Every year, on Serbian New Year, Zoran Ignjatović proves that success only has meaning when it is shared. For a full two decades, without interruption, this entrepreneur from Smederevo has gifted a gold coin to the first-born baby in the Danube city, making this act one of the most beautiful and long-lasting examples of personal kindness in Serbia.
“This year, the gold coin went to a boy named Petar, son of Ana Đorđević. Petar came into the world as a true ‘golden boy,’ weighing 4,140 grams and measuring 52 centimeters,” Zoran told RINA.
Behind this gesture lies a life story rarely heard. Ignjatović’s path to success was neither easy nor predetermined. It began in the 1960s when he traveled to Italy intending to buy clothing. From Trieste, he returned not with jeans, but with an idea that would change his life—in his bag were not pants, but packs of brake pads.
“I saw brake pads in a shop window and realized no one was dealing with this back home. I bought a few as a trial. I installed everything within a month. Then I returned with a bag full of brake pads and sold everything immediately,” Ignjatović recalls.
From that moment, his business grew. Soon, he was importing goods from Italy in trucks, expanding production to clutch plates and heavy machinery components, especially important for tractors that were overhauled during winter in cooperatives across Serbia. Ignjatović’s workshop became renowned far beyond Smederevo, with their work sought even outside the country.
“A new clutch plate for a Ferguson cost 1,200 marks, but we did the overhaul for 600. People would line up,” Zoran says.
Yet behind the success were also difficult years. A childhood marked by poverty, work “in service” until age thirty, and the modesty that accompanied each day left a lasting mark.
“I went to school with two pieces of bread and a bit of sugar. Other kids had drumsticks and fried eggs. I even dropped that sugar—and I cried,” he recalls today with a smile.
From those memories, from the difficult path and family upbringing, arose the need to give. The gold coin for the first-born baby is neither an advertisement nor an obligation—it is a personal vow of a man who understands how little it means to someone who has, and how much it can mean to someone just beginning life.
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Source: RINA, Foto: RINA