Sakıp Sabancı | Official Website

MONEY IS THE REWARD FOR SUCCESS

There was a very popular book in my childhood: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Even people in Anatolia, who were not accustomed to foreign names at that time, knew the name of the author of this book as “Dala Karneci” (the way Dale Carnegie was pronounced in Turkish). Later on, translations of other books by this author were published. Among them was a book that taught how to make money, as far as I remember. After Yeni Asır Newspaper started to be published in Istanbul, the editors of the newspaper asked me to summarize my views on the ways of success in a small book that would be distributed to their readers. My views and suggestions were published in a small book. On the cover of the book was written: "16 Golden Ways to Earn Money - Written by Sakıp Sabancı". On Sunday, November 23, 1985, around 120 thousand copies were distributed along with the Yeni Asır Newspaper, as I was told. I received a range of feedback about this book from the people that I knew and others that I didn't know. I realized that people were generally interested in it. Noticing this strong interest, I reviewed the content of the publication. I made some additions. This is how the book in your hand came into being. My friends informed me that similar books had been published in Turkey recently. Books entitled The One Minute Manager and Up the Organization by American authors were translated into Turkish and attracted a lot of interest. Of course, what I wrote would be a little different, since I did not write as a writer, but as a businessperson who assumed responsibility. Remember that I am trying to convey my 40 years of experience in Turkey’s conditions to you. I will be glad if I can be useful …

SUCCESS IS NOW IN THE LION'S MOUTH

This is my eleventh book. Second editions of four of my books have been published. My book, Money is the Reward of Success, which I wrote in November 1985, was published four times. The difference of that book from the others is that I describe my life experiences in a simple way. I realized that people find it interesting when you write your own experiences. It gets read. And it's helpful too. Money is the reward for success. But what is "success"? How to achieve success? I am a businessperson. For me, success is my business. Success for painters is the acquisition of their paintings by a famous museum, success for musicians means their work being played by famous orchestras, success for scientists is about receiving the Nobel Prize. I cannot describe success from the point of view of a musician, an artist or a scientist. In this little book, I will explain what success is and how to achieve success, from the perspective of a businessperson, based on my own experience. I repeat it. These are my own experiences. These are the things I believe in. I am not writing a recipe for success. I cannot write it… But I want to shed light on those who seek success based on my own experience.

IS IT WAGE BARGAIN OR SHEEP BARGAIN?

I made the distortion about wages into a book for the first time in June 1987, by trying to explain the issue in every aspect. This book received a lot of attention. Distortions about wages became much more visible. My second work was published in May 1990 with some revisions to the explanations in the first book. This is my third book on wages.

MORE WORK, MORE FOOD

The headlines on the first pages of Sabah and Milliyet Newspapers in October 1992 impressed me a lot: Embarrassing Numbers: 10 Thousand Applications for 50 Vacancies, 16 Thousand Candidates for 52 Vacancies, An Army of 4.5 Million Unemployed People. These articles, which you could read in newspapers, pushed me to focus on an issue that we all knew about, but which we did not boldly address and we could not discuss enough because we could not address it. I am the son of Hacı Ömer, a cotton worker. Today, in the group of companies that I manage, I have the responsibility of providing employment to 30 thousand people, thus providing food to approximately 200 thousand people, including dependents of my employees. I brought together my colleagues. “Let's gather the basics in a book to bring this employment issue up for discussion. Let's draw the attention of public opinion", I said. I came up with this little book by passing the figures and information compiled by my colleagues through the “Sakip Sabancı prism”. In this little book, I will summarize how important the issue of employment is for Turkey, the way it is explained by Sakıp Sabancı.

THIS IS MY LIFE

I have been in business for 35 years. I grew up with the business. I evolved with the business. I had responsibilities not only in the business of the Sabancı Family, but also in different stages of the economic growth of the young Turkey. I have been through some events. I watched some events closely. I contributed. I gained experience. I found it useful to write the parts of my thirty-five years of business experience, which I hope will be of interest to others. The development story of Sabancı Group, in a way, also reveals the development line of the private sector and private sector industry in Turkey.

THIS IS MY LIFE

Foreword by Former US President Jimmy Carter: Sakıp Sabancı has gained an indisputable reputation as a natural leader in his country, due to his success in business life and his contributions to the development of the Turkish people. I had the chance to examine ways to increase the quality of higher education with Sakıp Sabancı, who gave Sabancı scholarships to thousands of young people by looking at academic development from a wider perspective in his country. As one of the leading philanthropists of his country, he established education and cultural centers and health facilities in almost every corner of Turkey through the Sabancı Foundation. He is also a loyal friend of the United States. The Sabancı Collection, which consists of Turkish works of art, is a great treasure through which Sakıp Sabancı shows his generosity by sharing these with the people of other countries. When Rosalynn and I visited his home in Istanbul, we were impressed by the beauty and diversity of the paintings, sculptures and calligraphy in the collection. Using his financial resources and international influence, this Turkish leader seeks to promote human rights, resolve conflicts by peaceful means, and alleviate the suffering of the poor people in the world. This interesting autobiography will be a resource for those who want to learn about the formation of Sakıp Sabancı's philosophy, the roots of his interest in art, his ongoing efforts for modern Turkey, and his plans for the future.

FROM THE GALLERY OF MY HEART

In 1985, our journalist friend Güneri Cıvaoğlu was responsible for the management of Güneş Newspaper. One day he said to me: “Dear Sabancı, your book Here is My Life has attracted attention. We learned from your book that you know many famous people. It is understood that some of these acquaintances turned into friendships and lasted for a long time. If you describe your relationships with people you know with their colorful characteristics, it will attract readers’ attention. I want to prepare such a series for Güneş Newspaper”. Upon this request of our friend Güneri Cıvaoğlu, I wrote down "those who passed through the gallery of my heart" to be published in the newspaper.

The series was published in Güneş Newspaper between January 4 and 27, 1986, for 23 days, as a full-page feature with photos. They told me that the series attracted a lot of interest. Encouraged by my friends, I reviewed the series published in Güneş Newspaper and made some additions. I wrote the story of relationships and friendships after the series was published in the newspaper. In this book, I especially focused on my relationships and my friendships with foreigners. News is frequently published in the newspapers, saying "Sabancı hosted foreigners in his home. He presented the Turkish industry, developments in Turkey, and the promotional film of the Sabancı Group". Many people ask me: “Why do you invite these foreigners to your home?” Having meetings with foreigners and offering treats to them is far beyond the image of "eating and drinking together". The more each Turkish citizen establishes good relations with foreigners, the more volunteer ambassadors Turkey will have abroad. In different parts of this book, I will tell about the memories of Turkish and foreign statesmen whom I hosted in the Atlı Köşk.

FROM RUSSIA TO AMERICA: MY TRAVELS

When people return from travels, their friends and family ask them “Tell us about what you saw". I also wrote down "what I saw" and especially "what I believe could be useful to others" in my travels abroad. I consider this some kind of a responsibility, because I would not have done my duty if I had not conveyed to those who would be interested what I saw, what would bring benefits to this country during the trips I made with the opportunities this country provided to me. My late father, Hacı Ömer, used to ask anyone who went abroad: “Brother? Tell me, what did you see, what did you learn?..." If the person in front of him just went and came back and did not add anything to his knowledge, he would say, “…Brother, you travelled as a tourist”… My father also used the expression “go and come back like a sack”, meaning coming back empty-handed. In the days immediately after the Second World War, finding sacks to bale cotton in Turkey was difficult. Cotton was wrapped in sacks, bales were made, bales were loaded onto foreign ships, and cotton was exported. When the ship came to take cotton again, it would bring back the empty sacks. These sacks were used for baling cotton again. The expression “go and come back like a sack” was used to mean to go abroad and come back without noticing what is going on, without seeing or learning anything. As the son of Hacı Ömer, I take care not to "go and come back as a tourist" abroad, or "go and come back like a sack". In my travels, I followed the changes and developments outside of Turkey, which are important for Turkey's future. I took notes. I consider it my responsibility to convey the most important aspects of my observations to others.

LIFE IS SOMETIMES SWEET

People have a certain lifeline. On this line, people are struggling for a living. Struggling for life is a serious business in itself. In the struggle for life, people have little time to enjoy the sweet sides of life. But it is not possible to live by sulking all the time. Life is meaningless without laughing. For this reason, there is a saying in Anatolia that goes "a laugh gives you as much life as a chop". I have written 12 books so far. Two were published in English and one in Japanese. These were all serious books. This time, I meet my dear readers with a different book.

In my book Life is Sometimes Sweet, I wrote about the sweet sides of life, the sweet events that have happened to me so far, and the jokes I laugh at. Güngör Uras quoted to me two phrases of Mark Twain: “There is no humor in heaven” and “The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sadness”. I would be happy if I could give a sweet taste to my dear readers with this thirteenth book.

MY LIFE FROM WHERE I LEFT OFF

Sakıp Sabancı, who previously told about his life in the book entitled Here is My Life, continues from where he left off. The first book contained the life of the famous businessman until 1985. The new book is a summary of what has happened in the last nineteen years. “My Life From Where I Left Off”, in which you can find important traces of Sabancı's colorful, successful and busy life, also sheds light on important facts about the business world. Apart from Sakıp Sabancı's personal achievements and views, the book can also be considered as a track record of what they did as a holding and how they did it all. As you read the events that Sabancı narrates in a sweet language just as he speaks, you will also get clues about how success is achieved in the business world in Turkey. My Life From Where I Left Off will make lovers of memoirs happy, as well as those who enjoy reading self-help books.

“I take care to seem as I am and to be as I seem. For example, I did not feel the need to hide a single thing. I did not say, 'I am educated, I am cultivated, I have graduated from this or that school.' I dropped out of high school, I was not a good student. I am the son of cotton worker Hacı Ömer. This is the truth… I never thought that I should hide this fact or people would find it humiliating, on the contrary, I have accepted it as a fact to be proud of. It is necessary to leave aside the considerations such as "I come from a noble family, my family history is like this and that". By nature, all people have a certain degree of vanity. But this degree is different for everyone. Honestly speaking, I understand that I do not have a low degree of vanity…” (Page 37)

HEALTH FIRST

“My father was not prepared but he accepted death. He was saying, 'Are we going to not die because we're rich?' Neither he nor we were aware of the fact that modern medical techniques added a new period to human life, 15-16 years ago. However, I gained a new life in the spring of 1981 in a totally unexpected way. I also noticed a big injustice. It is a drama of our time that coincidences, opportunities, and luck only find those who are prepared to use them and seize them. All people deserve to be successful, productive and happy. Our mission is to create a better world, not just for ourselves, but for all people.”

TURKEY, CHANGING AND DEVELOPING

Turkey is in a constant state of change. This change is making us better every day. Turkey is getting bigger every day. Turkish people are getting better opportunities every day compared to the past. The common pursuit of statespeople, businesspeople and citizens in Turkey is to ensure faster growth and faster development. Our statespeople are working for this to happen. Our businesspeople are investing and producing for this to happen. Our workers strive for this to happen. Our children study for this to happen. So, as a state, as a nation, we believe and trust that Turkey's future will be good. Otherwise, we would have nothing to do but close factories and shops, stay home and wait for the economy to collapse. They say parents do not realize that their children grow up, develop, and become young men or women. We sometimes fail to notice the developments in this country sufficiently and appreciate the blessings of these developments. If we take into account the developments made in Turkey in ten-year periods, five-year periods, and even every year, and the opportunities provided to our people, we can clearly see the dimensions of our development, and the benefits that this development provides for our people, and where Turkey is heading.

EASTERN ANATOLIA REPORT

“The private sector should invest in Eastern Anatolia. Let the state establish a factory in Eastern Anatolia. Thus, terrorism is prevented. And immigration stops.” This is an often-repeated view. It's been repeated so much that we all started believing it. As a businessman and a citizen, I aspire to the mission of "developing a system that will encourage and increase investments in Eastern Anatolia under the current conditions". I did my homework. I worked with experts. I have developed “an organizational proposal that will initiate and carry out a private sector-oriented economic and social development initiative”. This is the core of my report. This is the subject where I can put forward my own expertise and experience and give advice. While preparing this report, I had the opportunity to observe what was going on in Southeastern Turkey. I learned what happened in other countries. There is a truth that emerges when we combine internal and external information: in order to solve the terrorism problem, we have to better understand what is going on… This is not just something that happened to Turkey. Other countries have faced similar problems. It is not possible to solve the problem only by establishing a factory. As a businessman, I cannot prescribe here how to solve the whole problem. I can put forward my suggestions in my own capacity. But as a citizen, it is my responsibility to summarize my personal observations and assessments of the problem as a whole.

DEDICATED TO SAKIP

In this book, prepared by architect, painter, and caricaturist Güngör Kabakçıoğlu as a 70th birthday gift to Sakıp Sabancı, there are more than 180 caricatures drawn by Kabakçıoğlu at various periods on Sakıp Sabancı's life, including Sabancı’s view of life and his agenda-setting words.

Güngör Kabakçıoğlu: Born in 1933, Güngör Kabakçıoğlu studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Painting and Architecture. He graduated from the Architecture Department in 1961. Kabakçıoğlu, who successfully completed many architectural works, drew caricatures for Tercüman, Akşam, Güneş and Yeni Yüzyıl newspapers. Kabakçıoğlu, who won awards and was a jury member in numerous architecture, painting, and caricature competitions, has two more books called Caricature Album and Portraits.