The Pursuit of Happyness

This movie illustrates the classic story of many people across the world, the husbands, the fathers that have a decent life, hustling to put food on the table whose lives get turned around overnight when they almost lose it all. Many people in that situation give up and have a turn for the worse, but this story is a bit different because Chris, the main character, manages to break out and change his life.

This is not just a movie, this is the real-life story of Chris Gardner, and just as he was able to succeed against all the odds, you can too.

Disclaimer: I have to note that these are my opinions, what I took from the movie, but I advise you to watch it yourself, maybe you will feel differently or pick up on something I missed.

Opportunities

Chris just spent all his life’s savings on a scanner that he now has to sell to hospitals but no one’s buying them because they are too expensive. He’s pitching to new people every day because he has to sell two of them to pay the minimum expenses for a month, but he barely manages to do his job.

You see, his first business is a complete failure, and he doesn’t even have enough money to live day to day sometimes, but after all, he can still dream about better days. Despite the fact that he’s broke and with no education, he’s applying to be a broker because he’s good with numbers, even if his wife is not supporting him.

Most people, after failing once, get too scared to even try something new again even if it looks like the perfect deal because someone may mock them, so they pick the safe opportunities, like jobs. Jobs are good, but you can’t attain wealth through them most of the times so you have to leave the baggage behind you, to forget about your past failures and move on with your life because you might not be that far away from that opportunity that will change your life.

Hard Work

Despite the fact that Chris had to face many challenges, like spending the night in jail, he was still able to impress the partners at the interview, and he got the internship. Even if he needed to provide for his family, even if he didn’t get paid for the internship and he always had to do favors for people instead of work, while he was still selling scanners and living in a motel with his son, Chris never gave up because he had a dream.

As part of the internship, there were many talented kids that he had to compete with, but the thing that made him stand out from the crowd was that Chris was working more than anyone else. He had to accomplish in six hours what the other people were doing in nine because after work he had to take care of his son. On weekends, he didn’t have time to watch TV or go out; he was selling scanners to put food on the table and studying for the internship exam at the same time.

He was working tirelessly every day even though the internship promised only one job out of twenty candidates, which made his chances considerably small, just because he had the dream to change his life and stop worrying about money, and he did it.

Rock Bottom

Life beat him down so hard that he remained without any money, anyone to help him out, not even a place to spend the night, he had to sleep with his kid in a bathroom stall, but he still didn’t give up on that internship.

Life will give you endless challenges, it will try to make you forget about your dreams and settle down for something more average, but no matter what, you cannot do that. You will want to quit many times because it is not going to be easy but if you stick to your vision and work on it every day and every weekend, without any breaks, you will finally get there.

Chris rose up from his rock bottom moment and accomplished his dream because he was persistent enough to keep on going.

Lessons Learned

This movie is not just about hard work and success, nor only about trial and error but a film about the pursuit of happiness and a better life. Chris had to struggle a lot to get to where he is right now; he didn’t do it just for the money but for the lifestyle, for happiness itself.

You have to find something that you love, a field in which you want to excel and never give up on it while working day in and day out, and one day, you might just accomplish your dreams. Nothing’s guaranteed in life, you may or may not win, but the least you can do is to try.

If he was able to go from homeless to a millionaire, while taking care of his kid, then you can accomplish your goals too. Push until you get to where you want and don’t let anyone or anything stop you, this is the biggest lesson I have learned from Chris Gardner.