“I was a person who created nothing, gave nothing to anybody,” Jonathan Kleisner said of his time in finance
NEED TO KNOW
- A millionaire commodities trader left Wall Street to become a rescue medic when he was 41
- Thirteen years later, Jonathan Kleisner is one of the top instructors for the Fire Department of New York
- “I am a hugely competitive person. I’m pretty good at what I do,” Kleisner told The New York Times
In January 2021, Jonathan Kleisner was one of two paramedics who provided care and hospital transport to a patient after a rescue from New York City’s Hudson River.
The emergency response came six years after he’d earned the title of rescue medic for the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) — a seemingly vast career shift from his original role as a commodities trader, according to his LinkedIn page.
Once making millions of dollars a year, the father of two left Wall Street in 2012. He now makes an annual salary of $110,000, according to his recent New York Times profile. But for Kleisner, the change was necessary…