“Most people thought I was not of sound mind to take over a failing company, but I wanted to run my own show,” said Rosen. “When you’re advising clients, it’s their movie. People depend on you for advice and guidance, but it’s still their movie. Personally, I got tired of being in other people’s movies.”
Since selling Ticketmaster and leaving the company in 1997 to start exciting new ventures, Rosen has also explored ways to share his passion for entrepreneurship with the next generation. In 2021, he created, through the Fredric D. Rosen and Nadine Schiff Family Foundation, the Seymour and Hannah Rosen Endowed Scholarship, which will enable Brooklyn Law School students to follow in his footsteps.
Rosen’s scholarship has unique criteria meant to target students who he believes have what it takes to run their own businesses. The recipients will be first-generation law students, like Rosen, with financial need who have shown a demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship. Additionally, the eligible students will place in the middle of their class in academic performance.
“The top students are going to get there anyway,” said Rosen. “The middle are all works in process. Good grades are not the primary test for ultimate success—creativity, energy, humor, and ambition must also be factored in.”
In today’s competitive environment that stresses academic success, Rosen believes that risk tolerance, an essential component of entrepreneurship, is undervalued. “The mistake that everybody tends to make is that they want to be the smartest person in the room,” said Rosen. “You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room—you have to have the final decision in the room. I’ve hired lawyers from the best law firms and from the best law schools, but their personalities, which make them excellent attorneys, also made them risk averse.” He sees this scholarship as an effort to rectify that disparity between the “A” students and those with entrepreneurial drive and higher risk profiles.
Rosen named the scholarship for his parents, who encouraged his interest in attending law school, despite never having attended college themselves. “My mom lived into her 90s, but I lost my dad when I was 26. He saw me graduate law school, but he never got to see my career,” said Rosen. “I wanted to do something for them, in their name, that would be fun. I think they would get a kick out of the fact that they have a scholarship.”