This is a story about Delta Air Lines and a grand farewell. Because when you think about epic last performances, a few classic examples might come to mind:
At the top, for me, would be Kobe
Bryant's final game in the NBA, in which he scored 60 points in a win over the
Utah Jazz. The vast majority of NBA players will never come close to scoring 60
points in one game, and Bryant did it in his retirement game.
Or else -- and I'm aware that
this makes me an old head -- I'd look at a 41-year-old TV show, the final
episode of M*A*S*H in 1983, which had more than 121 million viewers. I know
this was long ago, but that's more Americans than have watched any other thing
ever, except the moon landing and the Super Bowl.
If I had to point to one more, I
might pick Elton John's farewell tour ending in 2023, which had 330 shows and
grossed over $939 million. It seems a bit underwhelming now only because he
said goodbye after a 50-year music run just before Taylor Swift went out and
broke his record.
The point we're after is that
after a long and successful career, sometimes the only way to top things off
correctly is with an even better and successful final act. And that's what
leads us to the story of Keith Rosenkranz, a Delta Air Lines pilot who decided
he wanted his last day before retirement to be especially memorable.
No gold watch for him (well, at
least not that I'm aware of); instead, Rosenkranz spent the rough equivalent of
a year's salary to charter a Delta Air Lines jet, and then fly it to Hawaii
himself with 112 guests as passengers.
I don't know about you, but I
appreciate that kind of grand gesture. And a lot of other people do as well.
"You can't put a price on
something that was that big," he told Business Insider afterward.
"You think about being able to go out that way and take all your family
and friends on a whirlwind journey. You don't want to be the richest man in the
graveyard one day."
The best way to celebrate a big
accomplishment is with a real celebration. It applies whether it's your
retirement, or a milestone reached in your business, or something else. Nobody
wants to work for a boss for whom the only reward for good work is more work.
As for Rosenkranz, I tried to
track him down without success, but he's apparently an interesting person for
whom this isn't even his first "last day."
Multiple reports refer to him as
a former Air Force pilot who flew combat missions in the Persian Gulf War (and
wrote a book about his experience) before flying commercial.
And he gathered the right crowd
for his last takeoff at Delta Air Lines.
Among the guest list:
"College friends, Air Force friends, Delta friends. I had friends from
grade school dating back to when we were 6 years old," he told Inside
Edition, plus his 84-year-old mother, who had never flown with him before.
"Every part of that trip,
I'll replay in my head the rest of my life," he said. "It was just
everything I dreamed about. It was very special."
https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/a-delta-air-lines-pilot-wanted