MIKE BLOOMBERG

On August 1, 1981 - 42 years ago today - I got laid off from the only full-time job I'd ever had, with two months notice. It was embarrassing – none of my friends got fired. It was hurtful - after all the years I had devoted to the firm. It was worrisome – what would I do now? And it was unfair, or at least I thought so. But it also became a turning point in my life. I was 39 at the time and had no idea what the future held. I worked as hard as ever for those next two months, if not harder –– to prove the bosses wrong –– and the morning after my last day, I got to work on an idea that nearly everyone thought was crazy, an idea that became Bloomberg. Show me a person who has never failed and I will show you a failure of a person. What we learn from failure, and what we do with that knowledge, is what matters –– and it's what makes us who we are. MIKE BLOOMBERG