Ted Ngoy
“Luck favors the bold, but only if they’re adequately prepared.” - Ted Ngoy from The Donut King
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Ted Ngoy is a Cambodian-born entrepreneur who fled to the United States and built what became a donut shop empire in California. His influence and story has inspired many Cambodian Americans to follow suit; if you visit a donut shop in California recently, chances are it is owned by a Cambodian household. Though revered as “The Donut King”, Ted Ngoy’s story is a prime example of the American Dream but also a reminder of how easily a tycoon can fall back down.
In 1975, Ngoy started his journey in the US at Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin, California, where a pastor sponsored him to work as a church janitor. Realizing that he could not raise a family of eight at the time as a janitor, he looked for other jobs. In one of his other jobs, there was a nearby donut shop, and when he tried one, it reminded him of a Cambodian dessert called nom kong. Seeing the shop’s success, he resolved to be part of the donut making business. Ngoy eventually became the first South East Asian trainee at Winchell’s, which was the largest donut making shop at the time.
After training, Ngoy started running his own Winchell’s shop, saving as much money while running the business to open up his own mom-and-pop one year later called Christy’s. That one year was taxing though, looking for ways to cut costs by buying pink boxes in bulk and cleaning coffee stirrers, often being admonished by Winchell’s for unhygienic practices. Despite the occasional spotty business practices, Ngoy’s shops were a successful business. While most donut shops only make fresh donuts twice a day, Ngoy’s shops were notorious for making smaller batches throughout the day.
As the shops continued to grow, Ngoy began to open up additional donut shops across California. Back in Cambodia, civil instability was rampant, and many Cambodians fled to the US as refugees, where Ngoy agreed to sponsor them. Over one hundred Cambodian refugee families were sponsored by Ngoy, being granted housing, loans, and a donut shop to start their lives in the US. Eventually, Christy’s surpassed Winchell’s as the largest donut shop chain in California.
Ngoy’s success was short-lived though, when he was invited to gamble in Las Vegas. Eventually, his gambling became an addiction, where he amassed debt to the point of being penniless. Once a well-respected man in the Cambodian American community, everyone began to avoid Ngoy out of fear of asking for loans. Tensions in his family were high, and eventually he left to a Thai monastery to practice Buddhism. However, once he returned back to the US, his gambling addiction returned. Since then, he has gone back to Cambodia to establish a political life that eventually fell through. Now he continues to work to raise his second family in Cambodia as a translator and real estate representative.
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