It’s not every day your life story gets made into a Hollywood movie, with Will Smith playing you! But it happened for Chris Gardner, whose rags-to-riches tale was told in The Pursuit of Happyness. Here, he tells Cynthia Lawrence how he went from being a homeless single father to a successful entrepreneur.
Ever since I was a young boy, I knew that I wanted to be world-class at something. At first, I thought it would be music. I loved jazz – I still do – and I was a pretty decent horn player. Honestly? I wanted to be Miles Davis. But my momma said, “Son, there’s only one Miles Davis, and he already has that job.”
For a while I wasn’t sure where I would make my mark, but the moment I stepped on to a trading floor I felt something electric. What might have seemed like chaos and noise to most people actually sounded like music, like improvisational jazz, to me. I became passionate about learning all I could about the financial industry and working hard to becoming a key player. And that passion, that excitement, has stayed with me for more than 25 years. You see, I found my “button”. Everyone needs to find their button – the thing that turns you on and gets you so jazzed that you can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning, so you can go and do your thing; something that you love doing so much that it doesn’t matter if you get paid for it or not.
My mother was my role model. She was the first person who instilled the belief in me that I could do the impossible. One day – I couldn’t have been more than 15 or 16 years old – I was lying on the floor watching an NCAA college basketball game on TV. And I said out loud to no one, “Wow, one day those guys are gonna make a million dollars!” My mom was ironing just behind me in the next room, and she said, “Son, if you want to, one day you could make a million dollars.” It changed my whole world. Back in the early 70s, the only way a kid like me from the ghetto had a chance to make a million dollars was if he could sing, dance, run, jump, catch balls or deal drugs. And I couldn’t – or wouldn’t – do any of those things. But I chose to believe her that day, and every day since. It’s what got me through a lot of tough times. My moms also taught me another incredibly important lesson: “The cavalry ain’t comin’” – which means, Don’t rely on anyone else to rescue you; have the courage to do it yourself.
A stranger in a Ferrari actually inspired me to become a stockbroker. In 1981, I was a struggling medical salesman in San Francisco, trying to support a young family. I was leaving an unsuccessful sales call at San Francisco General Hospital and heading to my car in the parking lot when I noticed a guy in a hot red Ferrari looking for a space. I walked over to his car and said, “I’ll let you have my space if you answer two questions: What do you do, and how do you do it? It turned out that the guy was a stockbroker and earning over $80,000 a month. That was more than I could have made in two years. His name was Bob Bridges, and he saw how inquisitive and committed I was, and he was kind enough to have lunch with me a week later to give me the basics of Wall Street and set up a few introductions.
Why did I start my own business, with no college degree, no MBA, and after less than ten years working at Dean Witter Reynolds and Bear Stearns? Hunger, ambition, the desire to own my own future. I moved to Chicago and, with $10,000 and one phone, set up business brokerage firm Gardner Rich at my kitchen table. I knew I would succeed because quitting was never
an option.
In the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, Jaden Smith plays my son as a five-year-old. They had to do that for the sake of dialogue between Will and Jaden. But in real life, my son was only a year old when we became homeless. So imagine carrying around all of your possessions, a stroller, bottles, pampers, plus a baby every day. It was not easy, but I would not have had it any other way. I made a promise to myself when I was a young boy that when I had children they were going to know who their father is and that he isn’t going anywhere. I was never going to leave my son as my father had left me. You know what? All the books, movies and big business deals I’ve had are great, but the most important thing that I will have ever done in my life is break the cycle in my family of men who were not there for their children.
I carefully researched and sourced potential clients and investors. I never gave up on a lead. I hired the best talent possible. I didn’t panic at setbacks but used those lessons to my advantage. I’m kind of like the ringmaster in a nonstop circus. I oversee all aspects of my broker/dealer, which specializes in servicing public pension funds and Taft-Hartley plans for some of the nation’s largest institutions and unions. We also do corporate underwriting and trade in global markets.
So, I am meeting with clients, responding to my staff and sourcing new deals – and travelling the world to do it.
What can others learn from my story? Without a plan, a dream is just a dream. It’s good to dream big, but you need to have a concrete way to get there. So, create a plan, stick to it and accept that it’s going to take hard work. When you do that, you accept that your dreams really can come true.
Knowing how to start is always the hardest part of any journey. But if you trust in your talents and convictions, let go of excuses and get down to the business of work, you are already on your way. And remember that baby steps count, as long as you are going forward. I love being surrounded by people I admire and respect, knowing that I have built something from nothing based on my own vision and talents.
Our fear is of the unknown – whether the unknown is within ourselves and about our own capabilities, or about what lies ahead. You need to believe in your own talents before you can get anywhere. And if you can’t see completely down the road you’re embarking on? That’s cool. As Dr Martin Luther King Jr said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
