AI PIONEERS: GET THIS RIGHT FOR #GenYoung!

He was there before you. And he did get it right.

Michael Bloomberg was not born on Wall Street. His father kept books for a dairy company. The one value Michael took to heart from him: Don’t wait for opportunity. Build it.

Young Mike Bloomberg

He carried that all the way through John Hopkins University. Paid his way parking cars. Not because he had to, but because he would not ask.

Then Harvard Business School. Salomon Brothers. Not the trading floor, but the back office. Counting securities, processing trades… Unseen work, essential work. While others chased titles, he studied systems. Every flow. Every gap.

He saw it early. Wall Street was blind. Prices calculated by hand. Information slower than decisions. Billions moving on incomplete data. He started designing a solution no one asked him for.

By 39, he made partner. Ten million in equity. Then one day, it was over. A cardboard box and a check for ten million dollars to disappear…

He did the opposite. Rented a room. Hired four people. Built what became. Bloomberg Terminal. Real time prices. Data in one place. Instant access. Within weeks, everyone needed it.

The original Bloomberg terminal

By 1990, Bloomberg was everywhere. And it did not just provide data. It created dependence. Today, more than 300,000 terminals. $27,000 billions per year in revenue. The same firms that walked him out now pay to stay plugged in.

And yes, I remember him as mayor of NYC when I was living there. No salary. Operator mindset. Real results.

NBC News (c)

So when Bloomberg News says AI is replacing the young talent, that firms are cutting juniors, that graduates are becoming unhirable, I listen.

Canva (c)

If there is even a yota of truth in any of it, you are getting it wrong. Please do not position AI as a substitute for the young. Do not make them expendable.

Do not let your great innovative solutions become a “crutch” for a senior layer that should be evolving, thinning or stepping aside. (Myself included). There are way too many captains on this ship.

Flip it. Change your pitch. Influence the mindset of #GenOldSchool Make Harvey, Jus Mundi and everyone else in your race a creative playground for #GenYoung. Give them speed. Depth. Independence. Let them build what others will depend on. Let them be your driving force

Because if you get it wrong, you will not revolutionalize the profession. You will erode it and slow it down. And you will shoot yourself in your digital foot. Good luck.