Suffering from corporate burnout and dissatisfaction, one Australian CEO decided to hang up his suit and tie and climb into the cab of a big rig. Now the 72-year-old Aussie trucker says he’s living his best life as an over-the-road freight hauler.
In 2008, Greg Ross was flying home from his uncle’s funeral when he had something of an epiphany. He’d been grinding away in the corporate machine for decades, providing for his children before they became adults. Struggling with cultural expectations about success and staying tough, regardless of personal unhappiness, he reportedly looked out the plane window and said to himself, “I’m going to quit.”
Ross said the lyrics from John Lennon’s song “Watching the Wheels” kept playing in his head: “I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round.” Although he wrestled with feelings that exiting his position made him a “failure,” he pulled the trigger.
“I think I’ll just drive a bloody truck. The biggest road trains in the world. Five trailers, 190ft long, 480 tonnes, two engines,” Ross reportedly said. “With this truck thing, they don’t own me. At the end of the shift, I turn the key and it’s somebody else’s responsibility.”
Although he works the maximum allowable 12 hours a day, 14 days in a row, Ross says the load is far less stressful than corporate life. He no longer receives those emergency business calls that came at all hours of the night, on weekends, and even during vacations. Over time, he stopped going to the barber for a weekly hair trim to fit the professional mold. Now sporting long hair, a beard, jeans, and an untucked shirt, he embraces the freedom that attracts so many people to the truck driving trades.
The seasoned Aussie trucker also indicates life on the road feels like a second chance. In the early 2000s, he battled thyroid cancer and doctors reportedly gave him three months to live. These days, he rides a bicycle to maintain his fitness and feels reinvigorated by his live-work choices.
“I’ve seen men suddenly get old. You don’t see them for several months and then you see them and they’ve got those rheumy eyes. They get gaunt. Suddenly that alpha male is an old person. You don’t know when that’s coming for you,” Ross reportedly said. “The glass is always half full with me. And there’s a waiter coming with another bottle.”
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