The Pursuit of Happyness

The Pursuit of Happyness is an American biographical film directed by Gabriele Muccino about the on and off-homeless salesman-turned-stockbroker Chris Gardner. It is plain truth that it was based on a true life story, and depicts how Chris fought his way through his financial struggle, his struggles with his family, homelessness, and ended up setting-up his own brokerage firm.

Without money and wife, Chris is totally committed to his son Christopher. Will Smith portrays Chris Gardner, a character who has strong wisdom as a single father and desperately wants to do right without complaints and his only hope is drifting away when everything meaningful falls apart at the same time leaving Chris bruised and battered.

Let’s see how many obstacles he went through:(1) First, his wife left him.

(2) He failed miserably at selling those medical machines.

(3) He was kicked out of his apartment.

(4) He was thrown in jail.

(5) He lived in shelters and on the streets.

(6) He had little or no money at time.

(7) He slept in bathrooms, on the street and endured.

But, he never quit not matter what, was not distracted, and faced all situations and circumstances with the only aim of succeeding.

I thought of sharing what I learnt from the story of Chris Gardener played by Will Smith.

1. Protect your dream

One of the highlight of the films is the scene at the basketball court where Will Smith would be seen discouraging his son, to make him spend less time on basketball, as he felt that he would not excel in sports. But, you will be able to relate to the scene, whereby you can clearly identify that his perspective comes from the many failures he had experienced, not just from his failures at the sport but from his failures in life in general. Watch clip

Will smith quickly redeemed himself in the scene, by apologising to his son and telling him, “Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period.”

During the hard-times, Chris could have quit and blamed it on circumstance, situation, other people, his wife, the colour of his skin. What matters is that he DIDN’T. If you want something it comes to doing what it takes to get it.

2. Don’t apologize for not trying

There is another scene where Will Smith would be painting his apartment, and unfortunately gets arrested and has to spend the night in jail for unpaid parking tickets. He has an interview the next morning with the brokerage firm he had been trying to get into. He could have made an excuse and not turned up for the interview.

He had very valid excuses, he was in jail, he wasn’t dressed up, his clothes had paint stains all over, he hadn't had a bath but, he put all his excuses aside and went for the interview anyway, despite all the odds that were stacked against him and was rewarded with a position. We are guilty of these things, and if we never try we’ll never succeed. Watch clip here.

Really loves these line .... I found my self in them...!

"Can I say something? Um, I'm the type of person that if you ask me a question and I don't know the answer, I'm gonna tell you that I don't know. But I bet you what, I know how to find the answer and I will find the answer."

3. Taking a step back is not bad

Will Smith in one of the scenes mentions to his wife that he will be going for an intern position at the stock brokerage firm. And the response he gets is, “sales man to intern is a step backward”.

If what you are presently doing isn't yielding the results you want then you might have to take a step back. Changing careers, changing your subjects, starting as a trainee, everything makes sense as far as you are passionate about it. Pride and opinions of people should not stop you because, they don’t even matter for a better future.

4. It is never late to try out something new.

In the movie the character of Will Smith was in his 40’s when he starts as an intern at the stock brokerage firm. KFC was the work of a retired colonel. Chris would have been conscious that other people working as an intern at the brokerage firm were half his age, but he didn't let that stop him, he didn't allow his age to be a barrier to his goals.

He believed in himself and won the internship position and went on to become a successful stock broker even starting his own brokerage company latter. Believe in yourself even when others don't believe in you.

This is a necessary movie for people to see and reflect on their own experiences. Realizing life can be changed in a blink of an eye, losing everything you have, that not everyone encounters in a lifetime. I would recommend everyone to see this film, take into consideration poverty and homelessness, and realize it is not a choice and that everyone has a story but no one will listen.

I’m pretty sure everyone will have a favorite life lesson from this phenomenal movie. Please share it here in comment section below. mean while follow me on twitter : mehak_alamgir

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