LAS VEGAS — With determination and a dream, Christopher Gardner went from homelessness to president/CEO of Gardner Rich & Co., a stock brokerage, but that was not his most important success.
Gardner told attendees of CUNA's America's Credit Union Conference & Expo today that his primary goal was to be able to say he was always there for his son after he had grown up without a father. When his wife left after he became unemployed and went to jail for $1,200 in unpaid parking tickets that he got because of his scientific sales job, she also took their son.
He showed up for what he considered his last shot at becoming a stock broker in bellbottom jeans and a red Members Only jacket. Since he could not come up with a lie bizarre enough, he told the truth and was hired.
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Still, Gardner said his ex would torture him by letting him hear their baby boy sobbing in the background and he had no idea where they were.
After some time, she dropped the boy off at the boarding house where he was then living and left again. Gardner was immediately evicted because the place did not allow for children.
Through perseverance and hard work, he was able to make a living for himself and his son, which inspired the movie Pursuit of Happyness.
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