Wes Herschberger

I grew up here. My father had a company called Town & Country Appliance. While there, he bought a Radio Shack dealership. I worked for him for about three years. At that time, Radio Shack Tandy Corporation hired me to be a middle marketing manager for them. I lived in Columbus, Ohio, and married Janelle, who is also from Goshen.

The reason we came back is what draws a lot of us back to Goshen: the community and family. The way family works is a lot of how this community seems to work; how it reaches out to people and how it’s there to support people. The goodness of the people who are trying to continually give to each other. It’s a great community to raise a family and have a business. It’s a great community just to be a part of.

The decision to get into business had, of course, risk. I bought the business and put myself into debt. I didn’t want my father to finance it for me, I wanted to do it myself. I wanted to do it my way. It put us at risk, but it never felt like a risk. Since the beginning of MapleTronics, the community has supported us locally in phenomenal ways.

I’m a learner in failure, successes, and in watching other people. My father taught me customer service like no other. He was one of those guys who was willing to give and serve. He taught me a lot of things, but along the way, other people have told me to make sure you have a lawyer, banker, and an accountant that you can trust. A lot of these people who have mentored me are accomplished because they keep doing it, and keep working at it.

I’m always trying to ask questions and learn, because I want to know how things work, how people work, how life works, how communities work, how systems work, I’m a pretty inquisitive individual.