Successful Failures: Chris Gardner

Sometimes failure is good.  Failure often leads to success when the right lessons are learned from the failure.  Many of today’s successful people were considered failures at some point in their lives.  But they learned from their mistakes and continued to strive towards their goals. Where ever you are in your business endevours don’t be afraid to fail because it brings you closer to success…  

  Christopher Gardner Chris Gardner grew up in an environment that has led to failure for many people.  He had an absentee father, an abusive step father, a mother repeatedly incarcerated, and multiple stays in state foster care.  Any one of these factors could have easily caused Mr. Garnder to settle for whatever life he could scrape together. But Chris knew he was destined for greater things and knew he could only depend on himself to make those things a reality. Chris credits his mother with encouraging him to believe in himself and becoming self-reliant, he quotes her as saying, "You can only depend on yourself, the cavalry ain’t coming".  As an adult, Chris struggled to make his success real.  Initially, he trained for a medical career but quickly realized that was not his path.  He switched over to selling medical equipment where he had moderate success. However changes in medical technology and turmoil in personal life left Chris in a dead end career, deep in debt, and eventually homeless with his young son, Chris Jr.  This is where the story would end for a lot of people but Chris continued to seek opportunities to obtain his goals.  When he had the chance to apply for a internship at Dean Witter he jumped at it.  The internship was unpaid and highly competitive.  Chris had to work faster and harder than the other candidates while being homeless and caring for a young child. His drive paid off when he was awarded a full time stock broker position at the end of his internship.  Chris moved up ranks in Dean Witter and eventually left to start his own brokerage firm.  Today he is a multi millionaire businessman and philanthropist. His personal struggle of establishing himself as a stockbroker while managing fatherhood and homelessness is portrayed in the 2006 motion picture The Pursuit of Happyness.

The Cavalry Ain’t Coming

Chris personifies that can do attitude that is vital to making your business successful.  Running a home business requires a level of self reliance that isn’t found in most other types a of businesses. You have to stay focused on your goals and disciplined in your activities to achieve your goals.  All of the successful home businesses around the world have one common denominator- an owner that stays motivated towards success.   Other factors help to determine the degree of success but nothing is more essential to the achievement of success than the owner’s ability to stay motivated despite failures. It boils down to you and don’t look for the cavalry because they ain’t coming!

Protect Your Dream  

  Hope it helps, leave a comment and let me know if it does.

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