Hard Times: Part Two - CEO to Pizza Delivery

In a prior article, Hard Times: Part One, we wrote about a story found on Yahoo.com about a Florida man who lost his CEO job and now delivers pizza. Here's a follow up article:

The man apparently used his house as equity when he tried to establish a hedge fund. Once the market soured he lost his business and in a domino effect he also lost his house. It sounds like the man did not have enough money saved to start a business nor did he properly plan for the business.

We also found it interesting that the man indicated on job interviews before his business collapsed he "probably" came across as a jerk because he wanted to see if the "firm was worthy" of him. What's interesting about this is that we believe every person being interviewed should also be interviewing the potential employer to ensure the job and the company are an appropriate fit. However in this case it sounds like the man was arrogant in prior job interviews so we wonder about this management style as well as his personality.

So what happened? ABC news ran a story about the man and shortly thereafter the station received emails and calls from people wanting to offer the man a job. A follow up story indicated that some of the offers were not much better than pizza delivery however some were executive positions with executive salaries. Amazing!

We knew something was clearly wrong with the story when we read it on Yahoo.com and wondered why he could not find a job that uses his skills and experience. It appears that the man did have another motive in mind: He used the power of the news, the press, and websites like ours, to market to thousands, perhaps millions, of potential opportunities. He bypassed other job candidates, and the interview process completely, with a compelling story and apparent humility.

So poor planning and past arrogance a side, mass marketing yielded him fantastic results. Sounds like the man was using some of his skills and experience after all!