Professor Stewart
November 25, 2015
“ Pursuit of Happiness”
Thomas Jefferson stated on the Declaration of Independence about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. How did he know that? Christopher Gardner met his father for the first time when he was 28 years old. He made up his mind that when he had children, his children were going to know who their father was. Chris spent his entire life savings on Bone Density Scanners which at the time they came out were considered a revolutionary machine. What Chris did not know was that doctors and hospitals would consider them unnecessary luxuries. If he lost one it was like losing a month’s groceries. He then landed a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds unpaid training program. He was starting from scratch to build his client base. He had to make hundreds of cold calls to drum up clients. He had to take a lot of rejection. But in doing so he found clients who later brought him huge commissions, clients for whom the commissions ran over $250,00 per year. He never let himself leave the office until he had made his 200 calls that day. His girlfriend left him and their toddler, Chris Jr. With determination, Chris clung to his goal of financial independence, working hard during the day while spending his nights trying to arrange for child care, food and shelter. When they were lucky enough to find space, they slept at the Glide Memorial Church shelter. On less fortunate days Chris found himself huddled in a locked bathroom at a subway station. While running around trying to hide his state of living from his coworkers at Dean Witter two of his Bone Density Scanners were stolen. Chris pulled through and always came up with a solution when things did not go according to plan which happened a lot. His fear of repeating the way his father treated him as a child with his own son kept him from giving up on everything and everyone. Chris had great values, he was well mannered, and had a good sense of humor. The Dean Witter trainees had a system to follow; The person that brought the most money in after six months were usually hired. They were all given call sheets to sign clients from the bottom to the top. The other trainees stayed till 7:00 p.m., but Chris had his son that he needed to pick up from daycare everyday, he had to do in 6 hours what they do in 9. In order not to waste he wasn't hanging up the phone in between calls. He realized that if he did not hang up the phone he gained another 8 minuets a day. He also did not drink water so that he would not waste any time in the bathroom. But even with all that effort after 2 months he still was not going to have time to work his way up a sheet. So he decided to start from the top with the head honchos and work his way down. Chris did his best to take care of his son; he made sure they had a place to sleep every night, He taught him great values and morals to live by, and he never give up. Chris told his son to never let anyone tell him that he could not do something not even himself. Chris
