Chris Gardner

Chris Gardner is an American businessman, author, and motivational speaker whose path into finance drew national attention after the publication of his 2006 memoir, The Pursuit of Happyness. Trained as a Navy medic, Gardner worked in medical equipment sales before pursuing a career as a stockbroker. During his training period at Dean Witter in the early 1980s, he was homeless for a year while caring for his young son. He went on to work at Bear Stearns and later founded the brokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co. His memoir, which recounts his early life and entry into finance, was adapted into a 2006 film starring Will Smith.

Early life and education

Gardner was born in 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and raised by his mother, Bettye Jean Gardner, along with his three sisters. His biological father, Thomas Turner, was absent from his childhood; they didn’t meet until Gardner was 30 years old. The man who filled the role of a father figure in the household—his stepfather—was a “menacing presence” who abused Bettye Jean and her children. When Gardner was 8, his mother abruptly disappeared from his life. He learned a year later that she had been convicted of attempting to murder her abusive husband by setting fire to their home while he was in it. Gardner and his siblings spent that period living with relatives or in foster care.

As a teenager, Gardner met Sherry Dyson, a college student from Virginia, while she was visiting relatives in Milwaukee, and the two kept in touch. After graduating high school in 1972, Gardner enlisted in the U.S. Navy and worked as a medic in North Carolina. Following his service he moved to San Francisco to work for Robert Ellis, a physician who became an early mentor.

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Path to a career in finance

Gardner married Dyson in 1977, and she joined him in San Francisco, where they lived until their separation in 1980 after Gardner began a relationship with Jackie Medina. Their divorce was finalized about nine years later. By 1981 Gardner and Medina were living together and soon welcomed a son, Christopher.

During this time Gardner considered pursuing a medical career but instead took a job in medical equipment sales. While on a sales call to a hospital, Gardner noticed a bright red Ferrari circling the parking lot. He offered the driver his parking space in exchange for answers to two questions: “What do you do?” and “How do you do it?” The man replied that he was a stockbroker, which turned out to be “a life-changing conversation,” Gardner later wrote in his memoir. The experience prompted him to follow in the man’s footsteps and pursue a career in finance.

Entry into finance and homelessness

After the encounter Gardner began pursuing a trainee role at a brokerage firm. As he was making this transition, a series of events upended his personal life. An argument with Medina led to his arrest after she accused him of assault; while the charge wasn’t pursued, Gardner was jailed over unpaid parking tickets. During his 10 days in custody, their home was emptied of its belongings and the locks were changed; Medina left, taking Christopher with her.

Still, Gardner continued interviewing and was soon accepted into the Dean Witter training program. Several months later Medina returned and left 19-month-old Christopher in his care. Gardner, who had no permanent housing, later described this moment as the point at which the two became “instantly…homeless.”

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For roughly a year Gardner balanced the demands of the trainee program with caring for his son while living without stable housing. They slept in shelters, on subway trains, in airport waiting areas, and occasionally in public restrooms or under Gardner’s desk at work after other employees had left.

Finding his footing in finance

In 1982 Gardner completed the training program and was hired full time at Dean Witter. Working in the firm’s San Francisco office, he advanced quickly. “I made a decision to be world class at something,” Gardner told Forbes in 2017. “The very first time I walked into a Wall Street trading room, I knew, this was it.”

Gardner later left Dean Witter for Bear Stearns, eventually relocating to the firm’s New York office. In 1987 he founded Gardner Rich & Co., a small institutional brokerage firm based in Chicago. During this period he and Medina briefly reunited and had a second child, a daughter.

Memoir, film adaptation, and later career

Gardner recounted his early life and path into finance in The Pursuit of Happyness, published in 2006. The memoir became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into a film of the same name released that year, with Will Smith portraying Gardner and Smith’s son, Jaden, playing young Christopher. The next year Smith received an Academy Award nomination for best actor for the role.

Following the success of the book and film, Gardner began speaking publicly about his experiences, becoming a sought-after motivational speaker. His second book, Start Where You Are (with Mim E. Rivas; 2009), offers “life lessons in getting from where you are to where you want to be.”