On March 5, 2020, Mike Bloomberg badged into the office at 10:29 a.m.

That was unusual because he typically arrived closer to 7:30 a.m.

The bigger surprise was that he came in at all.

It was the day after he announced that he was dropping out of the race for president, a campaign that cost him hundreds of millions of dollars.

I worked for Bloomberg LP at the time and remember the day. Most employees were disappointed he didn’t win, but relieved he would be returning to the company.

Most people probably assumed he would take the day off. But there he was, in the office, at his desk and working.

I thought it was such a powerful lesson about how to respond to public failure that I took a note of the time. (Bloomberg has an internal system so employees can see when colleagues are in the office.)

I was reminded of that day by a story Mike published on LinkedIn today about the founding of Bloomberg LP 42 years ago.

Mike famously started his media and data company after getting fired from Salomon Brothers.

In today’s post, he described being let go from Salomon — his first and only full time job up until that point — as embarrassing, hurtful, worrisome and unfair.

What I didn’t know was that he started working on his new company — something he said “everyone thought was crazy” — the next morning.

The next morning.

Mike will be remembered for his tenure as Mayor of New York, his extraordinary philanthropy and of course, for founding Bloomberg.

Along the way, there were plenty of failed projects, including his run for president and an effort to bring the Olympics to New York.

His post today said: “Show me a person who has never failed and I will show you a failure of a person.”

It’s a strong statement that shows a commitment to take risks, even knowing that many won’t work.

There’s a quote from the press conference he gave when announcing the end of his presidential run that captures that mindset.

“I’m sorry we didn’t win but it’s still the best day of my life, and tomorrow will be even better.”

Bloomberg LP made financial data more accessible and in the process changed the balance of power on Wall Street.

It happened first because Mike was fired, but second because he wasn’t deterred by that setback.

Mike ended his LinkedIn post today with another powerful line: “What we learn from failure, and what we do with that knowledge, is what matters — and it’s what makes us who we are.”

(Part of a series of life and business lessons I learned from spending three decades at Bloomberg LP)