Began his automotive career pumping gasoline with Standard Oil Company of California in 1970. Taking company offered courses on customer service and employee relations, and through hard work, Patrick became an Assistant Manager and after several years became a Station Manager. With a thorough knowledge of customer service and with great dedication to Chevron, Patrick became discouraged with Chevron when the company he had put his heart and soul into refused to promote from within for Retail Manager positions.

In 1980 when he was managing a full serve/ self serve station complete with auto repair, along with two additional self/serve stations, Patrick decided to leave Chevron, USA to accept on offer to manage an independent Chevron service station in Palo Alto, California.

It was at Page Mill Chevron that Patrick began to increase his knowledge of the automobile and its theory of operation. Fine tuning his mechanical skills along with his customer service and employee relations knowledge gave him an advantage few people in the industry possess.