doing it with vodka

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/6286432]“I kept thinking about that guy… saying ‘you’re the Vodka guy’ and I was like, you know what, that’s what I am… and that’s what I want to do.”
 - Tito Beveridge on making millions with Tito’s VodkaEveryone thought he was crazy. Making vodka in texas? In TEXAS?? Well, that’s what he did. Tito Beveridge quit is job and began to make vodka out of his shack. He racked up and maxed out all of his credit cards cause no one wouldn’t dare give him money. Ten years later, a little guy from Austin, Texas owns the 27th best selling vodka in the world.Sales and distribution boomed in 2001 after Tito’s Handmade Vodka unanimously won the Double Gold Medal for vodka at the World Spirit’s Competition in San Francisco, beating out 71 other high-priced vodkas. Tito’s Handmade Vodka is made from yellow corn, instead of the more common wheat or potato. Plus it is distilled six times!This shoot was for Hemispheres Magazine, United’s Inflight publication. We arrived at the distillery and guess who’s working away? Yes, Tito and his two compadres. That’s it, that’s the staff. But, this isn’t work to him. Making vodka is what he loves and since his success, he has turned down multiple offers to buy out his company.He said he didn’t want to put his vodka in the hands of large corporations who he knows wouldn’t put the special attention and care he puts into every single batch.  Why give up his dream to someone else? This is what he finally decided he wanted to do with his life (..after many other careers) so why give it away?You go Tito!

© van ditthavong BORN TODAY: MAN RAY (EMMANUEL RADNITZKY), 1890
”It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.”