We're a little late to the party, but we'd like to put in some congratulations to "Sushi" Randy, the founder and chef behind the very popular Sushi Confidential restaurant in Campbell, for winning the Campbell Chamber of Commerce's 2018 Business of the Year Award.
Instead of telling you things that you probably already know about Sushi Confidential, we're going to print a transcript of the speech that Randy gave at the Celebrate Campbell event earlier this month upon accepting the award. It illustrates what rich and varied past lives many small business owners bring with them into their new life in retail. These stories and these experiences are the special sauce that make Downtown Campbell such a vibrant and inviting community.
Randy "Sushi Randy" Musterer
In 1997, I started my career as a Cancer Research Scientist. Over a 17 year span, I was able to help develop cancer therapies that are currently on the market today. So one of my biggest challenges switching from Cancer Research to “just making sushi”, was the potential feeling of losing my purpose in life to help others. To overcome this, I challenged myself and our organization, to produce something bigger and greater for society.
Downtown Campbell was our first location. We started off offering $40 gift cards to local schools for their fundraisers. I could see the excitement and appreciation from the schools, the parents, the community. Eventually, the donations grew into us offering $1500 sushi parties that would be auctioned off at their school fundraisers. Over the years, our brand became so strong, that these sushi parties would regularly fetch 2-3 times the actual value of the sushi party and we set a record for a $1500 sushi party that turned into a $13,000 donation.
At a number of these auctions, was the auction announcer, Randy Hahn, who is also the voice of the San Jose Sharks. We both quickly saw a synergy, “What if we leveraged the Sushi Confidential brand combined with Randy Hahn, a well spoken, famous face in the bay area, to create something positive and special for the community?
In 2016, Randy and I started our own philanthropy called The Randys’ 24 Hours of Sushi, Celebrity Charity Challenge. Even though we have only done this for a year, we have raised over $200,000 for local non-profits in the bay area. It is amazing what we can do when we put our minds to it!
I had the special privilege and pleasure of meeting and talking with Oprah a couple years ago. And something she said, has stuck with me. She said “Use the restaurant as a platform, a force for something positive and good! Your business is an energetic force in the community and you are responsible for the type of energy you create”.
It just takes a little creativity, a little desire, a little sacrifice, a little purpose in life, to be able to create a powerful tool to give back. Life is like a pendulum, the positive energy we put into this world, produces an equal and opposite energy back to us. What goes around, comes around. What you put out, will come back.
