Product Description

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Will Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness" is the inspiring, rags-to-riches story of the charismatic Chris Gardner - a once homeless father who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street. At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry level position at a prestigious firm, Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him homeless with his toddler son. Instead of giving in to despair, the two spent almost a year moving from shelters, "HO-tels", and soup-lines, even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station - ultimately making an astonishing transformation from the bathroom to the boardroom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22269 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Chris Gardner is the Chief Executive of Gardner Rich and Company, a multimillion-dollar brokerage with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. An avid philanthropist and motivational speaker, Gardner is committed to many organizations--particularly those related to education--and was recently the recipient of the "Father of the Year Award" from the National Fatherhood Initiative.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant
This is such a good read it's hard to know where to start. The style is so easy to read and the story is so gripping you'll fly through this book. It adds so much more detail to the story if you've seen the film and makes you realise how rich Chris Gardners life has actually been. The film (however fantastic) doesn't do his life justice. This book gives more of Chris' story before he began to pursue his dream of becoming a stockbroker and a full third of the book looks at his childhood. Rarely have I been so inspired by a book, so quickly and I fell in love with this from the first few pages. I could wax lyrical about this book for pages and pages, but suffice to say I think it is superb and you can't go wrong in giving it a try. Highly, highly recommended.

Truely Inspirational
Chris Gardner has truely inspired me, the book had me in tears - a must read.
The Film with Will Smith is also a fantastic movie - Just when you think things can't get any worse - life gets in the way !

Chris's love for his son Chris Jnr is an inspiration to us all.

Well recommnded.

Not as great as I hoped for
Reviewing an autobiography is a tough thing to do as you are not reviewing a story as much as someone's life.

So let me get the point about why this is not 5 stars for me. What makes Chris Gardner's story so inspirational was his ability to look after a son and get a job in a top financial firm whilst homeless. He went from homeless to millionaire in the face of a few years- the ultimate rags to riches story. This is what the film is about and this is why he tours doing speeches etc. So to have this part of his life as the last third of the book (only about 100 pages) means that you have to feel a bit cheated.

Yes his upbringing was tough and interesting but in most autobiographies the "me growing up" bit is the first chapter as the writer gets to the stuff that makes their story interesting enough to warrant a book. Indeed once you get to this bit the drama and writing get considerably better leaving you feeling exhausted and thrilled by the end of the book.

It is very honest and the book is a very easy read plus Chris comes across as a likeable guy who is as flawed as the rest of us. It is therefore a shame that he leaves so little of the book to really get us to appreciate the struggles he faced with a toddler on the streets of a city.