For success in business, one must have the guts to take risks and make opportunities. This is no exception for foreigners in Korea. Ali Karagozlu is one of the few non-Korean businessmen who felt he needed to test his business idea. If he hadn’t, he most likely would have regretted it for the rest of his life. At the young age of 20, the notion of running a Turkish restaurant in Korea began poking at Karagozlu’s mind. This was back in 2000. Needless to say, his entrepreneurial spirit ultimately led to the opening of his restaurant called “Pasha,” meaning “general” of the army, in 2001.

“I was in my second year of the business program at Seoul National University when I thought of opening up a Turkish restaurant,” Karagozlu said told The Korea Herald at the first Pasha branch located by the Gangnam Subway Station in Seoul.
The 30-year-old said a strong belief in his idea had prompted him to propose a business plan and its potential to his father, an established business man in Turkey. “My dad agreed to help me because he thought this experience could be useful to me as a lesson in life and because he also trusted me,” Karagozlu said.