Hollywood couldn't have done a better job at imagining Chris Gardner's life. All the ingredients for a hard-luck story were there: absent father, abusive stepfather, time spent in jail, a year on the streets with his toddler son. But so was an unquenchable desire to make something more of his life. That desire led to success as a stockbroker, business owner and bestselling author. The kicker? This month, his life really will be showcased in a major motion picture.
Chris Gardner's unlikely road to riches started in the parking lot of San Francisco General Hospital in 1982. Then age 29 and the father of year-and-a-half-old Christopher, he was barely making ends meet as a medical equipment salesman. He was about to get into his car when he saw a red Ferrari searching for a parking space. Impulsively, he waved the driver over and said, "I'll give you my spot, but I want to ask you two questions: What do you do, and how do you do it?"
The Ferrari's owner said he was a stockbroker. Gardner asked what the job paid. At the time, the top salespeople where Gardner worked were making $80,000 a year. "This broker was making $80,000 a
month," Gardner recalls.
The two men hit it off. Over occasional lunches, the broker explained how the business worked and how to break into it. He even gave Gardner a list of referrals. Gardner began knocking on doors -- but had them slammed in his face. "At the time, brokerage firms were starting to require MBA degrees," he explains. "I didn't even go to college. It wasn't racism. It was place-ism. I did not have a college degree. I did not come from a politically connected family. I had no money. So who was going to do business with me?"
After ten months of pursuing fruitless leads, Gardner found someone willing to give him a shot. He quit his job and showed up for his appointment, only to discover his contact had been fired. No one knew who he was or why he was there.
It was back to the beginning, but without steady employment. "I was doing everything I could that was legal to take care of my family -- cutting grass, cleaning basements, hauling rubbish. I learned roofing. I did house painting. And I continued to pursue a career on Wall Street."
But life remained precarious. After an argument Gardner had with his girlfriend, someone called the police. A routine check of his license plate number turned up a backlog of unpaid parking tickets. And that led to ten days in jail.
To make matters worse, while he was incarcerated, his girlfriend took their son and moved out. "I was devastated. I grew up without a father, and I had promised myself that I would never leave my son in a situation where he wouldn't know his father. Those were the most terrible days of my life. I was in there with murderers and rapists, and all I could think about was, Where is my child? Will I ever see him again?"
Before landing in jail, Gardner had lined up an interview at Dean Witter, the brokerage firm. Unfortunately, the interview was scheduled for the day before he was to be released. "I begged the guard to let me make one phone call to reschedule."
Once out of jail, Gardner went to the interview wearing all he had -- the Windbreaker and bell-bottom jeans he had been arrested in. The interviewer glanced up and said, "Deliveries in the rear."
Gardner decided to take a desperate chance. "I could not think of a lie bizarre enough, so I told the truth. I said, 'I just got out of prison on a parking ticket charge, my ex left me, and I don't know where my child is. But I am here because I believe I am supposed to be in this business.'" The interviewer had been through a couple of divorces and could sympathize. Gardner won a place in the training program. Now he had to do well enough to be offered a job.
Months later, Gardner's ex showed up at his boardinghouse. She didn't want to take care of Christopher anymore. It was his turn. "I said, 'Absolutely.'" But the boardinghouse didn't allow children, and Gardner couldn't afford an apartment on his stipend. He and Christopher took to homeless shelters and the streets.
"We would leave the shelter in the a.m., my son in his stroller, my duffel bag with all his clothes and diapers, my briefcase, one suit on my back and one in a bag. Many nights we slept in bathrooms in transit stations or under my desk at work."
Father and son, then two and a half, were walking through North Oakland one day when Gardner noticed a dilapidated building with a rosebush climbing up the wall and a man tending it. Yes, he told Gardner, there was an empty apartment. The man rented it to him on the spot, and Gardner and Christopher slept on the floor that night.
The next morning, they got ready to head out for the day. For nearly a year, Christopher had seen his father pack up all their possessions every morning. Now some were being left behind. "'Dad, we need to take our things,'" Gardner recalls him saying anxiously. "I told my son, 'No, boy. We have a key now. We are home.' We skipped to the train that day," Gardner says. "Me and my baby and the briefcase skipped to the train."
Gardner took to the trade and, within a few years, fulfilled his dream of working on Wall Street. In 1987, he opened his own brokerage firm, Gardner Rich & Co., in Chicago. And he bought his own Ferrari.
Gardner doesn't see his story as a rags-to-riches fairy tale. Rather, he says, "mine is a story of how to empower yourself and beat the odds stacked against you. My life could have been easily derailed by domestic violence and homelessness, but I made a choice to not let those things sink me. You can break the destructive cycles that ensnare you. Be smart, have a plan and hold on to the people you love."
And FYI... - Chris Gardner tells his own story in his bestseller, The Pursuit of Happyness. The misspelled title refers to a sign he saw at the daycare center his son attended during their dark days on the street.
- Read our Face to Face profile of Will Smith. Smith stars as Chris Gardner in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness.
We are working at Reader's Digest Translation Plan. Are u interested? Join us!
译文:
从监狱到华尔街【读者文摘】-----Gretchen版
就算是好莱坞也拍不出比克里斯加德纳的生活更精彩的影片了.以下就是不幸生活的组成部分:父亲早逝,继父虐待,自己入过狱,和儿子在大街上住了1年.但是他仍然有不可抑制的愿望,那就是为自己的生活再做点什么.那个渴望使他变成了股票经纪人,一个公司的持有者,和一本畅销书的作者.出乎意料,对吧?本月,他的真实故事将被搬上屏幕.
克里斯家的那看似并不大可能成功的致富道路始于1982年三藩市总部医院的停车场. Then age 29 他那时29岁,是1岁半克里斯多夫的爸爸,刚面试完医疗器械销售员.他刚走进车的时候,看到一辆红色的法拉利正在找车位..好像被人推了一把似的,他像对面的司机挥手说"我把车位让给你,但是你要回答我两个问题:你在做什么工作?你是怎么做的?"加德纳明白坚持不懈和机遇能让人走向成功.法拉利车主说自己是股票经纪人.加德纳问他这工作薪水怎么样,这个时候,加德纳所在的公司,业绩最好的销售员一年挣8万美元"这些股票经纪人一个月就能赚8万美元"加德纳回忆到.
这两个人很合得来,偶尔一起吃午饭,吃完后,那个经纪人解释了股票如何运作的以及要怎么样做才能进入这一行.他甚至还给了加德纳一张推荐表.加德纳开始不停的找工作 -- 但是回应他的只有冰冷的关门声."那个时候,经纪公司最低要求就是MBA学历"他解释到. "我连大学都没读过.这不是种族主义.这是地方保护. 我是没有大学文凭. 也不是什么政治世家的.也没什么钱 .有谁会和我做生意呢?"
经过10个月的无果尝试,加德纳发现有人愿意给他个机会试试. 他辞去了工作,去面试了.却发现联系他的人被解雇了. 没人知道他是谁,怎么会在那里.
一切又回到了原点,稳定的工作没了"我什么活都干,那样就有合法收入照顾家人了.割草,清洗地下室,拖走垃圾,我还会盖屋顶,漆房子.我仍然在继续寻找在华尔街工作的机会."
但是生活总是让人捉摸不透.他和女友吵了一架后,有人报了警.警察对加德纳的驾照号码进行例行检查的时候,发现他有积压的停车罚单没交,这导致了他要在监狱关10天的紧闭.
更糟糕的是,在他入狱前,他的女友带着儿子搬出去住了."我崩溃了,我小的时候就没有爸爸,我对自己保证,我不会再让儿子过着没有爸爸的日子.入狱生活是我一生中最可怕的日子.我和杀人犯,强奸犯关在一起.我唯一可想的就是,儿子在哪里呢?是不是永远都见不到他了?"
在被关进监狱之前,加德纳正在等候迪恩威特公司的面试,那是个经纪公司.不幸的是,面试时间是释放的前一天,"我恳求保安们让我打个电话重新安排面试"出监狱的时候,加德纳穿着钟型裤管的裤子去面试,那是他呆在监狱时穿的.面试官看了一眼,对他说,快递员在后面等着.
加德纳决定孤注一掷,"我想不出更奇怪的借口了,所以我想说实话.我因为停车费罚单没交而被关进去.现在刚被释放,也不知道自己的孩子在哪里,我来这里是因为我可以胜任这个工作."面试官沉思了几秒,很同情他,后来加德纳如愿在训练部实习.现在,他做的很好,给他工作的邀约都不为过.
几个月后,女友带着儿子出现在他的住处,她再也不想照顾克利斯朵夫了,现在轮到加德纳了."那当然"但是,这里不能住孩子.加德纳的津贴也没法买房子.他和儿子又住到了流浪者的避难所和大街上.
"我们上午离开避难所,儿子呆在婴儿车里,行李袋里装着他的衣服和菱形花纹织布.我的公文包,一个垫在我背上,另一个在一个包里.很多晚上,我们睡在客运站的厕所或者我工作桌的下面.
父亲和儿子,两个半(什么意思啊?--)一次步行穿过北奥克兰的路上,加德纳注意到一栋楼,破破的,蔷薇树都长到了墙上,有个人在照料这间屋子.是的,那人告诉加德纳这是间空房子,而且让他住了一晚.那晚,加德纳和儿子睡在了地板上.
第二天,他们整理行李准备出发,将近1年了,克利斯朵夫看着爸爸每天早上都准备行李,现在似乎有什么东西落下了,"爸爸,我们应该带上自己的东西"加德纳回想儿子说这话的时候有多焦虑.我告诉儿子,不,我们有钥匙,我们就是家.他们那天跳上了火车,有儿子,还有他的公文包.
加德纳继续工作着,几年内,他就达成了想在华尔街工作的愿望.1987年,他开了自己的股票经纪公司,买了自己的法拉利.
加德纳并不认为自己快速成功的故事是精灵尾巴扫过的魔法形成的,他说"我的生活告诉大家,要坚强的面对阻碍我们向前的困难,我的生活很容易偏离自己的理想,然后沦落到无家可归的地步.但是我选择不让这些事情打倒我,你们也可以做到这些.明智些吧,为了你爱的人,制定些计划吧!"