Ken Karpmann is a former CEO who receives an annual salary of a staggering 750,000 USD. But due to their misplaced financial conservativeness and dare I say, carefree spendings, their monetary woes spiraled out of control with unpaid mortgages and a failed hedge fund business venture leaving them bankrupt. The present economic crisis has not been kind either with companies readily refusing his job inquiries.
Now he has done one of the most unorthodox way any former big-bucked CEO would do to save his family's finances from total collapse – deliver pizza for 7.29 USD an hour.
Really? Yup, you can google his name and read his full story.
If you go on reading about him, you will come to admire at least 3 persons in story.
First is the pizza owner who literally gave Ken a humbling yet decent job. It was risky in terms of management (I imagine the restaurant manager hesitatingly giving delivery order to a person with higher education and better management experience than he is).
Second is his wife. I am sure they have fought and quarreled a lot of times during the time their savings were dwindling down to keep her husband’s hedge fund business afloat. Losing your dream house and wealth-related prestige is not a good topic to cuddle and discussed during bedtime. But, she stood by her man – even if he is now just a pizza delivery guy. Commitment personified is she.
Third is Ken himself. I have never heard of a bankrupt CEO who would humble himself and turn to blue collar jobs. Not only did he do that, but he was totally honest about his failed financial status that he wrote in his application form his 750,000 annual salary and high education thus adding the risk of being rejected with such high-qualifications. And from what I have seen in the short video clip about him, he is enjoying it as well. When asked why he is doing it, his straightforward reply was, “To keep food on our table.”
Ken Karpmann is included in the rare breed and endangered specie of man. I am sure he will find other financially rewarding job soon but for now he is the man of the pizza delivery men.
