Oil, Data, and Fortunes

Here are today’s Wonderful Words:

If data really is the oil of the 21st century, then Michael Bloomberg is today’s John D Rockefeller.

Bloomberg is contemplating life without its founder, Robin Wigglesworth

Background

This article was a fascinating read about Mike Bloomberg and the company he's built over the last 40 years. This sentence comes at the beginning of the piece, where the author is giving the reader some background on Bloomberg and his company.

What makes it wonderful?

Although John D Rockefeller has been dead for more than 80 years, I still know more about him than Bloomberg. Maybe it’s because he’s dead—historians tend to spend more time writing about dead people than those that are still kicking.

In any event, Bloomberg is a familiar name, but not much more.

Rockefeller is someone I know well after reading more than 600 pages about him in Ron Chernow’s excellent biography, Titan. I know he started as a self-taught bookkeeper, then started a produce company, then stumbled his way into the oil business.

He proved to be the savviest of businessmen, and one by one, he either purchased or destroyed his competitors—the choice was theirs. Eventually, Rockefeller’s company, Standard Oil, grew to own 90% of the market in the United States.

And that’s where the connection clicked in my head.

I realized Bloomberg has an impressive business. But I didn’t realize he essentially has a John D Rockefeller, buy my oil or buy no oil, type of business.

And that’s what the article goes on to explain. Bloomberg has their signature terminals on over 300,000 desks, and the people who use them lament the fact that there is no competitor. No other data compares to Bloomberg’s data.

Which is why Bloomberg the man is worth $94 billion dollars—more than triple what Rockefeller was worth when he died (adjusted for inflation).

If data is the oil of the 21st century, then Bloomberg is today’s Rockefeller…times three.

Let's get technical

Wigglesworth used a perfect analogy in this sentence to help the reader understand exactly how impressive Michael Bloomberg is.

According to the Masterclass website, “An analogy is something that shows how two things are alike, but with the ultimate goal of making a point about this comparison. The purpose of an analogy is not merely to show, but also to explain.”

Every time I think of analogies, I think of the old SAT prep from high school.

A is to B as C is to D.

Data is to oil as Bloomberg is to Rockefeller.

Bloomberg is the king of data. Rockefeller was the king of oil. Oil made Rockefeller ridiculously rich. Data made Bloomberg wonderfully wealthy.

It’s a comparison that shows how the two men are alike but with the purpose of explaining the magnitude of Bloomberg’s significance.

It definitely did the trick for me.

Analogies are one of my favorite techniques to find when I’m reading because they always help me understand the idea a little bit better. As a writer, consider it a small gift to your reader.

Happy writing,

Joe