2002 SfC in the News: Toronto Star (March 14)

When government and banks wouldn't believe in him, Uwe Petroschke believed in himself.

Mortgaging his house to buy a single transport truck in 1986 wasn't much of a risk, he figured.

Risk was what his parents faced when they fled East Germany in 1955.

Risk was what his family faced when they immigrated to Canada 11 years later.

So risking dollars for a truck was a simple decision.

For him, anyway.

The gamble paid off and he now owns a $30-million-a-year international trucking company based in Brampton.

When 8-year-old Petroschke arrived in Toronto, he couldn't speak a word of English.

He was placed in a Grade 2 class at North York's Baycrest Public School and promptly flunked his first year.

But a year later, he was advanced to rejoin his classmates in Grade 4, due in part to the determination of a teacher who stayed after school on her own time to help him learn a new language.

"I never forgot that," Petroschke, 44, recalled.

"Her name was Mrs. Crowdy. She was giving extra. She didn't have to do that."

While in high school, Petroschke worked in the billing department of a trucking company, pounding out invoices on an old typewriter. He was saving money for university, but when graduation approached, the company offered to make him a manager.

"The money was good and I figured I could work for a year and save for school, but I never left," he said.

Ten years later, he figured he knew enough about the business to strike out on his own. But the banks wouldn't give him a loan and the government refused him a start-up grant.

"I've always achieved all my goals," he said. "When I put my mind to it, I make it work."

He scraped together enough for his first truck in 1986 and did everything but drive it.

As a single father, he took his young son everywhere — when he loaded and unloaded the rig, did the weekend paperwork or travelled to meetings on the West Coast.

"I didn't want a stranger looking after him, so he came to my meetings all day long and then at night we'd do stuff wherever we were," Petroschke said. When his son started school, their travel was confined mostly to summer months, allowing them to forge an even tighter bond.

Totalline, his fledgling one-truck operation, has grown to huge fleets with 170 employees in Brampton, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.

He recently started two other transportation-related companies and both are showing similar success.

"My parents certainly gave me the opportunity to have a good future and I've taken full advantage of it," he said.

"In Canada you have the freedom to choose what you want to do.

"I chose to succeed."

But for Petroschke, success isn't measured in dollars.

"I didn't get into this for financial gain," he said. "I got into this because I love doing what I do.

"Money doesn't make you happy. It gives you freedom.

"What makes me happy is just being able to do what I enjoy. The rush for me is the interaction with people, seeing other employees succeed."

His son, now 18, will be offered a job when he finishes his university education.

"He knows he's not going to get a free ride," Petroschke said. "I didn't get one and he's not going to get one.

"I would be proud of him, no matter what he did, as long as he gives 100 per cent."

He gives much the same advice when he talks with local school classes.

"I tell them to follow their dreams," he said.

"Follow your dream, work hard and find something you have a passion for."