Magazine Article
The drive-in went downhill when the super - highways were created, and he floundered to find himself, eventually becoming the president of a public company. It didn’t work out, so he moved to Florida when I was 15. In Florida, he spent two years searching for what to do next with four kids ready for col - lege. I recall his depression as he tried to decide what to do while staying afloat with his expenses. He settled on a small compa- ny called Ding-a_Ling Answering Service, and I went off to college. Each step of the way was carefully pondered risks. My fa - ther and our whole extended family are en - trepreneurs. In college, I discovered The College of Art and was offered two choices: Fine Art or Graphic Arts. I chose Fine Art as I intended to conquer the world, just like in the game of Risk®. I had no clue if I could be suc- cessful, but I thought if I was successful, what would I want to do with all of my time? That answer was easy, “Make things.” The reason I chose Fine Art is that I wanted to work for myself. My dad said, “No way, you can’t be an art - ist.” Did you know that Michelangelo’s dad said the same thing? So, I also took Archi- tecture and was the only art student to take calculus and pass with a solid “A” while be - ing stoned the whole time. Six years later, I graduated with a degree in Fine Art and I was accepted into a Masters of Architecture program. I had it all lined up with a girlfriend and an apartment at Ohio State when my dad told me a week before leaving, “I don’t want you to go. Instead, I want you to stay with me and build a busi - ness.” I stayed.
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephen Shoost- er. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephen below. Hi Stephen, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small. Walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out. Taking risks defines my whole life starting with playing the game of Risk® at an ear - ly age. My family, being Jewish, faced an existential threat during WWII, and before that, just being Jewish had its moments with pograms in Russia, now Ukraine. My side of the family arrived in 1910 with noth - ing, absolutely nothing. They struggled with few means of support, from doing laundry to tailoring to some small real estate, and then The Depression almost bankrupted them again. They got through it all and built a gas station and then a drive-in restaurant on the same property. Meanwhile, my dad, as a young man, was a short-order cook at that restaurant. He said that he must have formed thousands of hamburgers and cut a million onions. His story continued into the war as a medic returning with post-traumatic stress, some - thing he was ashamed about at the time, but he dealt with it by facing up to five por - tions of electro-shock therapy. He survived, got on medication for the rest of his life, was married, and had four kids. I was the third.
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