Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Who Said That?

"The younger workers here are a bit spoiled. "

-- Leonard Kempers

Leonard Kempers, a Dutch immigrant and pizzeria owner, came to the United States five years ago to pursue an entrepreneur’s American Dream.

Coming from a family of traditional bakers, Kempers not only was saying hello to the land of opportunity, but waving adios to a European socialistic economic model well-known for its stringent business regulations and suffocating taxes.

And then there was the dreary weather in Amsterdam, spits of sunshine escaping out every now and then from a normally chilly sky the color of a sidewalk.

Here is where you want Hollywood script writers to enter the room and say everything went as planned and that our economic model is better than theirs. In the Tinseltown version, Kempers ends up in sunny Florida, works long hours and risks his hard-earned capital to become a successful small business owner in just five years.

Well, it’s sort of worked out that way.

Read more at the Florida Today.