1.
In the film, Gardner was portrayed as being able to keep his cool. This means that he was able to keep his emotions in check and therefore portray a different picture of himself than what he was actually going through. For example, during his internship at the brokerage firm, he was also living rough with his son. Despite this, he was able to maintain an image of a person living normally. While working at the brokerage firm, there was a time when he shared a taxi ride with his boss. His boss was dropped off and Gardner was left with no money to pay for the taxi ride. As a result, he decided to run away (Black, et al).
On another occasion, his boss borrowed $5 for taxi fare. Gardner could not afford to lend him the money but he gave him anyway. His ability to hide his difficulties from his workmates sometimes caused him trouble. For example, his boss on both these occasions assumed that Gardner was in a financial position to pay. This worked to his disadvantage.
Overall, his ability to hide his problems worked to his favor. His workmates were able to treat him like an equal. This meant that he got the same opportunities as the rest of them. However, his difficult financial position led him to put in more effort than his fellow interns and this made him stand out from the rest of the field. This eventually led to his employment.
2.
According to me, the most remarkable accomplishment of Gardner in his life was being able to grow up in a dysfunctional background and turn out to be a great achiever. Gardner was born in an unstable family, his mother was uneducated and had trouble with men. Gardner had three sisters one elder sister from a different father from his and two younger sisters from a different father (Gardner, 8).
During his early life, he never met his biological father. He lived with a stepfather who was abusive to all the children and to his mother. At one point in his early life, his mother went to jail and Gardner lived with an uncle who was mentally unstable. Another uncle who Gardner got close with died suddenly. Despite all these problems growing up, Gardner tried his best and avoided the path of crime where most people under his circumstances end up. It also taught him to work hard and avoid easy money (Gardner, 64).
His marriage to his wife also went south after he was unable to support the family financially. To complicate matters, he was left with his son who he had to live with despite being homeless and working as an unpaid intern at a brokerage firm (Chris, 1). Despite these problems, he did not disclose to his workmates about his hardships. Eventually, his hard work and perseverance resulted in him first getting the position in the stock brokerage firm and eventually opening his own successful stock brokerage firm (Chris, 289).
3.
The film and the reading about Gardner’s life have a number of important life lessons. The first lesson is that a person’s background in life should not be an excuse for their failures. Gardner’s life as a child and with his son living in the streets could easily have led him to crime in an attempt to try to provide for his child and himself. However, despite his troubles, he managed to persevere through the hard times and by working hard, he was able to succeed in life.
Another important lesson from the film and biography readings is that it is very important to have a role model in life. Gardner’s mother was not able to go to school herself. However, she knew the importance of education and stressed this point to her son. She was able to impart the values in Gardner that played a huge role in him being able to overcome the difficulties in his life and becoming a successful entrepreneur. The third important lesson from Gardner’s story is to take every event in life as a learning opportunity. In his early life, he lived with his stepfather who took every opportunity to harass his mother and his children. Gardner says that everything he learned about being a man, he learnt from this man, although it was opposite (Gardner, 8).
4.
Emotions play a huge role in everyday life. Emotions determine how we interact with other people and also influence our outlook in life (Strongman, 22). For example, an angry person will express anger towards other people and have a negative attitude towards things. A happy person will express happiness towards other people and generally have a positive outlook towards life.
This is very important as it determines how other people view you. For example, if a person has a negative outlook towards things, other people will catch on to this feeling and avoid them. If they require other people to achieve something, then they will not be able to achieve much. On the other hand, a positive person will attract other people and is in a position to be able to achieve much more in life.
Works Cited:
Black, Todd, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch, James Lassiter, Will Smith, and Steve Conrad. The Pursuit of Happyness. 2007. Columbia Pictures
Strongman, K T. The Psychology of Emotion: From Everyday Life to Theory. Chichester, West Sussex, England: Wiley, 2013. Print.
Gardner, Chris. The Pursuit of Happyness. Place of publication not identified: HarperCollins e-Books, 2014. Print.
Chris Gardner Biography. Chris Gardner Media Web. 17.03.2016 <http://www.chrisgardnermedia.com/>
