Chris Gardner The pursuit of Happyness.THE TRUE STORY OF CHRISTOPHER GARDNER, THE MILLIONAIRE WHO INSPIRED THE FILM IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS.
In Pursuit of Happiness is a film based on the real events of the life of Chris Gardner, a currently quite successful man, being a businessman, motivational coach and philanthropist. But he wasn’t born so privileged . You may have already seen this Oscar nominated movie starring Will Smith, but in case you haven’t, we are going to analyze it and we may include quite a few spoilers so you can watch it and then read this post, or You can also read this post and then watch it, whatever your preference.
Chris Gardner’s tough childhood And Chris Gardner The pursuit of Happyness
In the movie, they don’t take us back to the times when Chris was a child, but we think it’s important to talk about this, as it adds more value to the meaning of this man’s success.
Chris had three brothers, he being the fourth, and he lived with his mother and stepfather, as he never knew his father. He came from a family with low resources and many problems. Her stepfather abused her mother, and her mother was so mentally unbalanced that she ended up in jail several times. Once he even set fire to the house where Chris, his brothers and his stepfather were, with the aim of ending the latter’s life, the plan being useless and separating Chris forever from his mother who was in prison.
Chris lived in several homes for children in which he received all kinds of mistreatment, getting raped at the age of 10 by a stranger in one of those processes. Fortunately, she was able to meet some maternal uncles, including Henry, who would become the only father figure Gardner has ever had in his life. The relationship did not last long, as Henry drowned in the Mississippi River. However, Chris was greatly influenced by his uncle and never derailed, finishing high school and becoming an excellent math student.
One of the fundamental bases to undertake successfully is to know what you want and discard what you do not want.
After finishing his basic studies, he met the first person who would mark a piece of his destiny, Dr. Robert Ellis, who would offer Chris a job as a clinical research assistant at the University of California. In this job Gardner learned to carry out various investigations related to medicine, such as managing a laboratory or carrying out some surgical procedures, but Chris was not passionate about this world, especially due to the fact that to become a doctor you need studying for almost a decade, so he thanked for the opportunity and let that job go.
Here we find the first example proposed by Gardner, of leaving the comfort zone to aspire to something else. He did not have another job, he really needed the money and he already had his good time in that medical center, but one of the fundamental bases to undertake successfully is to know what you want and discard what you do not want.
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in 2007, Will Smith made hundreds of thousands of people cry with the Search for Happiness plot. Since its release in 2006, the film has thrilled several generations.
Few remember, however, that the story starring Will and his son Jaden is actually based on real events. At the age of 66, Christopher Gardner, who served as inspiration for the film, is now a great entrepreneur and motivational speaker.At the beginning of his career, which looks a lot like the feature, Christopher had a total of $ 25 in his wallet. Currently, with several awards on the shelves, he has an estimated fortune of over 600 million.
The birth of your motivation/ Chris Gardner The pursuit of Happyness
Chris Gardner was a married man when he committed adultery and impregnated Jackie Medina, who would become his new wife thanks to the incident. This is how her first child was born in 1981, the light of her life and her reason for wanting to grow up and be someone important in this world. But this time was extremely difficult for Chris and his family, as they did not have the necessary resources to live comfortably. It is here when, thanks to his knowledge in the area of medicine and his desperation to get enough money to support his son, Chris spends all his savings on medical equipment to dedicate himself to the sale of them.
All good, right? The big problem stems from the fact that he bought these equipment without knowing that practically no one was going to buy them again, because they were too expensive and there were already the same ones on the market that fulfilled the same functions and were much cheaper than the ones that Chris owned. This becomes a very bad step taken by Gardner, for not having reasoned before investing in these equipment that would bring more problems than benefits. He could not sell them, once a woman even stole one of these machines and therefore his economic situation was increasingly critical.
One problem followed another and that is how his wife decided to quit. Chris had absolutely nothing, but with everything and that he insisted on staying with his son, his engine and his inspiration to overcome that tremendous crisis in which he was involved. It is here where in the film we are flooded with scenes where you can appreciate the beauty of a father’s love for his son, who is capable of taking everything off to see this prosper.
Chris hits the bottom/Chris Gardner The pursuit of Happyness
A point that may be criticized by many people but that is important to discuss, is that in the film they are not afraid to show us all the horrible things that a person can go through while trying, trying and going back to get a chance to prosper. There will be moments in the film when we want to close our eyes or go ahead to the end so that we do not have to appreciate all the misfortunes that Gardner and his young son had to experience.
Chris Gardner and his son on the street | Track: ar 13
A luxurious car changes his life and outlook, and Chris sets out to become a stockbroker.
One day Chris visualizes a well-dressed man in an elegant and perfumed suit getting out of a red Ferrari. He asked this man what he did for a living, to which the individual responded “I work selling bags and interacting with people.” At this moment Chris decides that he wants to do the same, he manages to visualize himself doing that and getting out of a Ferrari just like that man. This is how a luxury car changes his life and his perspective and Chris strives to become a stockbroker, landing an interview at the Dean Witter Reynolds securities firm .
Because Chris was always putting off paying his taxes for not having money, the Tax Administration accessed his bank account taking all the money he had, leaving him with only $ 20 and added to this, putting him in prison for several days because of that same debt.Coming out of jail, just on the day of the interview, Chris rushes to Dean Witter Reynolds, wearing the same suit he had been wearing for ten days incarcerated, unable to even shower, and manages to impress them with his math skills, admitting it to his Training program. The only problem was that it consisted of a six-month program without any pay, so Gardner would be forced to make a rather difficult decision: Do I finish surviving these six months, or do I give up my dream and look for some other job? At this point you can imagine what he decided.
A new opportunity/Chris Gardner The pursuit of Happyness
It is here that we finally witness a ray of light in the film, but it is totally bittersweet. On the one hand we are happy to see Chris studying hard to be selected among the 20 people who will be employed, but on the other hand let’s not forget that he only had $ 20 left in his wallet. Gardner and his son are forced to prowl the streets every day, looking for a new place to always spend the night. Sometimes they were in homeless shelters and other times they just had to sleep on the street.
Chris Gardner and his son sleeping on the subway bathroom floor | Via: Youtube
In the meantime, it is inevitable to feel an immense shock to see the games that Chris Gardner created to keep his son entertained and that he never realized that they were in the worst possible condition, sleeping on the subway floor and thinking at each moment in which they are going to eat to survive one more day.
Chris manages to finish the six months of training, meets with his supervisors and we see one of the most beautiful scenes performed by Will Smith. They tell him that he was indeed selected among the 20 people to finally have a job at the Dean Witter Reynolds company. And not only that, he was also the one who got the highest score in his exam, with everything and that he had to study and at the same time wander the streets with his little son. We see light at the end of the tunnel, an expression of full happiness on Chris’s face, as he shed a couple of tears and shows his appreciation to the bosses.
He leaves the building and begins to walk through the crowd as he did so many times before, with the difference that this time he is really grateful to be there, he walks upright, euphoric and feeling something in his being that he had not been able to witness before, when a voiceover is heard saying “this little part is called happiness”. It means a chance to start over on Chris’s part.
