Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of Chobani. I’m native Turkish, grew up in Turkey, moved to the U.S. in 1994.

I was 23 when I moved with no English of course, only a few words. And I made home in upstate new in a small town called New Berlin. In 2005 after I purchased an old Kraft factory, and I’ve been living there since. Started the company in 2005, launched the brand in 2007, and now we have 3000 employees, few plants around the world, we are #1 brand in the country. My journey from a small town in Turkey to a small town in upstate New York, even though faraway from each other, it’s human relationship, it’s dream, access to dream, and following what you learned from your parents and also taking opportunity and what’s in front of you.

We’re forgetting that the mass majority of the population is still living in these rural areas, and the culture is still alive. The dream, the American dream is still alive. How can we make sure that the vast majority is not separated from this entrepreneurship?  I don’t’ think there’s education needed to be done. We just need to make sure that the stories that come from these areas are still highlighted in the big picture, financial assistance is truly there  like it is in the big cities and certain sectors, and also you want to make sure that entrepreneurship is not something elitist. The way that you look or the education that you have or certain sectors. Then we’re going to create a problem. It’s not a problem in this country yet, but certainly it’s a problem in a lot of other countries in the part of the world.  The problem there is a little different. A vast majority don’t believe they have access to this dream to begin with, so that has to be broken. Here the kids wake up in the morning and says “Mom, I’m going to the Moon when I grow up.” I’m going to be a president, I’m going to build one of the best companies. The mom, automatically by believing, of course you can. But unfortunately that’s not the case in a lot of other places, so I think we can encourage, inspire, and transfer this culture, and it’s okay to transfer this culture. It’s an equal opportunity to all to put their dream in the work.