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    The Pursuit of Happyness: An NAACP Image Award Winner
    Unavailable
    The Pursuit of Happyness: An NAACP Image Award Winner
    Unavailable
    The Pursuit of Happyness: An NAACP Image Award Winner
    Ebook412 pages7 hours

    The Pursuit of Happyness: An NAACP Image Award Winner

    By Chris Gardner

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a 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 than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city's working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, "HO-tels," soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station.

    Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district.

    More than a memoir of Gardner's financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family's cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 17, 2009
    ISBN9780061750588
    Unavailable
    The Pursuit of Happyness: An NAACP Image Award Winner
    Author

    Chris Gardner

    Chris Gardner is the Chief Executive of Gardner Rich & 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. A Milwaukee native, Gardner has two children and resides in Chicago and New York.

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    Reviews for The Pursuit of Happyness

    4/5

    35 ratings9 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I was uneasy going into this book. The movie made Gardner to be an American hero, moving up from homelessness into riches. The full story as Gardner tells it is much more grim. I won’t itemize Gardner’s list of crimes, but it’s enough to say, I think, that the movie omits or glosses over most of the shadier events of his life. And, no, as you might expect, even with a writer helping him, Gardner is not good at setting down the story of his life. I was left with the feeling that Gardner is just a man who wanted to become rich and did so. His greatest accomplishment was to do this without tossing aside his kids when it would have been easy to do so.
    • 3/5
      A Good Read, But Not the Father of the Century I'd Heard He WasGardner's story is interesting and worth reading just to see the leap from where he came from to where he took himself.It was not, however, at all what I expected given the fanfare surrounding this guy as Father of the Century. I was surprised to find that the vast majority of their time on the streets was due to his choice to pursue his own stable of clients rather than work under an experienced broker.At least he's honest -- he openly admits that he cheated on his wife, that they were homeless because he wouldn't work for the established brokers, and that he gave his son to the son's mother and moved to New York City to make even bigger bucks (getting his son back a year or two later, I believe).
    • 3/5
      A good book but not great. It was very slow and boring in many parts. Seems like he spent a huge amount of time on his childhood and not alot on his adult hood. I am still amazed that he went from rags to riches and give him credit for achieving that. Movie was just ok--left out alot from the book
    • 4/5
      Very interesting insight to a truly inspiring success story. Chris Gardner tells a very sad story of his life but shows that determination and will power can turn anyone's life around.
    • 2/5
      This was an incredible story of hard work and patience in the face of adversity. A lot to be learned here. I don't think his strong suit is writing books though.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book, but beware, the movie this book is not.

      Mr. Gardner had a hard upbringing. He was in and out of foster care or living with relatives. When he did live with his biological mother, he had to endure a insanely emotionally and physically abusive step-father. My heart broke for him during those periods of his life.

      Later in life, Mr. Gardner became homeless and a single father. This period was also heartbreaking, yet Mr. Gardner kept fighting. I think that's the ultimate message of this book - never give up. Gardner bettered himself through education and hardwork and overcame. Every story is different, but this is definitely a case study on rising from the ashes.

      Luckily for Gardner, his mother instilled in him a fortitude to continue and wisdom to survive. This book may be an inspiration for other people going through similar experiences. If Mr. Gardner can make it, so can you.

      I hear many reviewers complain about the coarseness of this book; they say the profanity and situations are too much to stomach (sigh). I disagree. Mr. Gardner's life was no "tip toe through the tulips". Occasionally, using profanity as a descriptor is the best way to convey mood and setting; It isn't a lack of intelligence; it isn't depraved; it's keeping it real. It's a way to relate. I do not think the book should be judged on how clean of a life Mr. Gardner had; It wasn't clean; it wasn't pretty.

      Overall, I would recommend this book. It's an inspiration, and in these pages, Mr. Gardner just let's it go and always keeps it real.
    • 4/5
      After seeing the movie based on this book several years ago, I have been wanting to read this book. Finally, I did. The movie didn't do the book justice. I truly enjoyed reading about his success story. Many of his traits and thoughts that he possessed reminded me of the principles that were taught in Think and Grow Rich! So clearly, those principles have truth in them. Great book although I wished he would of left out some of his sexual exploits.
    • 1/5
      Very exciting and highly educative on real life !!
      Loads of lessons to learn!!
      ???
    • 3/5
      When i first watched the movie it came to my mind the idea of the inexistance of the word Impossible. Chris went through mountains of hardships that made him even tougher and stronger, at teh beginning of the movie he was presented as a weak unreliable person a fact that led his wife to lose faith in him. what's amazing abour him is that he did not let go of his son. This young toddler is more than a mere son, beyond this he is what reminds Chris of his wife and thus remembering his failures so, wa can say that his son was what intrigued the quest for a better life, to a success and eventually to a Utopia in which he believed from the bottom of his heart and make it through.

      1 person found this helpful