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.”