by Elisha Bury
When Chris Gardner talks about homeless people, his words resonate; he has walked in their shoes. He knows what it’s like just trying to survive.
“Remember these are still people,” he says. “They are not invisible. They each have a story.”
In his lifetime, the successful against-all-odds stockbroker who inspired the Academy Award-nominated
The Pursuit of Happyness has accomplished many things—overcoming a violent childhood, rising out of homelessness, being a single father who broke the cycle of abuse with his children. Yet his story is much more than one of accumulating wealth and overcoming adversity. And he never forgets his past or the people who’ve touched his life.
In San Francisco in the early 1980s, Gardner earned a meager living selling medical supplies. He got the idea to pursue a career as a stockbroker from a man in a red Ferrari he met one day. Gardner said he’d let the man have the parking spot he was vacating if he would tell him what kind of work he did to afford the car. The man was a stockbroker.
Although Gardner lacked a college degree, and the pedigree and social connections for any white-collar job, he knocked on doors for several months and finally landed a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds training program. The trainee’s stipend barely paid for food, let alone rent. Meantime, his girlfriend left him and their toddler, Chris Jr. With determination, Gardner clung to his goal of financial independence, working hard during the day while spending his nights trying to arrange for child care, food and shelter. When they were lucky enough to find space, they slept at the Glide Memorial Church shelter; otherwise, they huddled in a locked bathroom at an Oakland subway station. At the conclusion of the training program, Gardner was the sole trainee chosen for a permanent position with Dean Witter Reynolds.
“Staying motivated isn’t a challenge for me,” he says today. “When I think about all I want to accomplish, despite all my successes, I haven’t even made a dent in what’s possible. Opportunity is as vast as the sky.”
After a couple years with Dean Witter Reynolds, he took a position with Bear Stearns & Co., where he became a top earner. In 1987, he founded his own brokerage firm, Gardner Rich & Co., in Chicago, which he since transformed into Christopher Gardner International Holdings, an institutional brokerage firm that also directs projects overseas, primarily in South Africa.
With dreams as big as the sky, Gardner now looks to his children for inspiration, but walking the line between personal and professional obligations is sometimes a challenge. “I continually plead for understanding from my family and the people I love,” he says. “I am so passionate about what I do that personal time tends to get filled by business. It makes me happy, but can get exhausting. There are days when I just need to take off and check out. No calls, no e-mails. Just downtime.”
Always trying to make the most of every minute in business, Gardner developed one ironclad rule: “Always be on time,” he says. “And if possible, be aggressively early. Whatever meeting you have to cut short, even if you have to run those last five blocks, get there on time. Being late projects the wrong image and makes people lose faith in your ability to prioritize.”
Now 54, Gardner is more acutely aware that time is “the ultimate luxury,” he says. “At a certain point there are more yesterdays than tomorrows. So, I plan on spending all my tomorrows very carefully and appreciating every one of them.”
For the present, Gardner still basks in the afterglow of his 2006 best-selling autobiography and the movie it inspired starring Will Smith. He’s at work on a second book and in the process of forming a foundation to assist with such problems as homelessness and domestic abuse. He is actively involved in giving back on a local level, and still gives as much as he can to Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. “There wouldn’t be a Chris Gardner today if there wasn’t a Glide back then,” he says.
Some of his favorite projects include the Chicago-based CARA program (thecaraprogram. org), which offers comprehensive job training, permanent job placement and supportive services to homeless and at-risk populations. The Cara Program administers Cleanslate, a transitional jobs program in which participants learn critical work and life skills as they perform neighborhood beautification projects. In addition, Gardner is active in Peace Over Violence (peaceoverviolence.org), a Los Angeles social-service agency working to prevent violence against women and children. “Giving back when you are successful should not be seen as an obligation; it’s a privilege,” he says. He also shares his story as a motivational speaker all over the world.
Over time, the many people who have touched Gardner’s life have helped bring his successes to fruition—from his aunts and uncles who helped raise him to the stockbroker with the red Ferrari who gave Gardner his first glimpse at his career dream to the business associates who taught him along the way. But the person he admires most is his mother. She endured hardships of her own, including a lifetime of domestic abuse and a prison term for trying to burn down the house with Gardner’s abusive step-father inside, he says.
Gardner says he inherited much from his mother—her ability to sit absolutely still when the world seems to be crumbling, her appreciation for public libraries, her devotion to her children, her innate ability to endure.
“I owe so much to my mom, Bettye Jean Gardner, including the moment that got me pointed in the right direction,” he says. “I was a kid, watching a college basketball game on TV, and one of the announcers said that someday one of the best players might make a million dollars. I whistled and said, under my breath, ‘Man, a million dollars!’ And my mother, who was in the next room, said, ‘Son, if you want to, one day you could make a million dollars.’ With that one sentence, she convinced me that in spite of where I came from, I
could attain whatever goals I set for myself. That one day I, too, could be world-class at something.”
Gardner also has the same unshakable faith in Chris Jr. and a younger daughter, Jacintha, both in their 20s. The successes of his children have brought him the most joy. “No business success could rival the pride I have in my children,” he says.
Gardner says his greatest achievement is breaking the destructive cycles his children could have inherited. “I was there for my son, so I know he will be there for his children, breaking the cycle of absentee fathers in our family. I have taught him that being a man means being responsible. I have taught my daughter how she deserves to be treated, breaking the cycle of abused and degraded women in our family,” he says.
About the future, Gardner believes the best is yet to come. He knows that through his children he has positively influenced future generations of his family he will never meet. “Hopefully, my legacy and what I’ll be remembered for has not happened yet,” he says. “I don’t want to sit on my laurels. There’s still too much to achieve.”
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“Pursuit of Happyness” True Story of Christopher Gardner!
January 30, 2010 by
Nitin Jain in Men Struugle
Christopher Gardner is the owner and CEO of Gardner Rich LLC with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Conquering grave challenges to become a successful entrepreneur, Gardner is an avid motivational and aspirational speaker, addressing the keys to overcoming obstacles and breaking cycles.
Gardner is also a passionate philanthropist whose work has been recognized by many esteemed organizations. The amazing story of Gardner’s life was published as an autobiography, The Pursuit of Happyness, (Amistad/Harper Collins) in May 2006, and became a New York Times and Washington Post #1 bestseller.
In paperback, the book spent over twenty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into fourteen languages. Gardner was also the inspiration for the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness,” released by Columbia Pictures in December 2006. The movie is the #2 all-time domestic grossing drama. Will Smith starred as Gardner and received Academy Award, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his performance. Gardner was an associate producer on the film. Gardner’s second book, Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be was published in 2009.
Born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Christopher Paul Gardner’s childhood was marked by poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism, sexual abuse and family illiteracy. Gardner published his autobiography out of a desire to shed light on these universal issues and show they do not have to define you. Gardner never knew his father, and lived with his beloved mother, Bettye Jean Triplett (nee Gardner), when not in foster homes. Gardner is indebted to Bettye Jean for his success as she provided him with strong “spiritual genetics” and taught him that in spite of where he came from, he could chart another path and attain whatever goals he set for himself.
Gardner joined the Navy out of high school and then moved to San Francisco where he worked as a medical research associate and for a scientific medical supply distributor. In 1981, as a new father to son Christopher Gardner Jr., he was determined to find a career that would be both lucrative and fulfilling. Fascinated by finance, but without connections, an MBA or even a college degree, Gardner applied for training programs at brokerages, willing to live on next to nothing while he learned a new trade. Chris Jr.‘s mother left and Gardner, despite his circumstances, fought to keep his son because, as he says, “I made up my mind as a young kid that when I had children they were going to know who their father is, and that he isn’t going anywhere.”
Gardner earned a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds training program but became homeless when he could not make ends meet on his meager trainee salary. Today, Gardner is involved with homelessness initiatives assisting families to stay intact, and assisting homeless men and women who are employed but still cannot get by. It is estimated that 12% of the homeless population in the United States is employed; in some communities that estimate is as high as 30%. Gardner worked at Bear Stearns & Co from 1983-1987 where he became a top earner. In 1987 he founded the brokerage firm Gardner Rich in Chicago from his home with just $10,000. Gardner Rich LLC is an institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity and derivative products transactions for some of the nations largest institutions, public pension plans and unions.
Dedicated to improving the well-being of children through positive paternal involvement, Gardner is a board member of the National Fatherhood Initiative, and received the group’s Father of the Year Award in 2002. He serves on the board of the National Education Foundation and sponsors two annual awards: the National Education Association’s National Educational Support Personnel Award and the American Federation of Teachers’ Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel (PSRP) Award.
He also serves on the board of the International Rescue Committee, which works to provide access to safety, sanctuary, and sustainable change for millions of people whose lives have been shattered by violence and oppression. Gardner is still very committed to Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where he and his son received assistance in the early 1980’s. He has helped fund a project that creates low-income housing and opportunities for employment in the notoriously poor Tenderloin area of the city.
Gardner has also been honored by the NAACP Image Awards with awards for both the book and movie versions of The Pursuit of Happyness; Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women’s (LACAAW) 2006 Humanitarian Award; The Continental Africa Chamber of Commerce’s 2006 Friends of Africa Award; The Glaucoma Foundation’s Kitty Carlisle Hart Lifetime Achievement Award; The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA); Covenant House, Common Ground and other organizations committed to combating violence against women, homelessness, and financial illiteracy; issues of the utmost importance to Gardner.
Chris Gardner’s aim, through his speaking engagements and media projects, is to help others achieve their full potential. His practical guidance and inspirational story have made him a frequent guest on CNN, CNBC and the Fox News Channel. He has been featured on “The CBS Evening News,” “20/20,” “Oprah,” “Today Show,” “The View,” “Entertainment Tonight,” as well as in People, USA Today, Associated Press, New York Times, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Jet, Reader’s Digest, Trader Monthly, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Post and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, amongst others. Gardner has two children and resides in Chicago and New York.
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http://zslick.com/meet-the-man-christopher-gardner/
http://lang-8.com/109061/journals/344453/Will-Smith-%2526-Chris-Gardner
A one-time intelligence analyst with the Pentagon, Aimee is an athlete, model, and activist. And she does it all using a collection of experimental prosthetic legs. She says her special "cheetah" legs give her superpowers.
