How a Driving Instructor to the Stars Spends Her Sundays

Shanti Gooljar grabs some coffee before eight hours of heart-racing driving lessons around New York City. She caps off her day by having dinner with her son.

Shanti Gooljar recently got a $2,000 tip.

She runs a driving school in Manhattan that caters to a high-end clientele, and only works on referrals. She says she has taught the offspring of a few names you might know:

Jerry Seinfeld. Rupert Murdoch. Vera Wang. Katie Couric.

She had initially worked as a paramedic. But after two years, she decided she did not like it and turned to a driving school in the Bronx. Ms. Gooljar quickly realized she had found her calling.

“I just got real good at what I was doing,” she said. The teens she taught connected with her unfiltered, no-nonsense style, and they soon began giving her number to their friends. So she bought her own car and went freelance. Ms. Gooljar, 62, opened her own school in 2014.

“That was 10 years ago,” she said. “And look at me now.”