Wendy did not rise to her present position because she is a Shooster; her brothers are as talented, competitive and ambitious as Wendy. She grew into her job just the way her broth- ers did – learning at their parents’ side. All the children of Herman and Dorothy Shooster love and admire their parents. They have seen, first hand, what it took to build the business from a tiny, Mom and Pop answering service into a company that today employs over 1,500 people in three states. A few days ago I received a phone call from Wendy; she wanted to meet, she was having difficulty saying what she wanted to say about her mother. “Every time I sit down to write something I get emotional and start to cry.” We met at her office which, as always, was crowded with people seeking her opinion or decision on all sorts of issues. She announced that she had to go pick up her car at the Lexus dealership. I would go with her. On the way I listened to her talk about her mother. “It’s hard to explain,” she said, “We have a very close relationship. Both of us love to shop and that’s our private space for sharing things and just talking mother and daughter. It’s not the shopping that matters, it’s the being together.” I asked her about the rumor that she was a bit wild as a teenager. “Oh, that’s not really true,” she laughed, “Maybe a little boy crazy, that’s all. It’s funny, I was never a really good student – I was a good athlete – I was very competitive, probably from growing up with three brothers.” She remembered sitting next to her mother
at the office as a young girl. “You learn a lot just sitting there and listening. My mother taught me by example how to talk to people and how to be persuasive. But mostly she taught me how to treat people. How people want to be treated not just with respect but in a way that shows you enjoy their company.” Wendy married Max Leuchter when she was twenty years old. Her mother still remem- bers the search for just the right dress. Dorothy also remembers the risky business of arrang- ing to have a headpiece made of real flowers and how successful that turned out to be. “The photographer kept a picture of Wendy in his shop window for months afterward because she was such a beautiful bride.” In 1990 Wendy joined the company full time. Dorothy was concerned that the daily routine would not appeal to Wendy’s energet- ic and outgoing personality. But Wendy had learned some things from her parents along the way, and she took to the business like a natural. “We have become a big family business but we are still, at heart, a family business. When you visit our offices you don’t feel anyone is trying to impress you – you feel like you can sit down and relax and do business like family.” I thought of Frank’s favorite word as a child – “freelax.” Wendy remembered too and laughed, “It’s still the same.” “The point is,” Wendy said, “that I love my mother very much. The things she has taught me over the years, mostly by example, are lessons of love and caring. Those are values that make for a good life, not just a good business – although in the case of our family it’s all one and the same.”
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