I started a feta cheese company, Euphrates, in upstate New York in 2002. Hamdi Ulukaya More Quotes by Hamdi Ulukaya More Quotes From Hamdi Ulukaya Every small business will give you an entrepreneurial way of looking at things. I guarantee you that for every plant that closes, if you gave it to one small-business person in that community, he or she would find a way to make it work. The small-business attitude is you always find a way to make it work. Hamdi Ulukaya community attitude giving I believe that as an entrepreneur, when you share success, it grows. Hamdi Ulukaya entrepreneur share believe I love innovation, I love competing. I hate my competitors. You cannot be in the world of business when you don't have this consciousness of winning. Hamdi Ulukaya innovation hate winning Growing up in eastern Turkey, I was not really involved with the family business - sheep and cow farming, yogurt and cheese making. But I think I learned from my father the unspoken business language or instincts that go back thousands of years. Hamdi Ulukaya growing-up father thinking Fage does not make great yogurt. Hamdi Ulukaya yogurt doe But as the business grows, you get more attention, and then you realize that the whole world is trying to get time from you. Which is amazing. But every time you give it to the world, you give less to what you’re doing. Hamdi Ulukaya trying attention giving Unlike the objective of far too many companies, manufacturing is not about a quick exit. It is centered on long-term value creation. Hamdi Ulukaya exit creation long A closed plant is like a cemetery; it really is. The walls will talk to you; the machines will talk to you if you really talk to them. Hamdi Ulukaya machines wall plant Shepherd. It's a very beautiful word. It represents peace. And it meant a lot to me because...I come from a life with shepherds and mountains and all that stuff. Hamdi Ulukaya very-beautiful mountain beautiful Entrepreneurship is seen as if you're in Silicon Valley or New York City and starting an app business or a social-media business, which is cool. But what we really have to focus on is people who make things, and how can we fund them, and how can we encourage people to stay in their community and make a difference in their community. Hamdi Ulukaya cool you business people Just about anyone can make a good product, but it's the people that count. In the end, it's the employees who will take it from a kitchen-table idea to the next level. There are a lot of important things in business, but the people portion comes first. Hamdi Ulukaya end good business people On the tech side, little start-ups can do something magnificent. They don't need too much in terms of plants and infrastructure. Hamdi Ulukaya plants need something too-much I'm not somebody who is going to build something for a few years, sell it, and then go off and just have fun. Hamdi Ulukaya have-fun something go fun I didn't have a business degree. I didn't have experience to work in somebody else's office. I never built or ran a department. So I was on this journey, and when the time came to make a decision, I was just going with my gut. Hamdi Ulukaya business journey work time There are a lot of studies about small businesses and how they make a difference in their community and create a lot of jobs and values. So we need to focus on small businesses or entrepreneurs who want to start manufacturing or making things. Hamdi Ulukaya small start focus community Most Americans descend from the very people who built this country with their bare hands. Hamdi Ulukaya who country hands people A manufacturing resurgence is what will give local communities and small towns across America a fighting chance for survival. Many of today's American entrepreneurs come from those very places but make their wealth elsewhere. We need to change that. Hamdi Ulukaya fighting chance change today I was always told yogurt had to be sweet to appeal to Americans. But when people go to Turkey or Greece, within 15 minutes of their return, they start talking about how much they enjoyed the yogurt there. Hamdi Ulukaya start talking sweet people I brought in a yogurt master from Turkey. I went to Greece. I was always going back and forth, from New York to Turkey and Greece. The recipe we use has been around hundreds and hundreds of years. Growing up in Turkey, not a day would go by that we wouldn't eat yogurt like this. Hamdi Ulukaya new day back growing-up We took a plant that was being closed by a big company thinking there was no good use for it, and we came in with a different perspective. We bought some used equipment, as simple as we could. Hamdi Ulukaya good perspective simple thinking
