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Chris Gardner

@ceoofhappyness

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Entrepreneur, New York Times Bestselling Author and Award winning Film Producer. ✌🏿💪🏿🙏🏿
#PursuitofHappyness
#PermissionToDream
#StartWhereYouAre

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Today is #WorldHomelessDay. And there are some things that I must say . . .

There is a kind of fear that NEVER leaves you.

It's the fear of looking into your own child's eyes and knowing you cannot give them the one thing every child deserves.

A place to call HOME.

I know that fear.

I know what it's like to hold my little boy close at night, not knowing what tomorrow would bring.

I know what it's like to feel invisible.

To walk past thousands of strangers, knowing that not one of them could see the battle I was fighting just to survive every single day.

But what I remember most isn't the hunger or the exhaustion or even the uncertainty. It was the weight of knowing that my child was depending on me to make everything okay.

And not knowing if I could.

There were nights in this train station when I had nothing left to give him but my arms around him and a promise that somehow, someway, we'd make it.

And there were moments when that promise was the only thing I had left myself.

Today, people know my story because of “The Pursuit of HappYness.”

But there are millions of stories just like mine that will never become a movie.

Millions of people who wake up every morning carrying the same fear and exhaustion, and have the same desperate hope that tomorrow might finally be different.

They are Moms. Dads. Children. Veterans. Dreamers.

They are human beings who deserve to be seen.

Homelessness is not a failure of character. And having a home is not a measure of someone's worth.

I was homeless. But I was NEVER without dreams. I was never without the love of my son.

And I was never without the belief that he deserved a better tomorrow.

On World Homeless Day, I ask you to remember something:

When you see someone experiencing homelessness, you are not looking at the entirety of their story.

You are looking at a human being in the middle of it.

And sometimes, all it takes is one person who cares enough to help change how that story ends.

Don't look away.

Because once upon a time, that person was me. by @ceoofhappyness

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8 days ago

I remember taking this picture of my son like it was yesterday.

At this point, we had finally made it into a home.

And there was my little boy… sound asleep in the comfort of a real bed, with his little bear right beside him.

Such a simple picture.

But to me, it was EVERYTHING.

For so long, all I wanted was to give my son a place where he could close his eyes and just be a child. No train stations. No uncertainty. No wondering where we were going to sleep.

Just a bed and a bear. And a little bit of peace.

People often talk about the big moments in life. The breakthroughs. The promotions. The success. The Milestones.

But I can tell you this:

Sometimes success looks like watching your child sleep safely in a bed you worked so hard to give them.

I WILL NEVER EVER forget this moment.

#ThrowbackThursday by @ceoofhappyness

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10 days ago

Alright guys, this is it!

It’s 4th Quarter time; THIS is where the PLAYER’S PLAY! ✌🏿💪🏿🙏🏿 by @ceoofhappyness

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12 days ago

We about to start the 4th quarter! And this is where THE PLAYERS PLAY! It's THAT TIME! Who’s with me?!

Chinese proverb: Get knocked down 7 times, stand up 8.

#MondayMotivation by @ceoofhappyness

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20 days ago

I spent so many of those years believing my job was to protect my child from everything we were going through.

The fear.
The uncertainty.
The rejection.

The things a child should NEVER have to worry about.

I thought I was the one keeping us going.

It took me some time to understand something else was happening at the same time.
But I learned that MY CHILD was keeping me going.

When quitting would have been easier, I had a reason not to.
When somebody told me no, I had a reason to ask again.
When tomorrow felt impossible, I had a reason to get there.

We spend a lot of time talking about what parents give their children.

We don't talk nearly enough about what our children give us.

Sometimes the person you're fighting for is also the person keeping you in the fight.

That was certainly true for me. ✌🏿💪🏿🙏🏿 by @ceoofhappyness

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a month ago

Today is a very important day to me. . . #nationalworkingparentsday

I swear I can still hear the sounds. I remember the smells. And forever engraved in my mind are the things I saw in that train station bathroom.

There were days when “working parent” meant much more than going to work and coming home. It meant carrying fear, exhaustion, rejection, and responsibility. But still finding a way to make my son feel SAFE.

I wasn’t chasing success back then. I was chasing survival. A roof, a future, and a chance to give my child something better than the circumstances we were living through.

On National Working Parents Day, I salute every mother and father doing whatever they have to do to keep moving forward for their children . . . especially the ones fighting battles nobody else can see.

Sometimes the greatest work you will ever do won’t be on a résumé. It will be raising the person who’s right there looking up at you! Your son, your daughter, your niece, your nephew, your grandchild, and that’s why we spell happYness with a Y, because sometimes it’s all on YOU.

And the picture of me in the doorway is the ACTUAL restroom my son and I slept in for too many nights. I always visit, but I never close the door. by @ceoofhappyness

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a month ago

The future of the American Dream, according to Chris Gardner, @ceoofhappyness.⁣
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It’s still possible, but it has changed. Globalization and technology have expanded the playing field, Gardner says.⁣
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His advice to the next generation: Know who you’re up against. Keep studying, practicing, networking and rehearsing. The work you put in could determine whether you follow the agenda or set it. by @ceoofhappyness

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a month ago

The #PursuitofHappYness has always been about more than survival. It’s about possibility.

And #PermissiontoDream is rooted in that same belief: before you can build a different life, you have to be able to imagine one.

For me, literacy is part of that permission.

Books can introduce you to a world you’ve never seen, an idea you’ve never considered, or a future you didn’t know was possible.

Reading can IGNITE THE DREAM.

#InternationalLiteracyDay by @ceoofhappyness

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a month ago

There was a time in my life when I didn’t need someone to save me.

I needed a chance.

I needed a door to open. I needed someone to see possibility in me before my circumstances had caught up with the person I knew I could become.
That has stayed with me my entire life.

My Mom always taught me, sometimes the most meaningful thing you can give another person is access, opportunity, encouragement, knowledge or simply the belief that their situation today does not have to become their story tomorrow.
I know how much one opportunity can matter.

And you guys know, that once you’ve been fortunate enough to walk through a few open doors yourself, I believe you have a responsibility to hold some of them open for the people coming behind you.

On #InternationalDayofCharity, I’m reminded that what we give matters.
But what someone is able to become because we gave it matters even more. by @ceoofhappyness

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a month ago

I go.
You go.
We go.
Monaco.

See you in Monaco in 2027. It'll be here before you know it!✌🏿💪🏿🙏🏿

#FeelGoodFriday by @ceoofhappyness

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a month ago

Millions of people know this scene.

But VERY FEW know the story behind it.

Two weeks ago in Kuala Lumpur, I had the opportunity to spend some time on stage with 1,000s in the audience(and online), and I was asked about what happened behind the scenes of “The Pursuit of HappYness.”

One question took me all the way back to the basketball court with Will and Jade . . . and to how we came to create what would become one of the most iconic moments and lines in the film.

There’s a moment in every film that makes it become iconic. "Pursuit of HappyNess" had a number of them.

• THE bathroom scene.
• THE day I got the job.
• THE basketball scene.

Turn the sound on for this one! ✌🏿💪🏿🙏🏿 by @ceoofhappyness

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2 months ago

What a tremendous honor to become an honorary member of @iuec.official ! GOIN UP! ✌🏿💪🏿🙏🏿 by @ceoofhappyness

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2 months ago