Chris Gardner

This morning, I had to opportunity to see Chris Gardner, the inspiration for the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. He was a guest speaker at ExactTarget's Connections Conference. Mr. Gardner gave a very inspirational talk and really demonstrated the power of never giving up. For those of you who have seen the movie, I'm sure you will agree that it is an awesome story. It really doesn't do Mr. Gardner justice, though. I was expecting him to talk to the audience about how he went from being homeless to a multi-millionaire. However, he spent the majority of his time talking about his love for his son and the challenges of being a single parent. Mr. Gardner was determined to break the chain of missing fathers in his family. He also gave the audience a glimpse into the real lives of homeless people. I had no idea that over 12% of people that live on the streets have full-time jobs. They go to work every day but still cannot afford a place to live. Stereotypically, these people are judged as lazy or down on their luck. Many of these people are not lazy at all! Life has thrown them a few curve balls, and they have simply ended up in an unfortunate circumstance. Mr. Gardner really made me think about how quickly anyone's life could change. This time next year, I could be homeless. Or the homeless man that lives under the bridge next to my apartment could find an amazing job and be making millions next year. We have no idea the way our lives will go. I can't honestly say that I envy our homeless community, but I often think that I could better serve God if I didn't have all this "stuff" in my apartment to distract. I admire Mr. Gardner for putting more emphasis on his son than his "stuff." I don't think all of our stuff will matter much or be remembered after our lives on earth are over. God could care less about our tangible items, but He cares a lot about our hearts.