After a turbulent childhood in Communist Czechoslovakia, Milan Kroupa
turned his back on a promising career in soccer and fled the country of
his birth. He arrived in Canada as a refugee in 1968 at the age of
twenty-five, with a new wife, and a new baby. He had little more in his
pocket than good advice from his father, who taught him that there are
as many opportunities in the world as there are stars in the sky, and
that the secret is to grasp the star that attracts you and never let it
go.
Following that advice, Kroupa quickly learned English, then threaded his
way through the jungle of the business world, side-stepping scammers and
gaining valuable experience from a series of enlightened bosses who
taught him the ropes and gave him room to advance. By 1977, he was ready
to go into business for himself. The company he founded on a
shoe-string, United Cleaning Services, quickly expanded into a
multi-million dollar, country-wide enterprise that now employs almost
5,000 people, many of whom are immigrants like himself.
Throughout all this, Kroupa has remained a modest, down-to-earth man who
doesn't see himself as extraordinary at all. Extraordinary or not, his
story makes fascinating reading, and will be an inspiration to everyone,
and particularly to the countless new arrivals whose most valuable
asset, to themselves and to the country, is their hope for the future
and their determination to succeed.
