The Success story of Chris Gardener

Homeless But Not Hopeless: Millionaire Chris Gardner’s Early Years
Chris Gardner wears a $10,000 watch on each wrist. On the right hand is a Cartier set to Chicago time, and on the left is a Roger Dubuis set to South African time. “I was late once and it cost me $50,000,” explains Gardner. “I figure it was cheaper to wear two watches.” For a man who not too long ago had only two suits to his name and could not even afford to pay rent, Gardner has come a long way. From living on the streets and bathing in public restrooms to owning a successful multi-million dollar stock brokerage firm, Gardner is living out the American dream.
Born on February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Christopher Gardner’s first few years were filled with nothing but difficulty and uncertainty. He was the only son in a family of twelve children. His single mother was trained as a schoolteacher, but wound up taking on numerous part-time jobs in order to provide for her family. “She was probably her happiest when she was teaching my sisters and me,” recalls Gardner. “She was our professor, our Socrates.” The absence of a father is something that would come to profoundly affect Gardner’s life.
Gardner and his siblings were transferred back and forth between relatives and foster homes. His mother had been imprisoned twice; once, for allegedly receiving welfare while working, and the second time for attempting to burn down the house of Gardner’s abusive stepfather. “I’m sorry she didn’t succeed,” says Gardner of the incident. “Until I went to the U.S. military, the worst violence I ever saw in my life was in my home.”
Gardner was a smart student, but had little interest in academics. He studied trumpet for nine years, wanting to be the next Miles Davis. Eventually, Gardner realized, “I had the attitude, but I didn’t have the talent. Besides, there was only one Miles Davis and he already had that job.”
After dropping out of high school, Gardner lied about his age and joined the U.S. Navy. He had hoped to become a medic and travel the world, but never got any farther than North Carolina. However, the experience did introduce Gardner to a cardiac surgeon, who would later hire Gardner as his clinical research assistant at the University of California Medical Centre in San Francisco after both were discharged. Gardner enjoyed the work, but was only making $7,400 a year and he wanted more.
Gardner toyed with the idea of becoming a doctor, but decided that years of paying off medical loans were not for him. Instead, he became a medical supply salesman, earning $16,000 a year. It was while loading equipment into his car one day that Gardner’s life would forever change. He caught sight of a bright red Ferrari and was immediately in love with it and all that it represented. “I asked the guy two questions,” Gardner recalls. “One was, ‘What do you do?’ The second was, ‘How do you do that?’”

As fate would have it, the driver of the Ferrari was a stockbroker. When Gardner heard that the man was earning over $80,000 a month, he decided that his future lied in investment. He had no education, no experience, and no connections, but that was not about to stop Gardner from achieving his new dream.
From Rags to Riches: Gardner Lives the American Dream
“A slow walk to Wall Street is how others describe my life,” says Gardner.
Once he had decided to become a stockbroker, Gardner immediately set out to find an investment firm that would give him a chance. In one brokerage firm, Gardner finally found a manager of a training program who was willing to give him a shot. However, when Gardner showed up for his first day of work, the manager who had hired him had been fired and no one else had ever heard of Gardner or his new position. He left with his hopes disappointed.
Nevertheless, Gardner didn’t give up on his dreams. He continued to seek out investment firms, taking odd jobs to pay the bills in the meantime. Dean Witter, a San Francisco-based brokerage firm was interested in Gardner but refused to bring him on board before putting him through ten months of interviews. It would be a grueling ten months.
In this seemingly short period of time, not only would Gardner’s girlfriend run off with their son and all of his belongings, but Gardner would also find himself penniless and in jail. After running Gardner’s car license plates, a police officer discovered that he had $1,200 worth of fines for unpaid parking tickets. Gardner was sent to jail for ten days, with his release date just one day before his final interview with Dean Witter.
Gardner showed up for his interview in a T-shirt and dirty jeans. He could have fabricated some heroic story to explain his appearance. Instead, Gardner decided to tell the truth. In plain terms, Gardner told his interviewer that the mother of his son had ran off with his child, that he was broke, and that he has just gotten out of jail the day before. As luck would have it, the interviewer had recently been through a nasty divorce and could sympathize with Gardner. He was immediately given a position in the company’s training program.
Soon after landing his new job, Gardner’s ex-girlfriend returned with their 18-month-old son, leaving him with his father and promptly taking off again. Since the house Gardner was staying at didn’t allow children, the pair found themselves living on the street. “The truth is, I was homeless before Chris came, I just didn’t know,” says Gardner. “I was just functionally homeless – living with friends, staying a night over here, a couple of days over there. Now, with Chris, I had to face it.”
Eventually, the father and son began to scrape by in a $10-a-night motel, while Gardner continued to study for his broker’s exam. “I was homeless, but I wasn't hopeless,” he says. “I knew a better day was coming.” They were given refuge in a shelter for single mothers until Gardner had earned his license, after which time his persistence in cold calling earned him the attention of executives at Bear Stearns, who offered him a job. After the company went public in the late 1980s, Gardner saw his sphere of influence shrink and decided to strike out on his own.
In 1987, Gardner launched his own brokerage firm in Chicago, Gardner Rich. “If you look around the country, no city has fostered more Black entrepreneurs than Chicago,” he says. Gardner quickly began to land major clients for his new company, including the pension fund of the Chicago Teacher’s Union. Since then, his business has continued to take off and Gardiner hasn’t looked back.
“It’s not just my story,” says Gardiner of his autobiographical book, ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’, which has also recently been turned into a major motion picture. “It’s the story of a lot of people who grew up and took a lot of crap – and decided, ‘I'm going the other way.’”