small and unexpected opportunities arise daily, most can only be advanced one step, and many increments must be strung together rather than betting on a single win. Skills, working hours, and the next two tactical steps must be advanced simultaneously, then look one step forward and adjust plans based on actual results.
He told reporters that Bloomberg LP does not have a "failure list"; rather, the things accomplished often do not match the initial goals: unexpected uses arise, anticipated clients disappear, and unthought-of clients come in. Products must be created first, with sales running parallel to R&D from day one; while others are still planning how to plan, they are already taking action. He demands to do more on the same idea than anyone else.
He clearly stated that he does not want fair competition, only to enter competition with an advantage. Banks and venture capitalists are seen as one of the worst enemies of entrepreneurs: they create self-doubt and then use "smarter views" to erase differences and potential. Most wealth is created by those who started from scratch and are often flipped once or twice. When discussing never selling the company, he asked: why exchange fun, influence, and unlimited money for just more unlimited money; not being accountable to anyone is the ultimate state.
In terms of market mechanisms, this writes "end products before financing stories" into organizational discipline: what is sold is the five-year plan and the corrective power of external directors, what is bought is the dual track of products and sales along with the founder's controlling stake. Funds remain in a closed loop that can simultaneously provide content, pricing, and end products; the beneficiaries are platforms that control data access and sales teams, while the pressured ones are startups that seek products after financing and rely on investors to change strategies.
The Bloomberg terminal is supported by the essential subscription needs of financial institutions for subsequent media and political careers, the company has not been wholly sold, and control and pricing power remain tied to the same person.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Bloomberg's path was not a burst of inspiration, but rather turning the information gap of bond traders into a box after Solomon's exit. First, create the terminal, then nurture journalists, and lock prices, news, and communication into the same machine, allowing Wall Street to operate daily. Sales and R&D start simultaneously, avoiding the vacuum of "finding customers after the product is perfect" and preventing venture capital from using the board to eliminate that unfair advantage.
Capital was not exchanged for the liquidity premium of publicly traded shares but remained in subscription fees. The terminal is a money printer, media is an amplifier for customer acquisition and pricing power, and the town hall experience turns the brand into public credit. Not selling the company is a refusal to shift "accountability to whom" from customers to quarterly shareholders. Banks and VCs are listed as enemies because they smooth differences into comparable financial models.
A similar case is Reuters first making telegraphs and then terminals, while Bloomberg later surpassed them by embedding analyst workflows into hardware; and Bloomberg himself benchmarks against trader culture: working hours equal positions. Industry positioning is about control rather than expansion: the bottleneck of financial information is no longer about whether there is news, but who can lock customers at their workstations.
This belongs to the transfer of pricing power. The mechanism is to write unplannable small steps into a high-hour sales machine, allowing incidental uses to grow on the already laid terminal. Five-year plans often prematurely eliminate those off-plan customers; only those who deliver first can meet them.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
- Five-year plans often eliminate off-plan customers.
- Sales must start from day one for products to qualify for market rewriting.
- Unlimited money cannot buy the freedom of not being accountable to anyone.