Australian Man Quits As CEO, Becomes Truck Driver. His Story Is Viral

Greg Ross has driven thousands of miles after starting as a truck driver.

A 60-year-old man in Australia took a bold decision – to change his life around. It was not an easy task, given the age, but for Greg Ross, the result was exhilarating and his story is now going viral. According to The Guardian, Mr Ross was the CEO of a theatre company and realised that after working as a marketing executive for a company selling high-end cars, he was feeling exhausted. He said the acknowledgement or burnout came very late in life.

“This is something very specific to my age group, the baby boomer thing. We are never allowed to cry, we are never allowed to give up, we’ve got to be tough. You battle within yourself. You think there is something wrong with you – ‘I’m a failure’,” Mr Ross told The Guardian.

In 2008, when he was flying home to Australia to attend his uncle’s funeral in Auckland, he thought about the idea of quitting.

The song that came to his mind was John Lennon’s Watching the Wheels … “I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round.”

His children, all grown-up, asked what he was going to do. “I think I’ll just drive a bloody truck,” Mr Ross told the outlet, recalling his answer.

He finally quit his job and applied for a job driving a road train – a vast lorry with two or more trailers. Mr Ross’ dream was to drive the biggest road trains in the world – five trailers, 190ft long, 480 tonnes, two engines.

“The company rang me. ‘Your CV doesn’t say anything about truck driving,’ they said,” Mr Ross said while talking about his early days. He was offered a fortnight’s trial and since then, he has been driving road trains.

Mr Ross is 72 now and in the last 12 years, he has a full-time contract and has driven the huge vehicles countless times.

Mr Ross was diagnosed with thyroid cancer more than 20 years ago, and was given three months to live. So his new direction came in the context of what must have felt like a second chance.