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Pursuit of Happyness, an inspiration ~

Chris Gardner is a bright and talented, but marginally employed salesman. Struggling to make ends meet, Gardner finds himself and his five-year-old son evicted from their San Francisco apartment with nowhere to go. When Gardner lands an internship at a prestigious stock brokerage firm, he and his son endure many hardships, including living in shelters, in pursuit of his dream of a better life for the two of them.

It is a pretty old show for most of us, but I finally got to see it today. Although the reviews were not to favourable, personally I felt it was a really good show.

All of us, day in day out complain about not having enough dough to survive the ever increasing cost of living. This story however, showed how a single parent brought up his child from sleeping in public places to sleeping in shelters rushing from the non-salary paying intern program daily just to make sure they both were ahead of the queue at a charity home to ensure a roof above their heads for the night.

For those who do not know, Chris Gardner in this story is the same Chris Gardner who founded Gardner Rich - one of the biggest brokerage firm in the United States.

Fighting all odds, from his wife leaving him, getting evicted from his home, having to care for his boy - he found success! One thing so prevalent was his determination. I quote from the show, "Chris, if you have a dream, you gotta go get it. Don't let no body stop you from getting it!" - those were the words he told his boy.

It really does give me some inspiration - while his kid was sleeping at night, he did his homework to make sure he was informed for work. While others thought they were smarter and more qualified than him, he kept pushing on. It was somewhat disgusting to see the darker side of humans. In parts of the show, there were many scenes of how many of his peers in the intern program looked down on him and showed utter disrespect for him. However, out of the twenty interns only one will be allowed a job at the end of the six month internship - that one person, was him.

Success, clearly did not fall from the sky nor was it handed to him on a beautiful silver platter like many we know. For me, this was an eye opener! Many think they have been through hell and back - but seeing how a father and his son endured homelessness, being broke and desperate make it big; that's what I call being through hell and back.

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