2. BIOGRAPHY
• Christopher Paul "Chris" Gardner (born February 9,
1954) is an American entreprenuer, broker,
motivational speaker, author, and philanthropist who,
during the early 1980s, struggled with homelessness
while raising his toddler son, Christopher, Jr.
• He is CEO of his own stockbrokerage firm, Gardner Rich
& Co, based in Chicago, Illinois, where he resides when
he is not living in Toronto.
3. Some of those situations are
treated along the film
through Chris Gardener´s
life and all the situations
he lives.
In this film “Chris
Gardener”, the
main character,
shows through his
way of facing the
life a way of
behaving in the
different situations
the life gives you.
4. THE BEGINNING
At the beginning, Gardner family has financial difficulties
because they do not have any money and his wife is the
only that works because Chris has lost his job; but at the
beginning they are eager to overcome the situation
together.
5. • In 1981, San Francisco, salesman Chris Gardner (Will Smith) invests
his entire life savings in portable bone-density scanners which he
demonstrates to doctors and pitches as a handy quantum leap over
standard X-rays (the scanners play a vital role, despite being called
"time machines" by Max Watson, and "fire" by Chris).
• While he is able to sell most of them, the time lag between the sales
and his growing financial demands enrage his already bitter and
alienated wife Linda (Thandie Newton), who works as a hotel maid.
The lack of a stable financial state increasingly erodes their marriage,
in spite of them caring for their five-year old son, Christopher.
6. • Chris is prepared to let nothing get in the way of
achieving his ambition. We all have dreams and
ambitions.
• Indeed, it is good too. But in order to fulfill them we
will have choices, and sacrifices, to make. And
sometimes the dreams we have are simply
unrealistic.
7. Chris tells his son to pursue his dream no matter what
others say. But sometimes we need someone to give us a
reality check. How do we determine whether something
requires giving it our all and when do we allow ourselves to
hear the gentle word of realism?
8. • We think that to achieve financial success doesn’t ensure personal
happiness.
• The personal happiness is achieve only if you have love in your life.
If love does not appear then it is impossible to have personal
happiness.
• In Chris’s case, all the things that he is doing like finding a work,
sleepless night, etc. are to support his son.
• To be happy in that situation was not that easy.
• If your family is close you don’t have any reasons to be unhappy.
But if your family is broken then its difficult, very difficult.
• You have to be worried about your son’s future because you haven’t
got money and you are alone in the world.
• You can’t share your problems with anyone.
• To summarize we think that in Chris’s family, it is possible to be
happy in spite of the financial problems if Chris and his son stay
together.
9.
10. Turning Point
• While walking in downtown trying to sell one of the scanners, Gardner
meets Jay Twistle (Brian Howe), a manager for Dean Witter Reynolds and
impresses him by solving a Rubik's Cube during a short taxi ride.
11. • After Jay leaves, Gardner lacks money to pay the fare, and
chooses to run, resulting in the driver chasing him into a subway
station.
12. • Gardner boards a train, but he looses his last, one and only of his
scanners in the process.
13. • But, His new relationship with Jay earns him the chance
to become an intern stockbroker.
14. • The day before the interview, Gardner grudgingly agrees
to paint his apartment so as to postpone moving out due
to his difficulty in paying the rent.
• While painting, Gardner is greeted by the police at his
doorstep, who brings him to the station, stating he has to
pay for his numerous parking tickets he has
accumulated.
• As part of the sanction, Gardner is ordered to spend the
night in jail, complicating his schedule for the interview
the next morning.
15. He manages to arrive at Dean Witter's office on time, albeit still in his
shabby clothes. Despite his appearance, he impresses the
interviewers, and lands an internship. He will be amongst 20 interns
competing for a paid position as a broker.
16. • Gardner's unpaid internship does not please Linda, who eventually leaves for New
York. After Gardner bluntly says she is incapable of being a single mother, she
agrees that Christopher will remain with his father.
17. SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
• Gardner is further set back when his bank account is garnished by the IRS
for unpaid income taxes, and he and his young son are evicted.
• He ends up with less than thirty dollars, resulting in them being homeless,
and are forced at one point to stay in a restroom at a subway station.
21. Other days, he and Christopher spend nights at a homeless shelter, in
a subway,
22. • The other day, he finds a man walking on the street with his lost
bone scanner, then follows him to get his scanner back while on his
way to his office for internship.
• On the process, chasing the man, he gets hit by a car in the middle
of the road and looses his left pair shoe, still manage to finally get his
scanner.
23. • Later, Gardner finds the bone scanner that he lost in the subway
station and, after repairing it, sells it to a physician, thus completing
all his sales of his scanners. Finally, he manages to procure cash,
then stays at a hotel.
24. • Disadvantaged by his limited work hours, and knowing that
maximizing his client contacts and profits is the only way to earn the
broker position, Gardner develops a number of ways to make phone
sales calls more efficiently, including reaching out to potential high
value customers, defying protocol.
25. As it was mentioned in the movie, a stockbroker must be
“good with numbers and good with people”. This means
that math skills and interpersonal skills are necessary for
this career.
I think that interpersonal
skills is a very important
value for life because when
people relate thy want you
to treat them on a good
way.
NECESSARY SKILLS FOR SOMEONE TO
BECOME A SUCCESSFUL STOCKBROKER
26. One day, sympathetic prospect who is a top-level pension fund
manager and invites him to watch the game, and even takes him
and his son to a San Francisco 49ers game. Regardless of his
challenges, he never reveals his lowly circumstances to his
colleagues, even going so far as to lend one of his bosses five
dollars for a cab, a sum he cannot afford.
27. • Concluding his internship, Gardner is called into a meeting with his
managers.
• One of them notes he is wearing a new shirt. Gardner explains it is
his last day and thought to dress for the occasion.
• The manager smiles and says he should wear it again tomorrow,
letting him know he has won the coveted full-time position.
• Fighting back tears, Gardner shakes hands with them, then rushes
to his son's daycare to embrace Christopher.
30. • They walk down the street, joking with each other.
• The epilogue reveals that Gardner went on to form his
own multi-million dollar brokerage firm.
31. • The film was released on DVD on March 27, 2007 and as of November 2007,
US Region 1 DVD sales accounted for an additional $89,923,088 in revenue, slightly
less than half of what was earned in its first week of release.[6]
About 5,570,577 units
have been sold, bringing in $90,582,602 in revenue which also partly goes to CHRIS
GARDNER as per the royalty of an Author of the Book, “PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS”.
