THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

an autobiography  
By Chris Gardner  
Reviewed by Matthew Ujah-Peter                                                                                 

 This astounding true rags-to-riches story of a man who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crowned prince of Wall Street will surely put electric charge in your nerves. This is the book on which the movie The Pursuit of Happiness - starring Will and Jaden Smith - was based.

Born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Christopher Paul Gardner’s grew up in the midst of poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, sexual abuse and family illiteracy. Gardner lived with his Bettye Jean Triplett but never knew his father as a child. His mother taught him that in spite of where he came from, he could chart a path and attain whatever goals he set for himself.

Gardner joined the Navy out of high school and after discharge moved to San Francisco where he worked as a medical research associate and for a scientific supply distributor. Determined to find a career that would be both lucrative and fulfilling as a new father to son Christopher Gardner Jr., in 1981, Chris Jr.’s mother left and Gardner, despite his circumstances, fought to keep his son because, as he says, “I made up my mind as a young kid that when I had children they were going to know who their father is, and that he isn’t going anywhere.”

Fascinated by finance, but without connections, an MBA or even a college degree, Gardner applied for training programs at brokerages, willing to live on next to nothing while he learned a new trade. Gardner later earned a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds training program but became homeless when he could not make ends meet on his meager trainee salary.....

START WHERE YOU ARE:
A motivational book by Chris Gardner. Life Lessons In Getting From Where you are to Get to Where You Want To Be. 

Gardner published his autobiography out of a desire to shed light on  the of determination, focus and hard work and to show that the harsh and tough realities of life do not have to define you. 

The movie: Puruit of Happyness, starring Willsmith and Jaden Smith

FINDING FISH

By Antwone Fisher
HARPERTORCH, 
An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
2001
369 pages.
Reviewed by Matthew Ujah-Peter 
This is Antwone Fisher's own memoir. A gripping, inspiring and highly motivational true life story of of a man who was born in a prison by an inmate; grew up in a foster home as a ward of the state with no real love of a family or biological parent, facing all sorts of abuses Antwone went  through all kinds of abuses, endured the ugly realities of street life and the grim truths of the inner city life to carve a niche for himself in life.

This is the book that inspired the movie Finding Fish, starring Denzel Washington. This is what Denzel Washington Said about the book:
''Read a lot like a work of fiction, moving me alternatively to tears and joy, and making me forget at times that the story is , in fact, true".In Antwone's own words: ''The first thing you notice when you're homeless is how long the nights are. It's hard to realize that a night can be so long;... You don't really asleep, especially in the beginning, because you wake up every fifteen minutes worried someone will come upon you. Your imagination runs wild with what terrible things would happen if you fell asleep and let that happen. The world at night. The world at night when you're without shelter feels like the Twilight Zone, another dimension, another planet, where the normal laws of time and space don't apply. When the sun comes up, you're so happy knowing that soon people are going to out and you will be back in the world again, on Terra firm, although you're tired and worried about how fast night comes.

Before you know it, you're seeing shops close down, lights diminishing down the streets, cars becoming fewer and fewer; on residential block  you enviously watch working mothers and fathers pulling into driveways, arriving home to their families; and you stand outside talking in your head, saying, don't go inside yet, stay a little out a little longer!....