Michael Bloomberg

  b. 1942 | American entrepreneur/politician

At The Bottom

— 1981

Bloomberg was squeezed out of his job along with six other partners who were cut loose.

Michael Bloomberg had given fifteen years of his young life to Salomon Brothers, the only employer he had ever really had after finishing his MBA at Harvard.  He had enjoyed a meteoric career with the financial services company, making partner at the age of 31 after proving himself to be one of the best equity block traders in the company.  But in 1979, Salomon Brothers suddenly moved him from the trading floor — where all the action was — to systems development, where he found himself tucked away behind the scenes with computer nerds.  He wondered why anyone would put him in charge of the office computers, since he knew absolutely nothing about them.  But Bloomberg knew the answer to that question — he was being nudged into oblivion.  Sure enough, when Salomon was acquired by Philbro two years later, Bloomberg was squeezed out of his job along with six other partners who were cut loose.  He received $10 million for his partnership interest from  the company as he was shown the door, but he  was unwanted and out of work nevertheless, having crash-landed in the midst of a huge recession that only added more fog to the  road ahead.