David Brown

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It's January 2005, and in his office in Johnstown, New York, Hamdi Ulukaya is tidying his desk.

He grabs a pile of unsorted papers and starts tossing unwanted items into the nearby garbage can.

Ulukaya is 32 years old and a Kurdish immigrant who grew up in Turkey, milking sheep on his family's farm.

He moved to the United States 11 years ago and now runs a small business making feta cheese.

But the feta business isn't what Ulukaya imagined it would be.

It barely turns a profit, and selling a cheese that people toss on salads without a second thought doesn't exactly set his soul on fire.

He flings a coffee-stained pizza menu into the garbage can and glances down at the next item.

It's a postcard from a real estate firm advertising a fully-equipped yogurt factory.

Ulukaya drops it straight in the trash bin with the rest of the junk mail and his used tea leaves.

But as he continues cleaning up, the postcard lingers in his mind.

Back home near the Kurdish mountains, his family made yogurt.

Greek-style yogurt.

Tart, creamy, and custard-thick.

The kind of yogurt that's good for you.

Nothing like the thin, sweet glop sold in U.S.

supermarkets.

Ulukaya looks over again at the garbage can.

Maybe he could... No, no, no, that's ridiculous.