Broker chris gardner stock
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Chris Gardner: The homeless man who became a multi-millionaire investor - BBC News
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Chris Gardner Stock Broker by Chris Gardner
When Chris Gardner and his young son were sleeping rough on the floor of a public toilet, he could never have dreamt that his life story would be turned into a hit Hollywood movie. It was back in the early s that Mr Gardner, then aged 27, and his toddler son were homeless for a year in San Francisco. Enrolled on a low-paid trainee scheme at a stock brokerage, he didn't have enough money to raise the deposit to rent an apartment.
So Mr Gardner, who was estranged from his partner, and Chris Jr would instead sleep wherever they could. In addition to the toilet at a railway station, they'd bed down in parks, at a church shelter, or under his desk at work after everyone else had gone home.
They ate in soup kitchens, and what little money he had was spent on putting his son in day nursery so he could go to work. Despite this adversity, Mr Gardner thrived in his job. A natural at selling stocks and shares, at the end of his training period his firm, Dean Witter Reynolds DWR , made him a full employee. Finally able to rent a home for himself and his son, his career then rapidly ascended into the stratosphere, and in he opened his own investment firm, Gardner Rich. Add the fact that Mr Gardner had a very troubled childhood, and served time in prison immediately before the internship at DWR, and you can understand why Hollywood came calling when he was writing his best-selling autobiography The Pursuit of Happyness the misspelling is deliberate.
The movie of the same name was released in , and Will Smith was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Mr Gardner. Instead he was brought up in poverty by his mother Bettye Jean and a physically abusive, alcoholic stepfather.
There was also a period spent in a foster home after his mother, in a fit of despair, tried to kill her partner. He adds that one day as a child he was watching a college basketball game on TV when he commented that one of the players would make a million dollars. The million dollars didn't arrive immediately however, and after graduating from high school he spent four years in the US Navy.
After an honourable discharge in Mr Gardner moved to San Francisco where he started selling medical equipment. His life then changed completely when he saw a man parking his red Ferrari one day, and Mr Gardner asked him what he did for a living. The man was a stockbroker called Bob Bridges, and after the two got talking, Mr Gardner expressed an interest in joining the industry.
Christopher Gardner Biography
However, in the days before the interview at DWR Mr Gardner was arrested and jailed for non-payment of parking tickets. He was ultimately able to make the interview, but only in the clothes he was wearing when he was arrested, which included trainers and a vest.
Six years after the release of the movie, Mr Gardner's life changed again in when his wife died from cancer aged just It made him re-evaluate what he wanted to do for a living, and after three highly successful decades in finance he decided on a complete career change.
I've said that if you're not doing something that you're passionate about, you're compromising yourself every single day. So realising that he didn't want to work in investment banking any longer, he reinvented himself as a motivational speaker and author.
He now spends days a year travelling the world speaking to packed audiences in more than 50 countries. Scott Burns, a director at US investment firm Morningstar, says that Mr Gardner "is just an amazing testament of fortitude".
Mr Gardner believes he disproves the theory that we are all products of our childhood environment. Instead he says he made his own positive choices thanks to the love of his mother and support from other people. Follow The Boss series editor Will Smale on Twitter WillSmale1. The al-Nuri Mosque was where the leader of IS proclaimed its so-called "caliphate" in Cookies on the BBC website The BBC has updated its cookie policy.
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The homeless man who became a multi-millionaire investor By Dave Gordon Business reporter. These are external links and will open in a new window Share this with Facebook Share this with Twitter Share this with Messenger Share this with Messenger Share this with Email Share Share this with These are external links and will open in a new window Email Share this with Email Facebook Share this with Facebook Messenger Share this with Messenger Messenger Share this with Messenger Twitter Share this with Twitter Pinterest Share this with Pinterest WhatsApp Share this with WhatsApp LinkedIn Share this with LinkedIn Copy this link http: Image copyright Chris Gardner When Chris Gardner and his young son were sleeping rough on the floor of a public toilet, he could never have dreamt that his life story would be turned into a hit Hollywood movie.
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