The Pursuit of Happyness

The other day I was watching the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness". Wow, what a trip it was. The movie is based on the true story of Mr.Chris Gardner played by Will smith, who worked his way up from homeless father to millionaire stock broker. Everyone who has lost all hopes in life, here’s something that can help you.

You must be thinking why am I talking about a movie? This is because inspiration and motivation is very important for those who want to do something in their life, especially during the times economy has slowed down and people are losing hope. The movie has a number of great lessons to teach - determination, pursuing your dreams, overcoming difficulty and many more.

The movie begins showing Chris Gardner as a salesman of bone density scanners. Gardner had invested his family's savings into purchasing a stock of these devices, which he can in turn sell to his exclusive market of San Francisco area medical centres. But the doctors of the area think it to be expensive and unnecessary device. So it gets difficult for Gardner to sell the scanners. Despite of putting all his marketing skills he fails to sell the scanners. Fed up of an unsuccessful husband, his wife also leaves him. But his desire to give better life to his son and his son’s faith in him never let him lose his hope and he joins a six-week internship program at Dean Witter. In the end he gets selected, and today he runs his own stock broker firm.

No one knows when life will take a new turn. So better be prepared for everything and have confidence in yourself. Like in the movie at one point Chris Jr. and his father imagine that the scanner is a time machine, and Chris Sr. uses this as an opportunity to distract his son from their terrible circumstances. They pretend that they have travelled back to prehistoric times and must find save place from the dinosaurs. This way they spend the night in a subway station bathroom, one of the most touching scenes in the film and gives a great lesson of being positive in life and face every situation.

Whatever Gardner does in Pursuit is aimed at the welfare and betterment of his own child. Thus, he tells young Chris, “You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it.” So if you have a dream, don’t wait for anyone to come and fulfil it, just go and get it. Its only you who can fulfil your dreams, so have confidence in yourself...

Another worth mentioning thing about Gardner is his determination to do something in life in spite of facing so many hardships. He joined a six week internship program, which pays absolutely nothing to him. Six weeks-no pay. But who cares? Where there is a will, there is a way! He knew these six weeks could either make or break his life. So his destiny was in his hands and he chose to make it till his last breath.

Gardner got an opportunity to interview for the internship position. A night before the interview he was arrested by the police. Unfortunately, he was forced to stay overnight in jail and is not released until 9:30 the following morning 45 minutes prior to his interview for the internship. At this point in the movie he has no car, so he is forced to run to his interview and he arrives paint on his body and untidy and guess what he was selected. His one line made it for him it goes like this: one of the executives asks Gardner to put himself into the executive shoes and says, "What would you say to me if I told you I had decided to bring a guy into the intern program after he showed up to the interview wearing no shirt?" Gardner's response: "He must have had on some really nice pants."

The lesson we took from this illustration is to look beyond and focus on talent while hiring. Gardner was very good with numbers. The talent was critical for success in the position they were hiring for, so it was enough to get Gardner internship with the company despite not being well dressed. Yes, he still had to earn the position during the six-week internship.

Does this review excite you? I am sure YES. So go and watch it. It's a true story that will give you a new perspective on what determination can do for one's career.