We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephen Shooster. 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 early 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 nothing, 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, something he was ashamed about at the time, but he dealt with it by facing up to five portions 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. The drive-in went downhill when the superhighways 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 college. I recall his depression as he tried to decide what to do while staying afloat with his expenses. He settled on a small company called Ding-a_Ling Answering Service, and I went off to college. Each step of the way was carefully pondered risks. My father and our whole extended family are entrepreneurs.
In college, I discovered The College of Art and was offered two choices, Fine Art or Graphic Arts. I choose Fine Art as I intended to conquer the world, just like in the game of Risk®. I had no clue if I could be successful, 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 choose Fine Art is that I wanted to work for myself.
My dad said, “No way, you can’t be an artist.” Did you know that Michelangelo’s dad said the same thing? So, I also took Architecture and was the only art student to take calculus and pass with a solid “A” while being 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 business.” I stayed.
The answering service just happened to be in the center of the convergence of computers and telephony which defined my entire career. The old wooden telephone switchboards were replaced with computers in the 80’s and I was tasked to support them. Imagine the risk we were taking by switching to computers. Our entire livelihood was at stake and the computers were unproven. We didn’t even have staff that could type. Fax machines; Beepers; the Internet; Email; Voice Mail; 800 numbers; Every year something new was developed, and every year we were supposed to go out of business because these things were going to replace us. Instead, we grew by accepting them.
Fast forward and I built a call center and then I had to build all the software and a myriad of everything you can imagine, eventually earning a patent in software engineering by connecting the internet to the World Wide Web. Deep into my career, we had a thousand employees and I had a staff of 30-plus engineers.
Every evening, weekend, and every holiday I made art. I love making art. I also love writing. Eventually, the company grew large enough that the entire family joined the business and my many hats were handed to a CTO, CIO, and every expert you can imagine. I became the co-CEO of the company with my family, essentially an equal partnership. I even started drawing in the boardroom while meetings were occurring. That is when my dad asked, “How do I like being retired,” even though I was still working and the little bit I did was very valuable, I had a lot of extra time on my hands and a successful business.
The call center was called Global Response. It served some of the finest companies in the world including Toyota; Lane Bryant; Zara; Hermes; Wolford; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; MoMA; and The Chicago Art Institute.
My dad then said I should learn about the Nazi Holocaust. He saw that survivors were starting to fade and their stories should be told. My son is sitting with me as I write this and he just asked me WHY did he say that. Then, he reminded me what I told him years prior, that I don’t ask WHY, I ask HOW. This is important because if you ask WHY you can go in circles, but if you focus on HOW you become a craftsman, and if you’re good, an artist. I have always wanted to be an artist. So did Michelangelo.
So, I wrote the book. It is called The Horse Adjutant. It is the story of Leon Schagrin, a Nazi Holocaust survivor. This book taught me how to write. Leon and I did a lecture on Jan. 27th, 2023, the 78th Anniversary of his liberation from Auschwitz. It was a profound feeling.
Since the writing of this book, I find myself writing every day while still making lots of art. My father passed away and I took eight years to write his biography. I dedicated two hours every morning to the task. He was Sun Sentinel Businessman of the Year in 2012, for Broward County (Greater Fort Lauderdale, Florida). In writing his story I firmly grounded myself. We are an extension of our history. My next step is to take his biography and with the aid of artificial intelligence to talk to my books.
I have also written the Catalog Raisonne of my art documenting every single piece of art I have ever done currently into 17 volumes. I just released the 2022 volume a few weeks ago. This is a remarkable achievement and won’t be completed until I pass away. I have no clue who will write the final volume but, I have four kids and they are all artists, they will have to figure it out.
What is Risk? Would you rather work for someone and be at the mercy of their decisions or your own? Would you rather wait for someone to tell you what to do or make your own decisions? It’s tough, really tough to ponder because little things like rent and food become big things, and taking the leap of faith in yourself is not for everyone. I am one of the few that navigated those heavy swells, and I have a ton of scars to prove it, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I still love making art, and now, as of a month ago I just switched gears and rebranded myself as a luxury designer using all the art of those 50-plus years to make exquisite designs on clothing and home goods.
Stephen, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Shoosty:
I recently reinvented myself as a luxury designer opening a store filled with clothing and soft goods based on my designs. It has only been open for a month, and I already have hundreds of unique products. I have a lot to learn with this new business.
The strength of my store comes from being a fine artist for over 50 years. I have a tremendous collection of work to leverage, including some masterworks that took a year or more to finish.
While I am working on my visual art I like listening to podcasts and audiobooks. I find that by listening to something engaging I can focus better on what I am making.
Every day for about two hours, I write. Writing sorts out my thinking organizing it in a way that I can build upon. It helps that I maintain a book-binding system at the house. I like the feeling of holding a paper version of my work. In the past year, I published 5 books: Shoosty® Bugs; The Art of Music; Shoosty® Landscapes; Shoosty® 2022; and Shoosty® Bugs Coloring Book.
My current mantra is very easy to follow:
I want to move (my thinking) from Swiss Cheese to Munster, from large gaps in thinking to smaller ones. That is my whole personal mission to be on a path toward discovery. In every case I just described, learning is at the core. It is this endless desire to learn that creates great art consistently.
All of my creative work makes me very proud and combined as a collection it is remarkable. Do you know any artist that has created a catalog raisonne of all their work? Mine is now 17 volumes.
I believe that my work provides leadership in the arts. It is something to be emulated. As such I have started teaching this year. I like giving back to the community and love the energy of new artists when they realize that with my methods they can make something very special.
You must experience my fabrics, especially the scarves. They are my latest creations. They can be worn or presented as wall hangings.
Wear the Art / Be the Movement. – Shoosty 2023
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Being an artist is akin to being an explorer. As we draw and paint we discover the world. If you do it long enough you will discover yourself. It’s the journey that matters.
I love being in the flow state. It makes your thinking more flexible, able to effect change.
Painting is one of the few things an individual can do by themselves from imagination to completion. With today’s modern tools, we can take these completed images to new levels by applying them to industrial products. For me, I love applying them to fabrics and home goods. I love the softness and the precision of the process. Here is the tagline I came up with, Wear the Art, Be the Movement! When people wear my colorful designs and smile or just walk around the art comes to life as they move. I also hope that others will love it and wear the colors so we can create an actual movement.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Shoosty® reading/listening list
1. Philosophize This! – by Steven West. The most entertaining way to learn philosophy.
2. Hardcore History – Dan Carlin. No one tells a story like Dan Carlin, His stories are riveting
3. The Horse Adjutant – Stephen Shooster, My book on the Nazi Holocaust.
4. Herman Shooster – Stephen Shooster. The book of my father.
5. Yiddish Civilization – Paul Kriwaczek, The rise and fall of a forgotten nation
6. Lincoln – William Safire – The story of Abraham Lincoln written in first person
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shoosty.com
- Instagram: @shoosty1
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShoostyArt
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shoosty/
- Twitter: @shoosty1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD7KmB1QeynR6adpIecYG5w
- Other: www.shoostyandco.com
Image Credits
Images courtesy of Shoosty@ and Shooster Publishing
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