If like me you are a sucker for real life success stories of people overcoming great odds to succeed, then you must have loved the story of Chris Gardner, the real life hero whose character was played by Will Smith in the movie “In Pursuit of Happyness”
This movie is based on a true story about a man named Christopher Gardner, a San Francisco salesman and familyman who overcomes great odds to become a stockbroker while living on the streets. A medical supplies salesman barely making enough money to support his girlfriend and baby, Gardner had one of those Hollywood moments in a San Francisco parking lot in 1981 when he spotted a man looking for a place to park his red Ferrari. He found out that this man was a stockbroker and set his sights on becoming one. Simply put, the man earner $80,000 a month while Gardner earned $30,000 a year! This was quite an empowering story and the fact that it is based on a true story makes it even better.
MSNBC.com carried a feature on Chris Gardner a while back and it made inspiring reading. Gardner was described as “…the chief executive of Gardner Rich & Co., a multimillion-dollar brokerage firm with offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, takes a call in Chicago.” Not bad for a man who once lived on the street with his son.
When he finally got a job as a stockbroker, day care took a huge chunk of his meager stockbroker trainee salary, and it took Gardner about a year to save enough to move himself and his son into their own home. From there, his his career blossomed, and in 1987 he opened his own firm in Chicago. Today, signs of his success are everywhere, starting with an office that includes a gleaming desk made of a DC-10 tail wing, African art work, boxing gloves and photographs autographed by Muhammad Ali. Sharing space with pictures of his adult son and daughter are photographs of Gardner with Nelson Mandela, and a vase full of dirt that Gardner brought from Mandela’s yard after visiting the former South Africa president.
Gardner, who never went to college, has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to education, writing checks for as much as $25,000 to teachers, janitors, bus drivers and others who work at schools.
Although the basic tenet of personal finance and achieving financial freedom has always been “Spend Less Than You Earn”, it is always important to remember that one of the ways you can achieve wealth for you and your family is to also seek to enhance your income over the years while still maintaing the good practices of financial freedom such as saving and living within your means. In my own life i have always made it a priority to be on the lookout for better opportunities and this has so far served me well. For you, this could be achieved through moving jobs or even starting a side income generating business.
And if you haven’t watched the movie “In Pursuit of Happyness” go to your movie library and get a copy. It will be well worth it.
My Road To Wealth 