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When you first hear the Chris Gardner story, you might think you were hearing the storyline of a Hollywood movie. In fact, the Chris Gardner story was so real that it was turned into a movie, the recently released “The Pursuit of Happyness” starring Will Smith and his real-life son Jaden Smith. But, before becoming the subject of a major motion picture, the Chris Gardner story was one of uncertainty and insecurity.
It was in a Milwaukee neighbourhood in the 1950s that it all first began; his early years were a sign of what was to come. Although she had a beautiful smile and loved her children very much, Gardner’s mother would sometimes go missing for periods of time. “No one explained to me, well, why I am living with this relative, or what I am living with that relative,” he recalls. “And it was one of those things that no one ever talked about.”
During those times, his mother was in fact in jail – once, for receiving welfare while she was working, and once, for trying to burn down the house of her abusive husband. That was how his life all began – in a house filled with violence towards himself and his beloved mother. “My last Christmas at home, I was put out of the house, buck naked, at gun point,” he says. “I made a decision that I was going to be everything that this guy was not.”
With that, the Chris Gardner story would soon become one of faith and determination in overcoming the odds – and the odds were many. As a young boy, Chris Gardner was raped by a member of a local gang. As an adult, he found himself living on the streets with his young son, and forced to subsist on an intern’s salary while he went through a training program at a stock brokerage firm.
Here, this life tale could have easily turned into one of despair, depression and, ultimately, that of a man who had cashed out and given up on himself. However, Gardner was no such man, which is why his story has today become the stuff of Hollywood movies. He rose to the occasion and relentlessly pursued his career as a stock broker, until he could finally afford to rent his very own apartment. After that, there was no looking back.
Despite his amazing determination, this tale is not of just one man alone and his accomplishments. Indeed, it is a story that tells of the help one can get from often the most unexpected sources. One such source included local Oakland prostitutes, who would start their shifts around the same time Gardner and his son returned home at night to their shelter. Night after night, these women noticed the man and his baby, with no woman in tow, and began giving him $5 bills. “If it were not for those ladies of the evening giving that child $5, there would be times I could not have fed him,” he recalls.
To believe in the possibilities in each and every person’s life is to understand the Chris Gardner story.
When you first hear the Chris Gardner story, you might think you were hearing the storyline of a Hollywood movie. In fact, the Chris Gardner story was so real that it was turned into a movie, the recently released “...
In May 2006, Chris Gardner would release a book that would not only top best-seller lists across the country and get turned into a major motion picture, but would also inspire passion and hope in a new generation of...
Even before “the pursuit of happiness” became one of the most famous phrases in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, mankind worldwide had been on a quest to chase down this elusive goal. In his 2006 autobiographic...
By now, most people are familiar with “The Pursuit of Happyness,” the Hollywood blockbuster starring Will Smith that brings the bio of millionaire entrepreneur Chris Gardner to the big screen. But, before there was ...
Chris Gardner Video - The astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father, Chris Gardner, who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street
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When you first hear the Chris Gardner story, you might think you were hearing the storyline of a Hollywood movie. In fact, the Chris Gardner story was so real that it was turned into a movie, the recently released “...
