Before becoming the inspiration behind the film The Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardner faced severe financial collapse in early 1980s San Francisco. After a medical supply sales business failed and his relationship ended, Gardner found himself the sole caretaker of his toddler son, Chris Jr., with almost no income.
While accepted into an unpaid, highly competitive stockbroker training program at Dean Witter Reynolds, Gardner had no steady salary to afford an apartment. He and his son relied on community soup kitchens, public clinic assistance, and emergency homeless shelters—sometimes spending nights locked inside a public transit bathroom at the MacArthur BART station or in budget motels when he could scrape together enough cash.
Gardner worked relentlessly at the brokerage firm, arriving early, staying late, and making hundreds of cold calls a day. He earned the sole full-time broker position out of his trainee class. He went on to work at Bear Stearns before establishing his own successful institutional brokerage firm, Gardner Rich & Co., in Chicago. Today, Gardner is an international philanthropist, author, and investor who frequently speaks on overcoming homelessness and expanding opportunities for families in poverty.
