Chris Gardner | The homeless man to a successful multi-millionaire investor

Chris Gardner is an American businessman and motivational speaker. He has come a long way from being homeless. He now owns his own successful stock brokerage business and has a whopping net worth of $165 million. This success wasn’t an easy one. Chris faced a lot struggles and failures during his early stages in life. But he didn’t let these affect him. He strived hard to turn his life around for the better. With his persistent hard work he has accomplished his dreams.

Chris Gardner’s early struggles :

Chris Gardner had a very strained childhood and grew up with an abusive stepfather. Despite these early struggles he moved ahead with his life with a positive spirit. During his early adult life he met a young woman and married here. He failed to realize her true colors and life was disastrous following this. Chris and his wife were both into cocaine usage and were partying all time. This didn’t help in the least to sustain their marriage. With time he realized that this wasn’t a recipe for a long term, successful marriage. Things worsened and he was estranged from his partner.

His life took a major turn when he met a stock broker Bob Bridges, who at the time was earning $80,000 per month. He asked Bob if they could meet and Bob agreed to have lunch with Chris where they discussed exactly what Bob did for a living. Chris Gardner was amused and that’s were he decided that he would become a stock broker. He decided his career and was passionate to pursue it. He decided to make the leap into a broker training program.

However in a harsh twist of fate, his marriage fell apart. He and his toddler son were homeless for a year in San Francisco. They would instead sleep wherever they could. In addition to the toilet at a railway station, they’d bed down in parks, at a church shelter, or under his desk at work after everyone else had gone home. They ended up waiting at soup kitchens. Making ends meet was very much difficult but Chris didn’t give up. He was confident and put in his best efforts. Life was very hard but Chris managed to make the best of the opportunities that came up his way.

Chris Gardner continued looking out for chances through sheer perseverance to learn the stock trade as a trainee in the Dean Witter offices. He was such a hustler that he was noticed by the head of Bear Stern’s San Francisco office, where he received a bigger draw and more payout, which allowed him to finally get off the streets and rent an apartment and provide daycare for his son. Life went through a major change and there started his journey to the successful career. Following this he opened Gardner Rich & Co., and the company has made its mark in history. Despite the several hurdles and rejections he faced throughout his journey, his persistence and hard work have been his greatest assets.

Life lessons from Chris Gardner’s life :

The most important lesson from Chris Gardner’s life is to have confidence in oneself. Working hard and being persistent is very much important. We should be easy to take risks in life and should chase our dreams despite the several hurdles that come forth. “Still a dreamer, yet more of a realist than ever before, I knew this was my time to sail. On the horizon, I saw the shining future, as before. The difference now was that I felt the wind at my back. I was ready.”- Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happyness. Always be ambitious in life and keep yourself motivated. Success is sure to achieve when your consistent and passionate.

Also Read : From rags to riches | The inspirational success story of entertainment mogul Tyler Perry