March 30, 2009
By Michele Donohue
"I did everything legal I could and still pursue this dream to be on
Wall Street," said Christopher Gardner last night during the opening
plenary session of the Association of Fundraising Professionals
international fundraising conference.
In front of a few thousand fundraising professionals, Gardner told his inspirational story of how he went from living on the streets to climbing the financial sector ladder during the 1980s. With his unwavering perseverance, he pulled himself out of poverty to work for one of the leading financial firms at the time.
Gardner faced poverty while growing up in a single-parent home in Milwaukee and decided to join the Navy after graduating high school. Gardner chose to go into finance after the birth of his son in 1981. Without a degree, Gardner fought to join a finance training program while taking jobs like mowing and painting to pay the bills.
When he finally joined the training program, Gardner struggled to support himself and his son on the paltry $1,000 a month (gross) salary. He soon faced what he called "white-collar homelessness" – employed with no place to call home, a position nearly 12 percent of homeless find themselves in, according to Gardner. Gardner trained for a year while sleeping in train station bathrooms and wearing the same two suits for a year – all while caring for his toddler son.
Gardner said he decided to keep and look after his son no matter the circumstances. It's a promise Gardner said that he made to himself when he was only 5 years-old raised by his mother and an emotionally abusive stepfather.
Gardner encouraged fundraisers to learn from a piece of advice handed down to him – "baby steps count, too."
"We
all take strides when the path is clear and unobstructed," Gardner
said. While his own life changed in leaps since he was homeless, it was
the smaller steps that got him there.
Eventually, Gardner became a
top earner at Bear Stearns and Company and left in 1987 to found his
own brokerage firm, Gardner Rich LLC in Chicago.
His inspiring autobiography, "The Pursuit of Happyness" was published in 2006 and shot to Number 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. He was the inspiration for the 2006 movie of the same name, starring actor Will Smith as Gardner.
He now advocates for causes such as paternal involvement and homelessness. He’s received recognition for his dedication to those causes, including being named 2002 Father of the Year Award by the National Fatherhood Initiative and the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women’s 2006 Humanitarian Award. He is also committed to the Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where he and his son received assistance while homeless.
Gardner's new book, "Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be," will be released May 2009.
Gardner said while his story might be an inspiration – it's,
unfortunately, not unique. He said it's a part of the larger narrative
of generational problems he hoped to help eradicate. "Every father who
needed to be a mother. Every mother who needed to be a father. And
everyone who had a dream that would not quit," said Gardner.