By Larry Geist

By Chris Gardner How Chris went from being a poor kid

living in Milwaukee to owning his own brokerage company, teaching that you can do anything if you want.

Chris’s mother tells him he can make a million dollars if he wants to.

Later on, Chris meets a man driving a Ferrari and asks him what he does.

Sets him on his goal to become a stockbroker.

“It was biblical. One of the ten commandments handed down from God to Momma: ‘If you want to, one day you could make a million dollars.”

Chris leaves his job as a medical tech to pursue his goal of being a stockbroker.

Chris has to set up meeting with brokerage companies while not having a home and taking care of his son.

After getting accepted into the Dean Witter training program, he has to study to complete the test to become an actual broker.

Quotes: Gardner, Chris, Quincy Troupe, and Mim Eichler. Rivas. The Pursuit of Happyness. New York: Amistad, 2006. Print.