The name "Chris Gardner" may not sound familiar to you, but you've probably seen or heard of the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness," starring Will Smith. The movie is inspired by the true story of Christopher Gardner, a man who faced many obstacles in life to achieve happiness, even being forced to sleep on the streets with his son.Bright Side wants to share Chris's story with you, going beyond the events narrated in the film. Let's look at his childhood, his path to success and what his life looks like today.
A difficult childhood
Christopher Paul Gardner was born on February 9, 1954, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His childhood was far from a fairy tale; he had an absent father, and his mother, Bettye Jean, married a man named Freddie Triplett, someone who would profoundly change Chris's life.
Triplett was abusive to his wife and children. He even reported Chris's mother to the authorities and sent her to prison to work while she got help from Social Services. During that time, Chris and his three sisters had to live temporarily in foster homes. Months later, Bettye was released, but she would return to prison again. Desperate, she even tried to set Tripletti's house on fire with him inside.
But out of all that suffering, one day would stick in Chris's memory forever. It was Christmas time and he was 16 years old. He was taking a shower when his stepfather suddenly came into the bathroom with a shotgun and dragged him out of the house, leaving him on the street, wet and naked in the cold night.
Having lived through these sad experiences, Chris was clear about one thing: he was not going to be a stepfather. He decided to take his mother as an example of strength.
"I chose to embrace the spirit of my mother - who despite the fact that she had many of her dreams denied, pushed away and destroyed - still made me dream," he confessed.
Marriage and fatherhood
Chris left Wisconsin when he entered the US Navy and joined the Medical Corps. There he met Dr. Robert Ellis, who offered him a job as a research assistant at the University of California Medical Center. It was 1974 when he moved to San Francisco.
Chris's future looked bright. In 1977, he married Sherry Dyson and was planning to go to Medical School, but then realized that the time and money he would have to invest was beyond him, so he changed his mind. This damaged his already fractured relationship with his then wife.
Some time later, Chris met a woman named Jackie Medina, who became pregnant. This was the time when Chris separated from his wife to take care of Jackie and their son. At the time of his son's birth, he was working as a research lab assistant, but since his salary would not be enough, he became a sales representative for a medical device company, but without luxuries.
Signs of life on a Ferrari ride
Once he saw a well-dressed man getting out of a red Ferrari on the street. That day, his life changed. Impressed, Chris asked, “What do you do, and how do you do it?” The man was Bob Bridges, a retail stock trader who made about $80,000 a month.
Driven by the opportunity to achieve his long-awaited success, Chris canceled his sales meetings and put off paying his parking tickets until he was accepted into a training program at another company. Then he quit his old job. But as bad luck would have it, when he showed up at the office on his first day of work, he discovered that the person who had hired him had quit.
With a new boyfriend and a deteriorating relationship, Chris was forced to look elsewhere for a new chance and went to interview at Dean Witter Reynolds to train as a retail salesperson.
But, once again, luck was not on his side, and, just over a week before his job interview, he was arrested for the $1200 he had accumulated in fines. He spent 10 days in jail, and when he got out of jail, he realized that Jackie had left, taking their son and all his belongings. The day after his release, Chris had to attend his interview in the same clothes he had used during his time in prison: casual trousers, sneakers and a jacket. Despite this, he was accepted into the internship program. He would receive a salary of $1000 a month.
Four months later, Jackie returned with little Christofer, and both parents decided it would be best if he stayed with his father. There was just one small problem, the dorm Chris lived in didn't accept children and he didn't have enough money to pay the rent. Then a journey began for father and son.
Chris' salary was more than enough for diapers, food, and childcare, so when it came time to choose whether the money was spent on food or shelter, the decision was always food. Chris and his young son spent the night wherever they could; Cheap motels, hostels, parks, under a desk in Chris's office, and even in a public bathroom in an Oakland subway station.
Chris and his son went from one “house” to another for about a year. In the meantime, he continued his practice in finance and never told his colleagues that he had nowhere to live. Instead, he received help from unexpected people, like the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church. He gave Chris a room despite the fact that she was in a program that was only for single mothers. In fact, some “ladies of the evening” (as Chris calls them) even started regularly giving him five-dollar bills when they saw him with his child.
To earn a few extra bucks, Chris took a few odd jobs. He mowed lawns, landscaped gardens, built roofs, cleaned cellars and even sold his blood, although he was never too proud of the latter.
I call this moment in my life "happiness."
After going through some tough times and proving himself as a dedicated and persistent apprentice, Chris took the exam to get his license as a stock trader in 1982. He passed and managed to get a steady job with a much higher salary. good. Now he was able to pay the rent.
Chris had gone from being an apprentice with nowhere to sleep to being a respected retailer. He was even offered a chance to work on Wall Street in New York and lived in that city for two years before moving to Chicago and starting Gardner Rich & Co., his company with an initial investment of $10,000 in 1987.
A year later, he managed to earn over a million dollars. Lack of money was no longer a problem for him. Excited about his achievements, he bought his own Ferrari, but not an ordinary one, he bought one that previously belonged to basketball player Michael Jordan.
By 2006, Chris had grown his company immensely and sold it in a multi-million dollar deal. He later became the founder of Christopher Gardner International Holdings and opened offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Through it, he contributes to various philanthropic organizations related to education, access to housing and job creation projects.
Chris is currently a successful lecturer who travels the world motivating people to follow their dreams and explaining topics related to business success. This is very satisfying for him.
Chris's life on film
If you've already seen the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness," you may have noticed some changes from the story you just read. This is because the production team made some creative decisions to better tell the story in the film.
Here we are sharing with you some curious facts about the movie:
* The film is inspired by the book "The Pursuit of Happyness", written by Gardner himself. In the original title, the word "(happyness) मुल्टी" was misspelled with a "y" instead of an "i" in order to represent the word "ju (you)".
* In real life, during the events of the film, Chris' son was only two years old, but in the film adaptation, Christopher (played by Jaden Smith) was seven years old. The writers did this so that the father and son could have more meaningful interactions in the film.
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* The movie doesn't show it, but while Chris was working in the stock market, he got back together with Jackie and they had a second child, a daughter named Jacintha.
Chris's story is truly inspiring because it shows that, no matter what your problems are, success is possible, which is why we wanted to dedicate this article to him. /Telegraph/
