“The Pursuit of Happyness” is a biographical drama film that’s been on my movie rental queue for the longest time. I kept moving it down the list because I thought that it would be a very depressing movie. I don’t know about you, but I prefer watching films that leave me with a feel good feeling.
Then on Saturday night I had no choice but to watch it. It was the featured movie on my favorite television channel. As it turned out, the story based on Chris Gardner’s life was most uplifting, especially to folks out there who are having a rough time making it in this world.
Chris (portrayed by Will Smith who received an Oscar best actor nomination for his role)) was a portable bone density scanner salesman who invested his family’s life savings into a business that he thought would get his family ahead. Scanner after scanner sat in their apartment and disposing of each one didn’t turn out to be an easy sale. The scanner was a bulky machine that Chris had to carry around and take on the bus. You see, in the course of his sales routine Chris got into the habit of parking his car where he ended up getting multiple tickets. One day he got arrested for the unpaid tickets and spent a night in jail. Then a few of the scanners got stolen, but luck was on his side because he eventually recovered them.
Because the bone density scanner business wasn’t making money quick enough, Chris and his live-in girlfriend (Linda) were behind in rent payments, even the payments for the daycare where their son Christopher stayed while the parents were at work. Linda worked long hours at her drycleaners job to make ends meet and eventually, the financial struggle overwhelmed her. She decided to walk away because she was no longer happy with Chris.
Although Chris worked as hard as he could, he couldn’t come up with the rent money, resulting in his eviction from their apartment. Father and son ended up living for a while in a motel where they got evicted also because Chris was behind in the payments. They became on-and-off homeless living on the streets, in a homeless shelter, and even in a metro station bathroom.
While all this hardship was going on, through his persistence Chris got an unpaid six-month internship at the Dean Ritter brokerage firm in San Francisco
His homeless situation wasn’t known to his superiors and associates at the firm. All his fellow trainees spent long hours working on their list of accounts. Because Chris wanted to make sure that he and his son could get a place to sleep in at the homeless shelter (which meant being there by 5:00), he learned to work on the accounts that were assigned to him within the time frame that he could afford to spend. With self-confidence and the will to succeed, Chris proved his mettle and after the training period, was offered a full-time salaried position, the only one available to the 20 trainees.
Eventually, Chris Gardner formed his own brokerage firm, Gardner Rich, which made him a Wall Street millionaire. This real-life story is an inspiration to anyone who find themselves down on their luck and getting kicked by one misfortune after another. It is a testament to the fact that hard work makes even an impossible dream become a reality.
The film left me with a memorable quote which Chris said to son Christopher: “You got a dream… You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period.” Yes, indeed, just the way father showed his son.
The film left me with a memorable quote which Chris said to son Christopher: “You got a dream… You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period.” Yes, indeed, just the way father showed his son.
