Ulukaya Quotes & Sayings

How can I forgive if you are not ready to give up that which caused you to stumble? — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

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

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

Most Americans descend from the very people who built this country with their bare hands. — Hamdi Ulukaya

I came to the U.S. in 1994 to learn English and go to business school, but I took only a few business courses at the State University of New York at Albany and didn't finish. — Hamdi Ulukaya

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

Are you angry? Punch a pillow. Was it satisfying? Not hardly. These days people are too angry for punching. What you might try is stabbing. Take an old pillow and lay it on the front lawn. Stab it with a big pointy knife. Again and again and again. Stab hard enough for the point of the knife to go into the ground. Stab until the pillow is gone and you are just stabbing the earth again and again, as if you want to kill it for continuing to spin, as if you are getting revenge for having to live on this planet day after day, alone. — Miranda July

I believe in blues, and I believe that it's been misrepresented. — John Mayer

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

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 it less to what you're doing. — Hamdi Ulukaya

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

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

Hamdi Ulukaya and Chobani have made the decision to feed 250,000 victims of the Somali famine. Their compassion speaks for itself, and is a shining example of how the business community can have an enormous positive impact on the world. — Amanda Lindhout

You can find Chobani in every major supermarket, in club stores, convenience stores and airports. But we're not everywhere yet. We have been struggling with keeping up with demand. — Hamdi Ulukaya

If a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is. — Banana Yoshimoto

Everything that I did, I thought of him. He had consumed me. He has crawled inside of me and become part of me, part of my day-to-day life. Even when he is not in my presence, he is part of everything that I do. He is in my mind. He has infected me.

I paint my nails and I hope. I hope that he praises me. I hope that he smiles. I hope that when he says what he says, whatever it may be, that he ends it with those two words.
Baby girl.
I am ruined. — Scott Hildreth

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

Fage does not make great yogurt. — Hamdi Ulukaya

I believe that as an entrepreneur, when you share success, it grows. — Hamdi Ulukaya

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

For a startup, you need to stay small so the others don't attack, or you aim to be one of the big guys. If you don't do it right, you might lose everything. — Hamdi Ulukaya

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

When I was 16, I filmed an episode of 'Full House' where my family goes to Disney World. I remember putting on baggy overalls just to hide my stomach. When I watched it, I was pretty disappointed and bummed out looking at myself ... I didn't feel good about my own body. — Candace Cameron Bure

The poor man's son, whom heaven has in its anger visited with ambition, goes beyong admiration of palaces to envy. He labours all his life to outdo his competitors, only to find the end that the rich are no happier than the poor in the things that really matter. — Adam Smith

Everyone asks me why someone Turkish is making Greek yogurt. In Greece, it is not called 'Greek yogurt.' Everywhere in the world it is called 'strained yogurt.' But because it was introduced in this country by a Greek company, they called it 'Greek yogurt.' — Hamdi Ulukaya

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

When you are done living for yourself, only then do you learn that living for others is the privilege,' Renata — Alan Furst

What happened was I saw this ad for a yogurt plant for sale. It was in my junk mail pile, and I threw it into the garbage can. And then about half an hour later, with the dirt on it, I picked it up from the garbage can, and I called out of curiosity. — Hamdi Ulukaya

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

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

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

My mother used to make the most amazing yogurt. — Hamdi Ulukaya

Music comes from the heart and returns to the heart ... music is spontaneous, impulsive expression ... its range is without limit ... forever growing ... can be one element to help us build a new conception of life in which the madness and cruelty of wars will be replaced by a simple understanding of the brotherhood of man. — Leopold Stokowski

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