Christopher Paul Gardner (born February 9, 1954) is an American businessman and motivational speaker. During the early 1980s, Gardner struggled with homelessness while raising a toddler son. He became a stockbroker and eventually founded his own brokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co in 1987. In 2006, Gardner sold his minority stake in the firm and published a memoir. That book was made into the motion picture The Pursuit of Happyness.

Some Information about the book 

•Nr. of pages: 320 pages

•Publication date: October 24, 2006

•Genre: Drama

Reasons why I chose this book

First of all, this book presents all the difficulties a poor person needs to handle, and as a short conclusion: "To be poor is hard and to get rich is also hard" - choose your hard.

•stockbroker- a broker who buys and sells securities on a stock exchange on behalf of clients

•shabby - in poor condition through long use or lack of care

"I was dressed shabbily when he arrived at the

meeting"

•gizmo - a device used for a particular job

gizmo=bone density scanner (context)

•thickheadedness - (of a person) dull-witted; stupid.

•umpteenth - of an indefinitely large number in succession: (umpteenth time)

Short summary

In the early 1980's, a man named Chris Gardner had a boy named Christopher and was married to Linda, a woman he describes as the woman of his life. The financial situation of the Gardner’s family was deplorable, one of their sources of income being Linda's salary who worked 2 shifts and the money Chris earned after selling a device he had created called a bone density scanner. Sales of this product went well at first, but after a while, no one wanted to buy it anymore because of  its technical problems. 

Due to the financial situation, Linda moved to New York, and Chris and Christofer had to find ways to support themselves. When Chris found no purpose in life, he passed by a building that looked very opulent, that building being an office for stockbrokers. Chris was very impressed and did his best to get to work as a stock broker.

Characters

Main: Chris Gardner

Secondary: Linda, Christopher, Jay Twistle

My favorite character is Chris Gardner. He is presented as a hardworking man that didn't have much luck in life. He was more worried about his son than he was of himself, as he didn't have money to offer him food and a decent living. In the end, all the hard work combined with a bit of luck, as being the right person at the right place and time, paid off and he became a stockbroker.

The moment I liked the most was:

The interview between Chris and the director

of the stockbrokerage firm, Martin Frohm

"- M.Frohm: Chris. What would you say if a guy walked in for an interview, without a shirt on, and I hired him? What would you say?

- Chris Gardner: He must have had on some really nice pants."

After that 'joke" Chris got promoted as a paid stockbroker

The lessons I learned from this book are:

•Money can "buy" happiness, or at least money can guarantee you a life without difficulties

•Parents are always doing their best to offer their children a life full of happiness

I recommend the book to everyone who is interested into reading someones memoirs, about financial education and how money build your future.

The book isn't very hard to read, nevertheless I had to look some words in the dictionary.