Humans of WoW #005- Sakari Smithwick
“Sometimes it takes one person to see something in you to give you the courage to do something that can change the course of your life.”
It can be a highschool teacher. Or Gary Vee. Both of these are true for Sakari Smithwick. That’s not to say that life-changing events don’t come without tenacity. Sakari, a naturally ambitious person, applied for the VeeFriends Sorcerer Scholarship and was denied. That is, until Gary Vee reconsidered his application because of an encounter where Sakari gave him a prized baseball card, expecting nothing in return. Some may call this luck, but I see this as anything but that.
Sakari’s cooking journey goes way back to when he was a child. A curiosity about the smells of his grandma’s kitchen, the different types of pots, and the one time he made his first pb&j sandwich. That one sandwich gave him a great sense of independence. That, combined with his curiosity, made him take on his new passion of cooking. He realized he had some skill, one that his highschool teacher also noticed. This led to advanced cooking classes, Eleven Madison Park, pop-up restaurants, Cyber Green Juice, Hell’s Kitchen, kids cookbook, Noble Promises, and an internship at Vayner.
Okay, maybe I fast-forwarded quite a bit. But there is a lot to unpack with Sakari. His curiosity, passion for what he does, and unrelenting ambition is invigorating. Speaking with him, I could feel it throughout our entire conversation, like a breath of fresh air. For someone with a lot of accolades to his name, he doesn’t ride the highs or lows much, but rather stay right in the middle, “finding that balance of not getting too high, getting too low, and just keep going”.
His pursuit to document his journey for his future kids is something that gets him excited. Something they can look back at as they grow up, unlike what he was able to do with his father. More than just a story told by mouth, but evidence to see him speak and do things that his children could be proud of. A large part of his recent journey they’ll be able to watch in admiration is his creation of the Cyber Green Juice. Sakari most recently was a finalist for the “Innovative Use of IP” at the WoW Awards hosted at the Gala. In fact, some of you reading may have been sipping on his juice while dancing the night away. With the endless possibilities of creative ways to use the generous IP rights afforded by WoW, perhaps others will feel inspired to use theirs. And in the meantime, maybe Sakari will come up with a new snack for us all to enjoy!
Written by Mitoshi (@mitoshi88)
