Mayor Bloomberg: Bladder Control Helped Me Become A Billionaire

Mayor Michael Bloomberg claims going to the bathroom wastes too much time.

Perhaps this is why he is so opposed to large sodas, although his effort to ban them was recently flushed away as it were by an appeals court.

Bladder control is the latest form of career advice that the New York City mayor dispensed on this weekly radio show. On previous appearances on radio station WOR, Hizzoner told kids they should “speak grammar” and insisted that many high school grads would be better off becoming plumbers rather than going to college.

Bloomberg became a billionaire after founding Bloomberg LP, a financial data firm. A Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Independent, he leaves office in 2014 after serving three four-year terms (which included orchestrating a change in the term-limits law).

In responding to a caller’s question about his personal success formula, Bloomberg, 71, said: “… my experience is that you make your own luck. The harder you work, the luckier you get. I always tried to be the first one in in the morning and the last one to leave at night, take the fewest vacations and the least time away from the desk to go to the bathroom or have lunch.”

Bloomberg’s views about taking or not taking bathroom breaks aren’t necessarily new. About years ago, he expressed similar sentiments to TechCrunch:

“I am not smarter than anybody else but I can out work you — and my key to success for you, or anybody else is make sure you are the first one in there every day and the last one to leave. Don’t ever take a lunch break or go to the bathroom, you keep working. You don’t ever know when that opportunity is going to come along.”

Bloomberg’s bladder-control advice didn’t “sit well” with some doctors quoted in the media, however. David Samadi, chairman of the urology department at Lenox Hill Hospital, warned a bout possible kidney problems from an intentionally full bladder. “As a urologist, you always discourage people from keeping their bladder full… I don’t think it’s going to affect productivity, unless you’re out every hour.”

Columbia University urology professor Dr. Sven Wenske asserted that Bloomberg’s advice was not great: “It would overextend the bladder, it makes people prone to decreasing bladder function, increasing the risk for infections. So, this is absolutely not advisable. Whenever there’s an urge to urinate — depends on the water intake and food intake, of course — people should not hold that back.”

Are you “relieved” to hear about the mayor’s bladder-control recommendations?