Chris Gardner's life story served as the basis for the film The Pursuit of Happiness.

Will Smith's name has recently been linked to other stories, but long before "The Slap," he starred in The Pursuit of Happiness, one of the most well-liked box office hits in the last 20 years (yes, the misspelling is intentional).

The Pursuit of Happiness is based on the story of Chris Gardner, a self-made salesperson who later transitioned into a stockbroker and then became a philanthropist. Chris Gardner endured unimaginable hardships before scrounging his way to prosperity.

At a young age, Gardner's life was filled with upheaval. Gardner had a difficult upbringing in which he was frequently estranged from his parents, and as an adult he had a great need to be independent. He joined the U.S. Military, trained as a doctor there, and after meeting a renowned surgeon through a link, he was given the opportunity to work as an assistant at the University of California Medical Center. Over the course of the following three years, Gardner made connections and gained experience in the medical industry, and becoming a doctor felt like the obvious next step.

But it would never happen. Gardner had to pay the bills, so he switched to marketing medical equipment by making use of his prior skills. Before changing careers, his yearly salary as a research assistant was only about $8,000, or roughly $26,000 by today's standards. That compensation was promptly quadrupled by him, showing he was already a natural salesperson.

After one particular trip to the San Francisco General Hospital, Gardner's life was forever altered. He met Bob Bridges, a man who made $80,000 per month and drove a red Ferrari. After starting up a conversation, Bridges took Gardner under his wing and set up meetings on Gardner's behalf with significant brokerage houses in an effort to secure him a spot in a training programme. After some time, E.F.Hutton took him in, and the rest, as they say, is history.

‍The problem was that Gardner had almost completely given up on his side hustle of selling medical supplies as he searched for an internship for ten months. Also, Gardner had accrued $1200 in parking fines from attending interviews. During a domestic altercation with his fiancée Jackie, everything came to a climax, and Gardner was arrested and held for ten days after the police discovered his unpaid fines. Gardner was at his lowest point after this incident; Jackie had departed and, when he was finally released, his apartment was vacant. However, he was still able to land a job, although a completely unpaid one, with Dean Witter Reynolds' stock training programme. When Jackie eventually came back to give Gardner custody of his son, he was left with no source of income other than what had become his side business selling medical supplies, which wasn't even enough to pay for housing.

He tried to make his mark during the training programme by making a tone of cold calls with the stakes as high as feasible. Gardner wouldn't even hang up the phone between calls in order to maximize productivity, as the Pursuit of Happyness famously demonstrates. In order to prevent having to "spend time" using the restroom, he even refrained from drinking any water. Gardner claims that at the time, cold calling was "a numbers game," however he has later acknowledged that it is "not a huge component of his business." It may sound familiar.

This extraordinary effort eventually produced results. Gardner was able to pass his Series 7 Test and progress to legitimate employment at the company, which effectively ended his time on the streets. Gardner subsequently founded and sold his own business, Gardner Rich & Co., and went on to become a well-known philanthropist in addition to being the inspiration for a popular film.

‍Although it is a success story that almost seems too good to be true, that is precisely what makes it so intriguing. Success comes to some people as a lucky break. Gardner's success may have occasionally been aided by good fortune, but it was really the product of his willful defiance of the odds. You can feel depressed, but only to the extent that you allow yourself to be depressed, as he puts it. An excellent lesson to learn.

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