Jesus loves me. He only likes you

'Jesus loves me. He only likes you'


December 15, 2006

BY MARK J. KONKOL Staff Reporter

The movie about his life -- Will Smith's "Pursuit of Happyness" that opens today -- is set in San Francisco, where Chris Gardner went from a homeless single father to a Wall Street prince.

But it was in Chicago where Gardner really struck it rich, starting his multimillion-dollar brokerage, Gardner Rich & Co., in a tiny Presidential Towers apartment 20 years ago.

He did it with $10,000 start-up cash and one piece of furniture, a wooden desk that doubled as the family dinner table.

"I didn't know that you couldn't do it, so I did it," Gardner says, sitting behind his new desk, the tail wing of a DC-10 jet.

Gardner, 52, insists the film -- which is based on one tumultuous year in the '80s that he and his 2-year-old son spent sleeping in parks, train stations and a public bathroom -- isn't just a tale of one guy's great success.

"It's the story of my life, but it's not about me. It's about every father who had to be both the father and the mother. It's about every mother who had to be the mother and father," he said. "It's about anybody who ever dreamed big and had someone tell them, 'No, you can't do it.' You can."

And it's in Chicago -- his town -- where Gardner says he captured the happiness he so desperately pursued.

At his street-level office in the shadow of the Chicago Stock Exchange, Gardner waxed about living the good life, about being a good man, and most of all, about being a good father.

On Chicago
"Man I love Chicago. If you got a dream and you're willing to work your ass off, Chicago is where you're supposed to be. And for African Americans in this country who have created tremendous wealth, a disproportionate number of them did it in Chicago. Oprah. Michael Jordan. John Johnson. Ed Gardner. Think about it.

"Chicago is a city of possibilities. A great place to raise my children. A city of folk that care."
On being a homeless father

"The hardest part was going to work and leaving your child with someone you don't know, hoping that everything is OK, and keeping in mind there's only so much a 2-year-old can tell you."
Testing Mr. Smith

"I went to his house with the script, my notes and a picture of me and my son in front of our first house after getting off the street. It was a test. I told him to pick between the script and the guys in the picture. He said, 'Tell me what's not on paper.' He passed."

A walk with Will

"One night I took this cat on a walk through San Francisco. Biggest movie star in the world with no security, nothing. It's midnight. We go to some of the places my son and I had to sleep. The park. Subway stations. We get to the public bathroom. It's a place I don't need to be. So I walked out. Will stayed inside. Seven minutes. I timed it. When he came out, he wasn't Will Smith anymore. He was Chris Gardner. A transformation took place. That's what you see on the screen."

On finding himself

"My first ambition in life was to be Miles Davis. I studied trumpet for 10 years. I didn't want to be a jazz artist. I wanted to be Miles Davis. My Mom sat me down and said, you can't be Miles Davis. He already has that job. You have to be Chris. That freaked me out. I mean, who is Chris? All I knew is I wanted to be world-class at something."

On fatherhood

"My stepfather always said, 'I ain't your daddy. You ain't got no daddy.' Too many men are in so much pain. So many have a hole in their soul in the shape of the father who wasn't there. Way back then I promised myself that when I had kids, I would be there."

On business success

"Don't be afraid to hire someone who is smarter than you. Just because they're smarter doesn't mean they get to make more money."

On hanging with Oprah

"She's like, wow. I mean, wow. Really, wow. That's all I can say."

On the secret of success

"People ask me what's my secret. I tell them, 'Jesus loves me. He only likes you.' I am his boy. I pray everyday, all day. So much I can't get my work done. Now I realize I am working, just with Jesus on speed dial."
On dating in San Francisco
"Unemployment will not help your relationship."

On Mayor Daley

"The day Richie is no longer mayor is the day I move out of here."

On raising rich kids

Like a lot of parents, we try to give our kids the things we did not have. Sometimes, we give too much. My kids have a highly evolved sense of entitlement. I created the Kennedys in chocolate. I came home one day, and they were arguing. My daughter says to me, “Tell Chris I get your Ferrari when you die.” She was 8.

On happiness

Money is the least-significant aspect of life. I know a whole lot of people who have a whole lot of money who are not happy.”

On having vision

There’s two kinds of people in the world. There’s the guy who looks at a steaming pile of manure and says, “Oh, poop.” And another who immediately says, “Ah, fertilizer.” I’m the fertilizer guy.

On canceling Christmas

I had the tree up and presents underneath. The kids decided to bring home report cards that started with the back end of the alphabet. I said, “Christmas, don’t touch it.” We left everything the way it was until the next report card came out. People were asking why the tree was still up in February. That started a new family policy: “No grades. No goodies.”

On losing 54 lbs.

I eat oatmeal. No sugar. No butter. No nothing. Just oats and hot water. Lunch is a protein shake with some egg whites mixed in. Dinner is broiled chicken and some vegetables. I try to get on the treadmill and do crunches. It’s nothing magic.
On meeting Nelson Mandela
I had the guys who make his silk shirts make one for me. I waited 27 days to spend time with him. When I first walked in, he said, “Chris, why are you wearing my shirt?”

On alcohol

Drinking was a problem in my house. I don’t want that, so I don’t drink. Scratch that: I don’t drink in this country. In the Caribbean, they put rum in everything.

On his next book

It’s a concept I call spiritual genetics. We understand that you might get your mom’s eyes and your dad’s nose, but you can make a conscious choice to embrace the spirit of the person you want to be. I could have been another alcoholic, wife-beating, child-abusing illiterate loser like my stepfather, and people would have said, ‘Look where he’s from. He didn’t have a choice.’ And I say that’s bull----.

On Maya Angelou’s perspective

I was frustrated my book only reached No. 22 on the New York Times bestseller list. She said, “Son, you’re looking at it the wrong way. When you touch people’s lives in a positive way, that matters most.”

Chris Gardner

Chris Gardner | Survival Guide: extended interview

By William Welsh
Staff Writer

Chris Gardner, CEO, Gardner Rich LLC
“A long walk to Wall Street is how others describe my life.” That sentence is emblazoned on the cover of Chris Gardner’s best seller “Pursuit of Happyness,” which chronicles Gardner’s climb to the top of the financial world following a bleak spell of homelessness in San Francisco during the 1980s.

Gardner grew up in Milwaukee, served in the Navy, then traveled to Golden Gate City in search of his dreams. An estranged wife, a toddler son and a housing situation that didn’t allow for children made him one of the city’s working homeless: those who have a job but no roof over their heads. Despite the odds against him, Gardner vowed not to abandon his son.

His rise from a trainee at Dean Witter to owner of his own stock brokerage firm is the stuff from which legends — and movies — are made. A Sony Pictures film based on his story and starring actor Will Smith opens in December in theaters nationwide.

Gardner spoke recently with Deputy Editor William Welsh about making it through hard times, owning one’s responsibilities and what it’s like to have a movie made about your life.


WT: When you were one of the working homeless in San Francisco, did you have hope that you would get out of the situation?
Gardner: We were homeless, we were not hopeless. There’s a world of difference. A lot of folks don’t realize it, but it’s estimated that 12 percent of all of the homeless people in this country have jobs and go to work every day.

One of the very memorable parts of getting ready to shoot the film “The Pursuit of Happyness” was Will Smith and I went for a number of walks. As opposed to sitting and talking, I said to him, ‘Let me take you and show you places where my son and I had to sleep.’ We went down into the subway stations, train stations, hotel lobbies, restrooms of subway stations, and Will is such a sharp guy, he turns to me and says, ‘A lot of these people look like they are dressed to go someplace.’ Some of them were — dressed to go to work in the morning.

In some communities, I’m told by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homeless, the number of working homeless is a lot higher. It’s up to 30 percent in some places.


WT: To what do you attribute your rise to the top?
Gardner: My mother. You don’t have enough tapes for me to go into it. I chose to embrace the “spiritual genetics” of my mom. We all understand genetics. You get your eyes from your dad, your mom’s nose, there’s nothing you can do about that. But your spiritual genetics you can choose, pick, embrace and commit to. That’s what I did.

Though my mom had too many of her own dreams denied, deferred and destroyed, she instilled in me that I could have dreams. And not just have dreams but had a responsibility to make them reality. My mom taught me from a very early age that I could do anything I wanted to do.

My first ambition in life was to be Miles Davis. I didn’t want to be a trumpet player, an artist or a jazz musician — I literally wanted to be Miles. My mom said to me, ’Baby, you can’t be Miles. There ain’t but one, and he got that job.’ But I made a commitment at an early age that I wanted to be world class at something. I studied trumpet for nine years. I wanted to be world class at it or world class at something. After I realized and accepted the facts [I redirected my efforts]. At 18, Miles Davis was in New York playing with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. At the same age I was playing with some cats named Pookie and Ray Ray. It wasn’t going to happen. But I made a commitment to be world class at something.


WT: What important lessons have you’ve learned from your life experience?
Gardner: Man, I’m still learning. One is: The cavalry ain’t coming. You’ve got to do this yourself. How would you like to be one of them folks down in Louisiana or Mississippi waiting for that cavalry to come save you? Another very important lesson is that baby steps count, too. As long as you are going forward. You add them all up, and one day you look back and you’ll be surprised at where you might get to.


WT: What advice would you give people who are just starting out or who are trying to get ahead under difficult circumstances like those you experienced?
Gardner: Do something that you love. Whatever you’re going to do is going to be tough enough. Find something that gets you so excited that the sun can’t come up early enough in the morning because you want to go do your thing.
And you have to be bold because there will be folks who will say ‘you can’t’ or ‘you shouldn’t’ or ‘why’? There is a certain boldness to saying ‘Well, I really don’t want to be a high-powered corporate lawyer. I’m really passionate about painting.’

One thing I do say to folks — and I don’t put myself out here as somebody who has all the answers — but I do state the obvious when I say that no matter how much money is involved or no matter how easy it is for you to do, if you’re not happy, you are nothing more than a slave to your talent and money. So be happy.

WT: You own your own stock brokerage firm? What advice would you give anyone thinking about starting his or her own business?
Gardner: Hunker down, strap in and hold on. Hold on, baby! It goes back to the last answer about being happy. Hey, man, it’s hard out here. In my business, the brokerage business, you can walk on water in this business. You get to the other side, then the boys from Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns are waiting for you. You have to be committed, and you have to find something that you are passionate about.

And forget about money. I’ve learned that money is the least significant aspect of wealth. Do something that makes you happy and makes you feel good about yourself. Do something that makes you feel your work is significant and meaningful. If you just want to make money, that’s a whole different trip. I can’t help you with that.

WT: How does it feel having a film being made about your life experience?
Gardner: I’ll tell you when I wake up. I now know the definition of surreal. On the first day of filming, I didn’t know where they were filming. They took me to 555 California St., the Bank of America world headquarters building. At times when I was homeless, I used to sleep in that building. Nobody knew. I never told that to the writers and never discussed it with the producers.
Another day filming. We’re going to film in Golden Gate Park. We’re filming in a place where I used to take my son to teach him how to fly a kite. We had nothing else to do, no other form of entertainment, no money. I told no one that.

[And] there’s a children’s park in San Francisco. They have a little concession stand. I talked about it in the book. I remember it well. I couldn’t buy my son a pop, it was 25 cents. If I bought the pop, we had to walk home.

WT: What do you hope that people take away from your book and the film?
Gardner: The film is going to focus on one year of my life. That year being the toughest, darkest, scariest year of my life. Living with a baby tied on my back, trying to work. It can be done. But you have to make it happen. And no matter what, you have to cling to it like it’s life itself, if that’s what you really want to do.

WT: Do you think that people who make it to the top have an obligation to mentor others?
Gardner: I do it [but], not out of a sense of obligation. I went to some very successful business people when I was trying to open the doors of my company, and none of them would give me the time of day. I made a promise to myself and to God. I said, ‘God, if you ever let me get to a certain level, I am not going to be like that.’

Just like anybody else, you’ve only got so many hours in a day, but as far as being available and accessible and have these relationships developing, I did something a number of years ago. I got involved with a program in Chicago that was designed to help young people get internships in the financial services business and learn the business at the exchanges, insurance companies, banks, money management firms, brokers.

The coolest thing in the world is walking up the street in Chicago, New York or San Francisco and having someone say ‘Hey, you might not remember me, but thank you for helping me get in the business.’ That was 12 or 14 years ago. These kids have graduated from college and gone to law school or gotten their MBAs and are running departments in some of the biggest financial institutions on Wall Street.

WT: So that was a way for you to give back something?
Gardner: You know how mountains get moved? Everyone who can move a couple [of mountains], move a couple. Those who can move rocks, move rocks. Those who can move boulders, move boulders. That’s how mountains get moved. If every one of us did everything we could, I believe we would be in a different world.