Leadership lessons from 'Pursuit of Happyness'

'Pursuit of Happyness' is one of the excellent movies I have ever watched. The film has lot of leadership and life lessons that once can take. If you have not watched the movie yet, I would recommend you to watch first then read this article, so that reading can be fruitful. Still, I will summarize its essence so that anyone can understand without having watched the movie.

The 'Pursuit of Happyness' is an autobiographical drama film based on entrepreneur and millionaire Chris Gardner. The film shows the struggles he has gone through all his life, his thought process all his time testing his endurance and how he attained "Happiness".

Part I- Riding the bus

The part 'Riding the bus' beautifully describes life is a journey that might be smooth now, but highly unpredictable and may turn you upside down anytime.

Conversational skills

In the first 10 minutes of the movie, the protagonist, Mr. Gardner realizes how happy everyone is and wishes he could be also the same. And, he strikes a conversation with a stranger. He asks a guy who parks his porch car- I want to ask you two questions; one what you do and second how do you it? He nods, smiling and says that he's a stockbroker. This teaches the important lesson of striking conversation, which is an art and an important skill. This small conversation has also incepted an inspiration in his mind- to become a stock broker. Some conversations are done in the right way, however short it is, can lead to inspiration and friendship.

Part II : Being Stupid

In the movie, he's a sales guy who sells a bone density scanner machine. Suddenly, he comes across an Advertisement of a stockbroking firm that says 'Hiring interns'. In order to apply for an internship in a company, he rushes inside and decides to give the machine he's carrying to a woman who's singing to collect money so that he doesn't look awkward. He trusted somebody, but it fails as she elopes with the machine. Yes, indeed a very important lesson- Trust but verify.

Part III- Running

You run for your life. You run for the mistakes you made. You get badly bruised, but in order to get what you wanted and what you lost, you run. This is beautifully picturized, when the protagonist sees the woman who stole his machine and chases her.

Interestingly, Mr. Garnder is very skilled in sales. Also, he updates the skills which is trending. In the movie, the hot topic of the month is- Rubix cube, which is introduced in the market; news talking about solving it. His son also gets a Rubix cube as a gift, and he learns how to solve it. The same skill helps him to impress a man (Mr. Jay Twistle) who can help him to get an internship offer. He again strikes a conversation, understanding that the person is busy leaving to someplace, he says that even he is going to same places and asks if the taxi can be shared. Another example of a winning conversation. During his taxi drive, driver and Jay, being busy on solving the Rubix cube. Within the journey ends, he impresses Jay by solving it. After the trip is over, he realizes that he doesn't have any money to pay the taxi driver and escapes running. This teaches that sometimes we have to run away and take risks!

Soon, he thinks of Thomas Jefferson's statement during the Declaration of Independence- "Our rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" and wonders why the word pursuit is used and realizes, happiness can only be pursued and none can have it.

This essential part of life teaches us to embrace risks, learn the right skills, run away from problems, and tells us that happiness is something that can be pursued.

Mr. Gardner fails in sales. He fails in his life. His wife breaks up with him and leaves. Still, he says strong and confident. His landlord, asks to vacate as he doesn't pay the rent. In turn, he offers painting and requests one more week of time. The landlord agrees.

This happens Just before the day of his interview for his internship and unfortunately, he gets arrested for not paying his parking fines. He is allowed to go by 9:30 after verification in the next day morning but has his interview at 10:15. He literally runs directly to the office, without bothering much about his attire with paints and stains. Still, he performs very well in the interview and manages to impress the interviewers. One of Panelist Mr. Frohem asks, "What would you say a person who comes wearing such a shirt for interview and gets selected?" and He replies, "He must have been wearing really good pants". Everyone starts laughing and yes, he gets selected.

The attire doesn't matter when your attitude & skills right! The stuff you have matters. Same time, he is a good father too. He teaches his son- " Don't let someone say you can't do. You got a dream and you gotta protect it. People can't do something for themselves, they will tell you can't do it. If you want, go get it. Period." This is indeed very essential leadership to demonstrate perseverance, determination and his ability to balance his personal life, relationships and problems very well!

Part IV - Internship

Mr. Gardner starts his internship. He goes for a break and gets distracted by the woman who stole his machine and starts chasing her. He meets with an accident and loses his shoe and returns to the office without a shoe. Yes, distractions from our goals, are going to cost you seriously high. He also constantly feels underrated and unappreciated because of the actions of his trainer and yet, never bothers and works for his passion and goals, for his best.

He realizes that he needs to be efficient as he needs to leave the office soon to pick up his son. He realizes he has less time than others and he needs to be efficient. So is everyone, we need to be efficient and smarter. He tries to strike a deal with the CEO of a company- Walt Ribbon which eventually fails. This teaches us, we may invest all our time on something, which could fail. But, we should never fail, we should keep moving forward and keep trying. The more we fail, the smarter we become. Life's all about ups and downs. He loses his friends and his wife and has just one motivation- his son.

Being restless, Jobless & homeless, and managing one's family is really difficult. There's a scene in which his son is reluctant and tired because of his circumstances. His son reminds of an incident, where a mentally retarded man, sees his machine and calls it a time machine and asks if it were a time machine to his father, Mr. Garnder. He acknowledges and says yes it is. He also insists his son press a button to go to the past. Then, Mr. Gardner pretends as if he went to the past, and asks his son if he can see the dinosaurs. The son also becomes more active and reacts to the situation. Then, he takes him to the bathroom, to have a good sleep. This small part teaches us the essential art of "Influencing people"- The decisions we make should be influenced in such a way that, the others own that decision.

In order to get the work done, we should motivate the right way and influence others the right way such that they own the work.

Finally, he impresses the panelists during his last day of internship and gets a job as a stockbroker. He's happy as same as how others were when he saw few months before. His dreams have come true to lead a very happy life.

Bringing it all together:

Life is not easy. We shouldn't pray god to remove the barriers, instead, we should give us the strength to endure it. And that's how life works. We shouldn't take blames other people's actions. Mr. Gardner asks his son not to take the blame on him for his leaving mother and says "Mom left because of mom". And yes, that's true. People are responsible for their actions and not you nor anyone else. We should always try different things and embrace those.

Life's a trip. It's not easy. We should keep moving and keep trying. It takes good attitude, determination, and passion to do that. And attaining a success, at last, is called "Happiness". That little part is called Happiness.

Sairam S.