The Pursuit of Happyness : Chris Gardner

Christopher Paul Gardner (born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a self-made millionaire, entrepreneur, motivational speaker and philanthropist who, during the early 1980s, struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son, Christopher, Jr. Gardner's book of memoirs was published in May 2006 by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

As of 2008, he is CEO of his own stockbrokerage firm, Gardner Rich, based in Chicago, Illinois where he resides when he is not living in New York City. Gardner credits his tenacity and success to his "spiritual genetics" handed down to him by his mother, Bettye Jean Triplett, née Gardner, and to the high expectations placed on him by his children, Chris Jr. (born 1981) and his daughter, Jacintha (born 1985). Gardner's personal struggle of establishing himself as a stockbroker while managing fatherhood and homelessness is portrayed in the 2006 motion picture The Pursuit of Happyness, starring actor Will Smith.

Early years
Chris Gardner was born on February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He had few positive male role models, since his absentee father, Thomas Turner, was living in Louisiana and his stepfather, Freddie Triplett, was a violent man. Despite her unhappy marriage, Gardner's mother, Bettye Jean Triplett, was a source of inspiration and strength. She encouraged Gardner to believe in himself and sowed the seeds of self-reliance in him. Gardner quotes her as saying, "You can only depend on yourself. The cavalry ain't coming." Gardner was Bettye Jean's second child. He had three sisters: Ophelia (the eldest half-sister from a previous union), Sharon, and Kim (his younger half-sisters from Bettye Jean's marriage to Freddie Tripplett).

Freddie Triplett's violent outbursts often left Bettye Jean beaten and nearly fatally injured. Those rages left Gardner and his three sisters constantly afraid. Bettye Jean was imprisoned when Triplett reported her to the authorities for working while collecting welfare. As a result, her children were raised in foster care during her incarceration. They were put into foster homes once again when Gardner's mother re-entered incarceration for attempting to burn down the house with Triplett inside. From those experiences, Gardner determined that alcoholism, domestic abuse, child abuse, illiteracy, fear, and powerlessness were all things he wanted to avoid in the future.

Sense of direction
Marriage and fatherhood
On June 18, 1977, Chris Gardner married Sherry Dyson, an educational expert in mathematics, from Virginia. With his knowledge, experience and contacts within the medical field, it appeared Gardner had his medical career plans laid out before him. However, with ten years of medical training ahead of him and with the changes in health care (such as HMOs) just on the horizon, he realized that the medical profession would be vastly different by the time he could practice medicine. Gardner was advised to consider other more lucrative career options; just before Gardner's 26th birthday, he informed his wife, Sherry, of his plans to abandon his dreams of becoming a doctor.

His relationship with Sherry was strained, in part because of his decision to forgo a medical career and also due to differences in their attitudes. He met a dental student named Jackie Medina, who soon became pregnant with his child. After three years of marriage to Sherry, he left her to move in with Jackie and to prepare for fatherhood. Nine years elapsed before he and Sherry were legally divorced.

Gardner's son, Christopher Jarrett Medina Gardner was born on January 28, 1981. During the first year of his son's life, Gardner struggled to make ends meet by working at the VA hospital and supplementing his income with other jobs. He was hired as a sales representative for CMS, a medical equipment and supply company that offered him a yearly income of less than $30,000. Soon thereafter, Gardner left CMS to work at a more lucrative sales position at Van Waters and Rogers, a more established medical supply company.

Prompted by his child's inquiries about his own father, Gardner had previously been able to track down his biological father, Thomas Turner, over the telephone. With the higher income that he was earning at his new job, Gardner was able to save enough money to travel to Monroe, Louisiana. There, he and his son met Turner for the first time.

Gardner returned to San Francisco determined to succeed at business. A pivotal moment in his life occurred, after a sales call to a San Francisco General Hospital, when he encountered an impeccably-dressed man in a red Ferrari. Curious, Gardner asked the man what he did for a living. The man told him he was a stock broker and, from that moment on, Gardner's career path was decided.[6] Eventually, Gardner bought a Ferrari of his own from the famous basketball player, Michael Jordan. The Illinois license plate of Gardner's black Ferrari reads "NOT MJ."
The stockbroker in the red Ferrari was a man by the name of Bob Bridges. He met with Gardner and gave him an introduction to the world of finance. Bridges set up meetings between Gardner and branch managers at the major stock brokerage firms that offered training programs — such as Merrill Lynch, Paine Webber, E.F. Hutton, Dean Witter, and Smith Barney. For the next two months, Gardner cancelled or postponed his sales appointments and his car amassed parking tickets while he met with managers.

It appeared that Gardner got his "break" when he was accepted into a training program at E.F. Hutton. He subsequently quit his sales job so that he could dedicate his time exclusively to training as a stock broker. Then he appeared at the office ready to work, only to discover that his hiring manager had been fired the week before. To make matters worse, Gardner's relationship with Jackie was falling apart. She accused him of beating her — an accusation that Gardner denies to this day — and left him, taking their son with her to the east coast. He was taken to jail and a judge ordered that he stay there, for ten days, as punishment for being unable to pay $1,200 in parking tickets.

Gardner returned home from jail to find his apartment empty. His girlfriend and his son, along with all of his possessions (including his suits, shoes and business apparel), had disappeared. With no experience, no college education, virtually no connections, and with the same casual outfit he had been wearing on the day he was taken into custody, Gardner gained a position in Dean Witter Reynolds’ stock brokerage training program. However, with a monthly stipend of $1,000, he was unable to meet his living expenses.

Fatherhood amidst homelessness
Gardner worked to become a top trainee at Bear Stearns. He arrived at the office early and stayed late each day, persistently making calls to prospective clients. His perseverance paid off when, in 1982, Gardner passed his licensing exam on the first try and he became the sole trainee in his program to attain permanent employment at Bear Stearns.[citation needed] (This conflicts with other reports that all Dean Witter trainees who passed the exam were hired.)

About four months after Jackie disappeared with their son, she returned and left him with Gardner. By then, he was able to afford a small rent and was rooming in a flophouse. He willingly accepted sole custody of his child; however, the rooming house where he lived did not allow children. Although he was gainfully employed, Gardner and his son secretly struggled with homelessness while he saved money for a rental house in Berkeley, California.

Meanwhile, none of Gardner's coworkers knew that he and his son were homeless in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco for nearly a year. Gardner often scrambled to place his child in daycare, stood in soup lines and slept wherever he and his son could find safety — in his office after hours, at flophouses, at parks, and even in a locked bathroom at the Bay Area Rapid Transit station.

Concerned for Chris Jr.’s well-being, Gardner asked Reverend Cecil Williams to allow them to stay at the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church’s shelter for homeless women, now known as The Cecil Williams Glide Community House. The Reverend agreed without hesitation. Today, when asked what he remembers about being homeless, Christopher Gardner, Jr. recalls "I couldn't tell you that we were homeless, I just knew that we were always having to go. So, if anything, I remember us just moving, always moving."

Business ventures
In 1987, Chris Gardner established the brokerage firm, Gardner Rich & Co, in Chicago, Illinois, an "institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity and derivative products transactions for some of the nation’s largest institutions, public pension plans and unions." His new company was started in his small Presidential Towers apartment, with start-up capital of US$10,000 and a single piece of furniture: a wooden desk that doubled as the family dinner table. Gardner reportedly owns 75 percent of his stock brokerage firm with the rest owned by a hedge fund. He chose the name "Gardner Rich" for the company because he considers Marc Rich, the commodities trader pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2001, "one of the most successful futures traders in the world.

After Gardner sold his small stake in Gardner Rich in a multi-million dollar deal in 2006, he became CEO and founder of Christopher Gardner International Holdings, with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. During a visit to South Africa to observe elections around the time of 10th aniversary of the end of apartheid, Gardner met with Nelson Mandela to discuss possible investment in South African emerging markets as indicated in his 2006 autobiography. Gardner is reportedly developing an investment venture with South Africa that will create hundreds of jobs and introduce millions in foreign currency into the nation. Gardner has declined to disclose details of the project citing securities laws.

Philanthropic initiatives
Chris Gardner is a philanthropist who sponsors charitable organizations, primarily the Cara Program and the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco, where he and his son received desperately-needed shelter. He has helped fund a US$50 million project in San Francisco that creates low-income housing and opportunities for employment in the area of the city where he was once homeless. As well as offering monetary support, Gardner donates clothing and shoes. He makes himself available for permanent job placement assistance, career counseling and comprehensive job training for the homeless population and at-risk communities in Chicago.

Dedicated to the well-being of children through positive paternal involvement, Gardner serves on the board of the National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI). He is also a board member of the National Education Foundation and sponsors two annual education awards: the National Education Association's National Educational Support Personnel Award and the American Federation of Teachers' Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel Award.

In 2002, Gardner received the Father of the Year Award from the NFI. Since then, Gardner also had the honor of receiving the 25th Annual Humanitarian Award and the 2006 Friends of Africa Award, presented by the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women (LACAAW) and by the Continental Africa Chamber of Commerce, respectively.