Big Screen, Big Crucibles V: The Pursuit of Happyness

Warwick Fairfax:
So, the words that Chris paints on the wall, “Dear Chris, you suck”, it accurately reflects how down, and low, and badly Chris feels. But as we’ll see, despite that he is at one of several low points in his life, he never stays at this low point. He has remarkable perseverance, and he never gives up.

Gary Schneeberger:
That’s Warwick talking about the central character in the film we discuss this week on episode five of our summer series, Big Screen, Big Crucibles. He’s Chris Gardner, a man who wants to build a better life for his young son, but keeps getting knocked down by personal and professional crucibles. But none of the body blows life hits him with dissuades him from pursuing his long shot dream: becoming a stockbroker.
Welcome, everyone, to the latest episode of our summer series, which we have called Big Screen, Big Crucibles. Why are we talking about films again? You may remember this is the third time in the summertime we’ve talked about movies. It’s because there are lessons buried within these movies, not even buried, at the surface of these movies, that show us how to work through crucibles, how to overcome crucibles, and in between those two, how to have hope in the midst of crucibles. So, for eight weeks this summer, and right now this is week five, crazy to believe we’re at week five already, isn’t it, Warwick? It’s wow.

Warwick Fairfax:
Absolutely.

Gary Schneeberger:
But we’re at week five of eight. And we’re looking at movies that feature a wide variety of crucibles and insightful lessons that teach us about how not only to bounce back from those crucibles, but on casting a vision and charting a course for a life of significance. And our film this week in Big Screen, Big Crucibles is The Pursuit of Happyness. The movie came out in 2006. And here’s a very brief synopsis. It’s what they call in Hollywood, folks, I worked in Hollywood for a few years in publicity, and this is what they call a logline. It’s really the shortest description of what a movie is. And here’s what it is for The Pursuit of Happyness. The journey of a common man from rising above poverty and personal problems to becoming a respected name on Wall Street.
So, that’s the ground we’re going to cover. And the fact that it’s so succinct is really great, because as we talk this through, you’ll see that there’s… The life of the central character who pursues happiness in this movie is not succinct. That’s a pretty fair assessment to make. So, Warwick, I’ll ask you what I always ask you when we do these film series. And I ask you this for a reason, because I want people to know we’re not just… Yes, it’s a summer series, yes, summer is a fun time, but we’re not just doing this to have fun. There’s a purpose behind why we’re going back into the cinemas to talk about movies this year during the summer. Talk a little bit about why we are doing this series and why we return to cinema quite often.

Warwick Fairfax:
We both love movies and have really enjoyed the movies we’ve done from a Beyond the Crucible perspective. Typically, movies portray a protagonist that faces significant crucibles they seek to overcome. And in the past few years we’ve done movies about superheroes, sports heroes, historical figures, and last year we actually did a fun series looking at the American Film Institute’s top 100 movies. That was a lot of fun. But this year we thought we’d look at movies that we thought were some of the best ones involving people overcoming significant crucibles to lead a life of significance, which we define as a life on purpose dedicated to serving others.

Gary Schneeberger:
That sums it up very well, folks. So, let’s get into our discussion of The Pursuit of Happyness. It begins in the year 1981. The opening scene introduces us to a man named Chris Gardner, who’s the main character. We learn what he does for a living, and how much he loves and wants the best for his son. In just a few beats in this first scene, it’s very, very, very well done, we understand a lot about Chris Gardner and his love of family in that first scene. We also know though, from that first scene, that his life has its challenges. So, this scene gives us a pretty good snapshot of Chris and his love for and protection of his son, Christopher. It also hints at the crucibles that will challenge him as the movie goes on. What’s important to note about this first scene of this film?

Warwick Fairfax:
Chris’s life is indeed challenging. We see him drop his son off at daycare, and early on he really makes a statement that he’s committed to having a close relationship with his son. He did not know his father growing up, and in fact only met him when Chris was 28 years old, so it’s really one of the driving forces of his life, to have a close relationship with his son, unlike what Chris had with his father. So, Chris’s job is to sell a medical device, and it’s a portable bone density scanner.

Gary Schneeberger:
That sounds like fascinating work.

Warwick Fairfax:
Yeah. And it’s a tough sell. He goes to doctors and hospitals and they tell him that this machine is expensive and unnecessary. It has a slightly denser picture than an x-ray for twice the money. So, okay, not much difference in imagery, but twice as expensive.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah, tough sell, as you said.

Warwick Fairfax:
And he has to sell this thing.

Gary Schneeberger:
Tough sell.

Warwick Fairfax:
Oh my gosh, tough sell. Now, he needs to sell two scanners a month for rent and daycare. So, that’s pretty simple math. Two scanners a month is what he needs to sell to be able to live, survive. Now, Chris’s wife, Linda, she works as a hotel maid, and she also has a challenging life. Now, to make things worse, and things do tend to get worse in this movie before they get better, to make it worse, Chris finds that his car has this yellow boot on it, the kind of thing that parking police put on your car when you’re parking in the wrong spot. And unfortunately for Chris to park near hospitals, which he has to for his job, he tends to have a hard time finding parking, there’s not really adequate street parking, so this is a common occurrence of racking up parking tickets. So in fact, just to make things worse, not only is there a boot on there, it turns out they tow his car. This is sort of a day in the life of Chris Gardner. If things could possibly go wrong, they do tend to.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah, and one of the things I love about this first scene too is it really does show his love for his son, Christopher. First of all, we’ve got him… He’s dropping off Christopher at daycare. And there’s a little exchange you may have noticed, folks, if you saw the show notes for the film, The Pursuit of Happyness, “Happyness” is spelled H-A-P-P-Y-N-E-S-S. It’s not because I can’t spell, it’s because that’s the way it’s spelled on some graffiti outside the daycare that Chris takes Christopher to, and he tells, every time he drops Christopher off, he mentions to the woman who runs the daycare, “Hey, fix this.” And the reason why he does that, he’s not trying to poke at her for it’s spelled wrong on her building, he wants to make sure his son learns in daycare. He wants to make sure his son doesn’t get wrong education there. So, he’s really defending his son, Christopher, when he says, “Hey, let’s spell happiness the way happiness should be spelled.”
So, the next day, the very next day, Chris meets a businessman outside a corporate office building looking to sell a scanner, right? That’s what Chris does, as we said, he sells these scanners. The man pulls up in a red Ferrari convertible. And that, for a guy whose car just got towed away and had a boot put on it and doesn’t have a lot of money, as we’ll come to find out, that’s pretty exciting for Chris Gardner to see. And he asks him two questions, the man who’s driving the Ferrari, asks him, “What do you do? And how do you do it?” And he does it with that just sort of the way I said it. He’s happy. He’s like, “Wow, that’s amazing. Tell me more.” That’s the way he asked the question of this man. And the answer the man gives him, Warwick, will change the trajectory of Chris Gardner’s life, won’t it?

Warwick Fairfax:
It really will. Chris Gardner is an interesting person. He’s always one to be direct, take advantage of an opportunity, and these are two penetratingly good questions he says to this business guy. He wants to know what is the secret of his success, if you will. And the man says that he’s a stockbroker. The man says, in a sense, it’s that simple. Be good with numbers and good with people. So, the guy walks away, and Chris looks at the building, and there are all these business executives coming and going into the building, and he says, and I quote, “They all look so damn happy.” It’s like there’s a smile on their face, they’re successful, they’re happy. And he asks himself, “Well, why couldn’t I look like that?” In other words, “Why couldn’t I be happy?”
Clearly, Chris doesn’t have conditions in his life with his job trying to sell these scanners that nobody really wants. He is working hard, his wife’s working hard. Life is very tough. He doesn’t have a, quote, unquote, “happy” life, at least it wouldn’t seem that way. And he’s thinking to himself, “Couldn’t there be more?” So, the trajectory of his life changes. He begins to think maybe life could be different, maybe life could be happier. And so he decides that he’s going to stop by a brokerage firm after work. And he says, as a kid, he was good at math. So, okay, at least that’s one of those two. And as we’ll see, Chris is very good with people. So, I think he probably understands intuitively, “I’m good at numbers and I think I’m pretty good with people, so why not me?” So, the trajectory of his life changes with this interaction with this business guy coming out of this red Ferrari convertible. It’s sort of an amazing scene.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. And the other thing that was interesting about it that this man told him, which I think helped Chris pursue being a stockbroker, is he asked, one of the first things Chris asks him is, “I suppose you got to have a college degree, right?” And the guy says, “No, not necessarily.” And then he says what you said, “You got to be good with people and you got to be good with numbers. You got to be good at math and you have to be good with people.” And that really helps Chris go, “Okay, maybe it’s not completely outside my reach.” Because he does not have a college degree. Chris does not have a college degree.
So, all of that stuff is kind of boiling up, is roiling up inside of him when he goes home that night. And he tells Linda, his wife, about the encounter with the gentleman with the Ferrari, and about his hopes, these hopes that were just born in him, just birthed in him to be a stockbroker. But Linda does not take it well. This is a major crucible for Chris, isn’t it, Warwick? He seems not to have, sadly, a fellow traveler in his wife. And that is a very heavy burden to carry, isn’t it?

Warwick Fairfax:
It’s so true. Life can be very challenging, and certainly for Chris Gardner, it is very challenging trying to make ends meet, trying to sell these scanners, as we’ve discussed, that nobody wants. And rather than coming home to a wife that says, “I believe in you. I’ve got your back. We’ll make it through.” Sadly, he has the opposite. And Chris’s wife, when he talks about being a stockbroker, and she mocks him. “Well, why not be an astronaut?” Basically, she doesn’t offer him encouragement, she just offers him ridicule, as if, “Here we go again.” She was probably thinking, and maybe he said in the past, “You try to sell these scanners that are impossible to sell. Oh, and now you want to be a stockbroker.” It’s like, “How could we make it any worse? Oh, sure, Chris Gardner can.” That’s sort of the subtext of that sort of ridicule.
So, his wife Linda’s advice is pretty simple. “Just do your sales calls.” She says, “We’re two months behind in rent, and next week we’ll be three months behind.” She says she’s been pulling double shifts for four months. Basically it’s just, “Sell what’s remaining in your contract with these medical devices, get out of that business, sell all the medical devices.” And basically she’s probably thinking, “For once in your life, just do something smart rather than this stupid contract you got yourself into, selling these medical devices that nobody wants.” So, it sure doesn’t seem like she has a whole lot of respect for her husband. And anytime he brings up some new ideas like, “Oh, here we go again.” You can almost see the virtual eye rolls. “What mess is he going to get our family in next?” So, it seems like Chris has the very opposite of a fellow traveler. Somebody that seems to just keep pulling him down, does not at all believe in him.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. And Chris learns, even as he fights that mocking by his wife, he learns about an intern program that he’s been told about, at Dean Witter Reynolds, a big brokerage firm, but it can only take 20 people, he finds out, for six months. And then here’s the kicker. At the end of those six months, only one person out of the 20 who were selected, and there’s a lot more than 20 who apply, only one person is going to get a job as a stockbroker. So, the odds are definitely long.
But so Chris, being good with people, to make a good impression, he decides to deliver his resume for this internship in person. The executive he needs to meet is Jay Twistle, and Twistle is in a hurry when Chris comes into Dean Witter Reynolds to meet him. And so he kind of brushes Chris off. Nicely, kindly. He’s good with people too, right? But he sort of brushes him off, which is hardly an auspicious beginning for this dream that is germinating inside Chris. We also learn at this time that the bone density machines that Chris is selling, or trying to sell, actually cost him his family’s whole savings to buy. He had to sign a contract to have exclusive rights to sell those in the San Francisco Bay area where they live. And increasingly, while this is all going on, Linda is drifting away more and more. Linda, his wife, is drifting away more and more. But good fortune, folks, is about to strike, as it does throughout this movie. There’s enough good fortune that happens that can help as he’s riding through the crucibles.
Chris shows up again at Dean Witter to charm Twistle, and talks his way into sharing a cab with the executive. And you may remember, if you’re of the same vintage that Warwick and I are, of the Rubik’s Cube, which was a big fad in 1981, and inside the cab there is Twistle, playing around with it, trying to do it, trying to make it work. And what that creates, a great opportunity for Chris to move forward in his dream to be a stockbroker. What happens in that cab ride, Warwick, that makes that a reality?

Warwick Fairfax:
So, Chris is one enterprising guy. He is always creative, always one to find a way to leverage an opportunity. So, he keeps trying to talk to Twistle, and Twistle keeps brushing him off. And Twistle’s about to get in a cab, and Chris says, “Oh yeah, we’re going to the same place.” Well, they’re not really, he just wants any excuse to get in the cab with Twistle and just try to find a few minutes with the guy. And so he sees Twistle is fiddling with this Rubik’s Cube, which as you mentioned, Gary, is all the craze in the early ’80s, and everybody has one, and they’re trying to figure it out. I think we both probably had one back in the day and-

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. I couldn’t do it at all.

Warwick Fairfax:
No. Well, we’ve seen earlier that Chris is watching TV, and it says that a Rubik’s Cube is so tough to solve that it took a math professor 30 minutes to solve it. In other words, you’ve basically got to be a genius to solve it. So, Chris knows, as he’s in this cab, that he is very good at math, and he believes that he has a shot to solve the Rubik’s Cube. So, he’s thinking to himself, “If I can find a way to solve this, I’m going to really impress this Jay Twistle guy.” So, he’s thinking, “This could be my shot.” And so he tells Twistle that he can solve it. And Twistle looks at him just disbelievingly and says, “Nobody can solve that thing. There’s no way.” And Chris senses the challenge and the opportunity to impress this guy, Twistle.
So, here they are, riding in this cab, and Chris feverishly tries to solve the Rubik’s Cube. I mean he is spinning the different faces of this Rubik’s Cube around and trying to make everything all line up. And it’s not easy, he’s madly working at it. And what’s interesting is Twistle sees that Chris is getting very close to solving it, a lot closer than Twistle ever got. Now, eventually, Chris does solve it. It takes a little bit to do and it’s a short cab ride, so they’re actually waiting outside wherever Twistle was going to go. I think probably his house. So, Twistle is so fascinated, it’s like, “Okay, I may be where I’m wanting to go, but I’m going to stay here until I see what happens.” So, Twistle gets out of the cab and Chris says, “Yeah, I’m just around the corner, and you’ve got another couple of blocks to go.”
While this is happening, we look at the meter on the cab, and by now it’s like $18. For Chris, that’s like thousands and thousands of dollars it might be to somebody else. It’s like everything. And so he’s panicking, because he knows he doesn’t have it. So, when the cab pulls up to a stoplight, Chris just darts out of the cab and just starts running away. And the cab driver is irate, and the cab driver gets out of his cab, and starts running all the way across town, across San Francisco, after Chris. Chris manages to escape to the subway. But of course Chris always has a scanner in his hand. He ends up losing one of his scanners. He can’t get it through the subway doors. It’s closing and he loses one of these scanners. That’s basically how he pays for food and rent. So, it’s just sort of an amazing scene how Chris uses this fad of the Rubik’s Cube to really impress Twistle, which he does.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. Twistle does not forget it. Put a pin in that, folks. You’ll find out that he does indeed not forget it. The interesting thing too about losing the bone density scanner is there’s a bit of a running thing throughout the film where Chris will either lose or have it stolen by somebody as he’s carrying it from place to place and it does come back. Keep that in mind, folks. One of those that gets taken from him does indeed play a pretty significant role later in the film. So, just know that Chris, in addition to having a hard time selling these bone density scanners, has a hard time hanging onto them sometimes, and he just lost one out of the subway.
And crucibles, unfortunately for Chris, keep coming to him. Linda, his wife, who had to miss her shift because she needed to pick up their son, Christopher, from daycare as Chris was out, he got home late, she announces when he gets home that she’s leaving him, and she wants to take Christopher with her, her son, their son, Christopher, with her. The situation that Chris finds himself in at that point, about to be abandoned by his wife, perhaps losing his son, living not from paycheck to paycheck, but from sold scanner to sold scanner, always behind on rent, comes close to breaking his spirit. All these things he’s going through comes close to breaking his spirit. He looks at one of the nickels at this time that he uses to make his phone call home, and Thomas Jefferson’s face on that nickel leads him to a pretty stark revelation. Warwick, what does Chris muse about when he thinks of Jefferson, and how does it speak to the situation he finds himself in, the life he is living?

Warwick Fairfax:
Yeah, this is a fascinating scene in the movie. Chris thinks about Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. In particular, he ponders these words, our “right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” He wonders how Jefferson knew to put the words “pursuit” together with “happiness” and he ponders to himself, “Can you have happiness no matter what? Or only pursue it? Is happiness achievable, or is all you can hope for is to pursue happiness?” It’s a pretty deep philosophical thought and question for Chris to be pondering, and it’s a fascinating question.
So, it would seem like Chris certainly doesn’t have what would seem to be a happy life. It is a struggling, challenging life. And as you’ve said, he finds it very difficult to sell the medical device scanners. His wife is leaving him. He’s tried to pursue being a stockbroker, which is certainly no sure thing. And it’s understandable that Chris might feel, “Well, happiness is impossible.” But yet he still wants to try to pursue it. He still wants to try to find happiness. He’s thinking of that stockbroker and those other executives outside that office building who seem to have this air of happiness, they had this smile on their faces.
So, part of him thinks, “Look, happiness is impossible to find.” But yet there’s another part of him that thinks, “But maybe, just maybe, if I pursue it hard enough, maybe it’s possible.” So, he’s not quite ruled out the possibility that the pursuit of happiness is meaningless and pointless. Certainly he wants to go for it, he wants to pursue happiness.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. And the good news is that Chris gets some good news right after this. Thistle calls to say he has been invited to interview for the intern program. He also talks with Linda, and says he is not letting their son leave and go live with her when she goes. But then the crucibles start coming again. First from the landlord, who tells Chris he has to be out by the next morning for non-payment of rent. Chris talks his way into another week by offering to paint the place for the next tenant. Again, good with people. And while he’s painting, Chris has written on the wall in white paint. “Dear Chris, you suck.” That’s a devastating scene, isn’t it, Warwick? The mounting challenges are beginning to erode away Chris’s perseverance, aren’t they?

Warwick Fairfax:
They are indeed. The challenges for Chris, they’re mounting up. He’s struggling to sell these overpriced medical devices. His wife is leaving him. We’ve learned earlier that he’s behind in paying taxes to the IRS, and he has to pay $150 a month in daycare, where it turns out what do they do with the kids? They watch TV. And in one funny scene, he asked the woman that’s running the daycare, “Well, my son tells me he’s watching TV all day.” And she says, “Well, but it’s educational.” “The Love Boat?” Which was a series back in the ’80s. “Well, it teaches him about the Navy.” I mean, come on, really? It’s a cruise ship. I mean, she’s creative, I’ve got to say, in trying to justify how watching TV-

Gary Schneeberger:
For sure.

Warwick Fairfax:
… gives them an education. So, he’s paying $150 a month so his kid can watch TV. I mean, it’s got to be galling, but he’s got to put his kid somewhere in daycare. So, he’s desperate. And so now, as we’ve found out, he’s about to be thrown out of his apartment. And so the words that Chris paints on the wall, “Dear Chris, you suck”, it accurately reflects how down, and low, and badly Chris feels. But as we’ll see, despite that he is at one of several low points in his life, he never stays at this low point. He has remarkable perseverance, and he never gives up.
And as we’ll see, I think the key to his perseverance is the love he has for his son. He wants his son to have a better life than he, Chris, did. Chris had no relationship with his dad, and Chris wants his son to have a good relationship with his dad, and a better father and a better life. So, this whole pursuit of happiness, which the movie is about, the key to that whole pursuit is he wants his son to have a better life, and that just drives his perseverance and his endurance.

Gary Schneeberger:
And it helps him, right? It helps him to overcome that negative self-talk, because life is not going smoothly for him. He has crucibles, and we all know what that’s like. When you go through crucibles, you can have negative self-talk. But he’s got something else to focus on, some beacon of hope in his son, and that drives him forward.
Things get tougher though for Chris immediately after what we’ve just been talking about. Two police officers show up at the door to arrest him for unpaid parking tickets. Still in his paint-splattered work clothes, Chris is arrested. He’s able to pay the fine, just barely, but he has to write a check to do so. The police won’t release him until the check clears, and that won’t be until the next morning, that they say 9:30 A.M. The problem? His internship interview at Dean Witter is at 10:15 A.M. So, there’s a 45-minute difference between those two, if I’m doing the math right, when he gets out of jail, when his check clears, and it will, because he knows it will, and then when he has to be at Dean Witter and interview for this job that could change his life. Warwick, describe what happens next, and how Chris is still able to make a winning impression on the partners, despite the condition he shows up to the office in.

Warwick Fairfax:
At the brink of life turning around, with his job interview to be in this internship, the crucibles keep coming. I mean, the hits keep coming, so to speak. It’s unbelievable. So, here he is in jail overnight for unpaid parking tickets. And if that wasn’t enough, they don’t release him at 9:30, they release him at 9:45. It was always going to be tough, but they just made it tougher to get to his 10:15 interview. So, here he is, running through the streets, he’s in his scruffy clothes, he has paint all over him, is absolutely not business attire. He looks an absolute mess. But what choice does he have? It’s a 10:15 interview.
So, he goes to this interview, paint all over him, and he’s seated around this long table with a group of men, a group of business executives from the brokerage firm around the other side of the table, and they look aghast at his appearance. This is the early ’80s, there’s no business casual. At this time in history, you go to work at a brokerage firm, you’re all wearing business attire. The men are all wearing coats and ties and suits, and that’s the norm. And they just look at him as if, “Who is this guy?” And so they don’t get why he would turn up for an interview dressed like that. So, Chris, impressively, he’s straight up with them. He doesn’t hide the issues. He said he was arrested for failing to pay parking tickets.
And Twistle, who has really vouched for him, I’m sure feels embarrassed and wants to try to help Chris. And he tells the other guys there that Chris is a determined guy, he’s been waiting outside the building with this 40 pound gizmo, the medical device, for a month. And Twistle says, “Chris is smart and is always dressed well.” So, Chris says, because he’s trying to impress these guys, “If you ask me a question and I don’t know it, I’ll tell you I don’t know it, but then I’ll go find the answer.” Which is a very smart reply, rather than just trying to fudge it. So, that’s a good start.
But then the head guy that seems like the senior partner of this firm, Dean Witter, he, in a nice way, but directly asked Chris what would he say if he was him and hired a guy without a shirt on? It’s like, “If you were me, would you hire you, the way you look? You got paint all over yourself.” And Chris, who’s very quick-witted, has this brilliant comeback. He says, “Well, here’s what I’d say to the guy, if he was like me. I’d say, ‘Man, you must have some pretty nice pants. You must have some really nice pants.'” I mean, they all laugh. I mean, how could you think of that kind of line? And they all laugh, and just like, wow. I mean, they were impressed. The guy has a pretty good comeback.
And so afterwards we see Twistle come to Chris and says, “Look, I don’t know how you did it, but you pulled it off. You’re one of the 20 interns.” I mean, how you could turn up like that, looking disheveled, paint everywhere, somehow convince these people to give you a shot? I mean, that is salesmanship at the most remarkable level. It’s truly impressive.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah, and it goes with what the guy who owned the Ferrari said, right? You got to be good with people. And that’s clearly, to take all those executives and say something that makes them all laugh, despite the absurdity of the situation, really shows that Chris Gardner is good with people.
But some news then comes: he’s got the internship, but then he learns, which he didn’t know before, that the internship comes with no salary. He’s not going to get paid for doing… It’s an unpaid internship. And if he’s not the one who’s chosen out of those 20 after six months, oh, not only did he not get the job, but he can’t apply for another job at another brokerage firm. There are restrictions on that, too. So, “Hey, I got this opportunity, I was chosen. Oh boy, there’s some conditions around here that may not help me make my vision a reality,” as we like to say at Beyond the Crucible. Because he’s the sole breadwinner in the family, it’s really hard for him now to think about this. Linda’s moved to New York, so it puts him in a position of not being able to say yes right away. But he ultimately gets there. He ultimately does. He ultimately weighs everything that’s going on and says he’s going to bet on himself and he’s going to accept. And he begins to pursue what he believes will lead him to, as Jefferson said, happiness.
And one of the first things he does in pursuit of that happiness is to tell his son, Christopher, to do the same. The boy has recently gotten a basketball as a birthday gift, and he and Dad go shooting, right? They just start shooting buckets together at a playground somewhere. And then a meaningful moment happens between father and son that really spotlights the theme of The Pursuit of Happyness. Let’s take a look and a listen to that moment.

Christopher:
I’m going pro!

Chris Gardner:
Oh, okay. Yeah, I don’t know. You’ll probably be about as good as I was. That’s kind of the way it works, you know? And I was below average. Whoa. So, you’ll probably ultimately rank somewhere around there. So, really, you’ll excel at a lot of things, just not this. I don’t want you out here shooting this ball around all day and night. All right?

Christopher:
All right.

Chris Gardner:
Okay? All right, come here.
Hey. Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something. Not even me. All right?

Christopher:
All right.

Chris Gardner:
You got a dream? You got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.

Gary Schneeberger:
Warwick, why is that scene so critical to understanding what The Pursuit of Happyness is about, both The Pursuit of Happyness, the movie, and the pursuit of happiness in our own lives?

Warwick Fairfax:
There are two parts to this scene. The first part, Chris is just not doing well. Life is tough, you know? He’s got this internship, who knows if it’ll work out. He is almost broke, his wife has left him. Life is tough. And so he tries to give his son some tough love. He tells his son that, “Like me, you’ll probably not be good at basketball.” He does not want his son to spend all his time dreaming about playing basketball, being on the NBA or whatever. He’s like, “Look, it’s not going to happen, kid.” He just wants to give him some tough love.
So, then he sees his son looking sad, and a switch kind of flips. And Chris has this change of heart. As we see in that clip, the words he says are so powerful. He says, “Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. Not even me.” And his son goes, “All right.” And Chris keeps going. He says, “You have a dream, you’ve got to protect it. If people can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.” So, while at first he doesn’t give his son a very helpful message and he wavers a bit, he quickly changes his tone. He wants his son to know that you should pursue your dreams, and don’t let anybody pull you down.
And obviously we’ve already seen his wife, Linda, really does, whether she wants to or not, does pull him down. She’s just saying, “It’ll never happen, stockbroker thing, yeah, it’s like being an astronaut. Come on.” And he’s saying to his son, “Don’t let anybody pull you down.” And he wants to model this way of thinking. And as we’ll find, pursuing happiness, pursuing your dreams, if he wants his son to live that life, he has got to show him what it looks like. So, the switch flips pretty quickly, and it’s such a powerful scene when he basically tells his son, “Don’t give up on your dreams, and don’t let anybody tell you that you got to stop and give up. Don’t listen to them. Keep going for your dreams. Keep at it.” It’s a powerful scene.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. One of the most moving things in that scene to me, Warwick, was after Chris first says, “You’re probably not going to be very good. I wasn’t very good.” His son, Christopher, kind of takes the basketball, walks away, and puts it in a bag, he puts the basketball in a bag, like a grocery bag, like, “Okay, I’ll put it away. I’m not going to be with it.” And I think that’s what leads Chris to say, “Okay, whoa, I just trampled on my son’s dream, and I want to reawaken that dream within him.” And that’s why it’s such a moving, moving scene.
After this, Chris does indeed start his internship. The dream he is protecting, to become a stockbroker, he discovers quickly that while his colleagues can devote nine hours a day to calling prospective clients, he has to do it in six to be able to pick Chris up from daycare. He also learns interesting tricks, like not hanging up the phone, putting the phone on the… This is the old days, folks, when we had big blocky phones and you hung them up. He doesn’t do that, he just hits the switchhook, hangs it up, and makes another call, and he says it saves him a few minutes every day that allows him to make more phone calls. He also learns-

Warwick Fairfax:
In fact, just as you’re saying that he’s so time efficient, he says, “Okay, if I don’t drink water, then I won’t have to go to the bathroom as much.” I mean, “I’m going to save a few minutes on the switchhook and save a few minutes not going to the bathroom.” And talk about time management. Crazy stuff.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah, he’s saving seconds, but, right? You save seconds, you string those together over the course of these six months, and you never know where they’re going to lead. And you never know who is going to be that call that you make that’s going to seal a deal and that’s going to help you become the one who stands out from the 20.
But there are other challenges for Chris as he’s going through this, right? The office manager, a man named Alan Frakesh, he’s a nice enough guy, he’s pretty jovial, he treats him pretty well, but he keeps tasking Chris with these kind of gopher tasks like fetching coffee and donuts. He’ll be walking through the office and he’s like, “Hey Chris, go get me some coffee and go do this.” And that pulls Chris away from being able to sit at his desk, make the calls he needs to make in order to make this internship successful for himself.
Then one day, Chris calls a man named Walter Ribbon, who’s a top level pension fund manager, who invites Chris, right on the phone, I mean, here’s how successful that call is, he says, “Hey, come on over in 20 minutes.” And Chris is like, “Oh, okay.” So, he starts to run out the door so he can go get to meet this Walter Ribbon guy. And guess what? On his way out the door, he’s stopped by Frakesh, the office manager, who asks him to move his car, move Frakesh’s car. “Hey Chris, can you move my car?” So, Chris is like, “Right.” And he’s trying to parse what’s the right thing to do? “Should I go get a client or do I please the office manager who’s got some say in whether I do well in the internship?” He ends up moving Frakesh’s car.

Warwick Fairfax:
It’s almost like the hits keep coming, because of course, this is Chris Gardner, life can’t be smooth. This Frakesh guy says, “Yeah, and this car is almost impossible to open.” This is back before you had remote control things. He had to put the key in the door to open it, and you sort of got to jimmy it a bit, lift it up, lift it sideways. It takes him forever just to open the car door. He’s probably thinking, “The police might look at me and think I’m trying to break in or something.” So, he’s got to be nervous, it’s like… So, moving the car is one thing, but he can’t even get into the car. It’s just ridiculous.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. And the other part that’s ridiculous and sad for Chris is that all of this extracurricular activity that Frakesh makes him do causes him to miss his meeting with Ribbon. But Chris doesn’t give up, right? This is a theme throughout this movie, that Chris Gardner does not give up, and it’s good advice for all of us to take when it comes to pursuing our own lives of significance, our own visions; don’t give up. He finds another way. He thinks of another way to connect with Ribbon. He goes to visit him at his house over the weekend. He wants to apologize to him face to face about missing the appointment.
And Ribbon’s very, very kind to him. He mentions he’s taking his 12-year-old son to the San Francisco 49ers football game. Then he asks Chris if he wants to go and bring Christopher, his son, along to the game as well. And they have this nice luxury box that you can sit in for the 49ers game. So, of course Chris says, “Yeah, of course we’ll go.” Christopher is very happy about going, and they all head off to go see the 49ers. But Warwick, Chris does this, and in doing so, yes, he’s pleasing his son, but he’s also taking an opportunity at the game when he sits with Ribbon and his friends. How does he do that and how does that pay off?

Warwick Fairfax:
Chris is somebody that thinks very quickly on his feet. I mean, he kind of felt badly that he missed that appointment, and he wants to kind of keep the relationship going by going to Ribbon’s house, which is one gutsy, bold thing to do, and obviously Ribbon lives in a very nice house, good part of San Francisco, just to apologize for missing the appointment. And clearly Chris was thinking, “Okay, well, hopefully I’ll be able to set up an appointment maybe this coming week, and I’ll have another shot,” because being nice and apologized. But then sometimes in life when things aren’t going your way, people offer acts of kindness, drops of grace.
And there’s something about this Walter Ribbon guy, I think there’s a kind spirit behind him. The fact that he would offer to meet with him for a few minutes is amazing. And he sees Chris with his son, and Ribbon has a twelve-year-old son, and says, “Well, we’re going to the game, and why don’t you come with us? And in fact, why don’t you just come to our box?” He doesn’t have to do this. He doesn’t have to do this. He doesn’t know Chris at all.
And so once Chris is there, and is in the box suite, and here are a whole bunch of Walter Ribbon’s friends and colleagues, Chris is smart, and it’s like, “Okay, there’s an opportunity here.” And he just goes around handing out business cards and making connections, glad-handing people. And we’ll find later, this is another turning point in his life. He goes to the game, I don’t think he’s thinking, “Gosh, this will be great for networking.” He’s just thinking, “Boy, I’ve never been to the box suite at the San Francisco 49ers. What a tremendous opportunity for my son.” So, he’s not thinking beyond, “This will be great.” But once they’re there and he sees all of Walter Ribbon’s buddies and colleagues, he’s thinking, “Wait, hang on. There’s an opportunity.” It just takes him a couple milliseconds, and he’s always one to take advantage of an opportunity, even an unexpected one. So, it’s a great lesson for all of us, and it’s just another remarkable part of Chris’s character, always willing to see an opportunity and seize that opportunity.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. Even in the face of, because it’s going to happen again, I’m going to say again what I’ve said before, and I’m going to say it again after I say this a few scenes down the road, and Chris’s crucibles turn darker, even darker. The IRS garnishes his wages, his bank account, for $600 in back taxes, leaving him with only $21.33 in the bank and to his name. Father and son are evicted from the motel they’ve been living in since they lost the apartment. Chris and Christopher wind up homeless. This is a tough part of the film to watch. The things they are forced to do to find shelter for the night are very harrowing. Talk about that work, and what it reveals about the ups and downs of crucible experiences. The emotions the Gardners go through are not uncommon for those who face trials, are they?

Warwick Fairfax:
Yeah, this really is one of the lowest points, this period of the movie, in Chris Gardner’s life. I mean, here he is, he has the beginnings of hope with his internship at Dean Witter. After four months, Chris has actually sold all his scanners, and feel like he’s beginning to make it. And just when you think, “Okay, there’s a bright future maybe about to appear,” along comes the IRS and takes virtually everything he has in his bank account. He is basically broke and he gets thrown out of the motel. I mean, it wouldn’t be surprising if he started yelling and saying, “Are you kidding me? God, whoever’s up there, what the heck is going on?” It wouldn’t be at all surprising.
And so on the doorstep of that motel, all of his clothes and belongings are outside. The owner of the motel, the manager, has changed the locks. He can’t get back in. And he gets in an argument with his son and kind of yells at him because his son, he’s a kid, he’s like five years old. I mean, he’s young. He doesn’t get what’s happening. And it’s like, “I don’t want to leave the hotel room. I don’t want to go. Let’s go in, let me in.” And his dad can’t exactly explain to a five-year-old what’s happening with the IRS, and garnishing pay, and being thrown out, and landlord and motel owner and manager. And it’s like, “We can’t go back.” And it sort of makes him yell. And so he takes his son and they leave. And this is such a sad scene, when it almost feels like they’re riding a subway for hours. They fall asleep, and eventually you see them in an empty subway late at night, and sleeping in a toilet, is where they end up.
But right before they get there, when they’re just sitting in a subway platform, Chris, ever creative, finds a way to take advantage of an opportunity, which is a huge theme of this movie, he’s always willing to take advantage of an opportunity, to just lift the spirits of his young son. So, his son says that… Part of the scenes of this movie is that this mentally challenged guy, who believes that Chris’s medical device is a time machine, so he wants to grab it because he wants a time machine. And so his son says that, that there was this guy that tried to take your device, Dad. He thinks it’s a time machine. And so then Chris says to his son, “You know what? What that man said was correct. This is a time machine.” He’s a five-year-old, so he has a vivid imagination. So, Chris asks his son where he wants to go, and tells his son, “Okay, let’s close our eyes and just push the button on the device.”
And so they open their eyes and Chris says, “Look, we’re in the land of dinosaurs. They’re all around us. Tyrannosaurus Rex.” He starts listing some dinosaurs. And he says, “We’re cavemen, and as cavemen, we’ve got to find somewhere safe. There’s a lot of scary animals out there, dinosaurs and all, and so let’s hide in a cave.” And so he manages, through imagination, it almost makes sleeping in the toilet that night a little bit more bearable, because in his son’s imagination, well, this is kind of the cave, right? They’re hiding out from the dinosaurs. And so it’s incredible, and it’s somewhat effective, he helps lift his son’s spirits. So, there they are, huddled on the floor of this toilet in the subway. Chris locks the door so they won’t be disturbed, and his son falls asleep. Now, once his son falls asleep, all the emotions begin to come out. And you see that he put on a brave front, but now that his son is asleep, he’s crying. It’s just a miserable situation that they’re in, having to resort to sleep at the toilet of a subway. It is just dire.
And so when we face crucibles, such as what Chris is facing, and he gets thrown out of his apartment, then motel, the IRS takes virtually all his money, it’s understandable if we’re angry and distraught. But the question is, are we going to stay in that place of anger and frustration and humiliation, which I’m sure Chris felt, or are we going to try to find a way to move beyond our darkest day crucible? Chris Gardner shows us that no matter how bad things get, there is a way to move forward with perseverance, and even optimism. Chris rarely wallows for very long at all in depression, in anger, bitterness. He always finds a way to say, “Okay, this sucks, this is awful, but let’s find a way to move forward. Let’s find a way beyond this dark time.” And he is brave and tough in particular for his son. He wants to show strength to his son that, “No matter what, there’s a way out of this. Let’s move on.” It’s really an incredible lesson that we can all learn from Chris Gardner.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah, the thing I think about, just watch, I mean, I’ve said it now, what, five times, and then things get darker, and things get darker, and more crucibles come. The thing that it makes me think about is, and I know you like to play tennis, right?

Warwick Fairfax:
Correct.

Gary Schneeberger:
Those machines that shoot tennis balls at you to practice your stroke, right? That’s what it feels like is happening to Chris and Christopher in this movie, that there’s a tennis ball machine that’s just shooting neon yellow crucibles at them over and over and over again.

Warwick Fairfax:
Oh, absolutely. It’s a great image. And in fact, as time goes by, the size of those tennis balls increase, and the speed with which the machine throws it at them increases. It’s just like it gets worse and quicker, and it’s just somehow, it doesn’t get him down for long. It’s just, yeah, it just feels like… We did a Christmas movie a while back, It’s a Wonderful Life, and we’ve said this before, but it sure seems like, for Chris Gardner, It’s a Crucible Life. I mean, unbelievable.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. And yet, as you pointed out, he doesn’t have a crucible attitude throughout so much of it. And he works hard, Warwick, over the next several scenes, now that they’re homeless, trying to secure overnight accommodations in shelters in San Francisco. Again, these scenes, very heart-rending, also very moving. Talk a little bit about what we see there.

Warwick Fairfax:
So yeah, life continues to be dire. Chris has to finish work early to get in line at the shelter by 5:00 PM, which, as we’ve mentioned, really cuts down the time you can to basically, in those days, you either used a phone book or these call sheets to call people, and he just doesn’t have as much time as his, frankly, competitors, the other 19 people out the 20 that all want the job at Dean Witter. And so part of the reason is you’ve got to get in line by 5:00 because the lines going to these shelters, they are very long. In one-

Gary Schneeberger:
In both directions, right?

Warwick Fairfax:
Oh yeah, absolutely. In one, he’s almost about to make it, but somebody pushes in, and he has to almost fight the guy to get in, because he says, “Hey, I was here first.” And so while his son is sleeping, Chris tries to fix this broken scanner. I think earlier, this mentally challenged person who stole his scanner somehow damages the scanner, this medical device. So, he’s up at night trying to fix it, because he’s thinking, “If I can fix this, this is money that I need.” And so eventually, it takes him a couple nights, he manages to get a part for this broken scanner, this broken device, and is able to fix it.
And so then he repairs it and is able to sell it to this pretty kind doctor, and he sells it for $250. As he puts it, another four weeks of oxygen. “Four more weeks of oxygen.” We see times in this life, whether it’s Walter Ribbon or Jay Twistle or this doctor that seems to want to go out of his way to help, and said basically, if the machine turns on, the doctor’s going to buy. Even though I’m sure the doctor’s fully aware that this thing is overpriced and doesn’t do a whole lot, but at least he can justify, “Okay, I bought a valid device that does something.” It’s just got to turn on. So, the doctor’s looking for a way to help if he possibly can and do it justifiably. But yeah, life is tough for Chris and he never gives up.

Gary Schneeberger:
I’m going to step out of the role I’ve been playing, which is the most disliked man on this podcast, because I keep saying, “Then another crucible hits him, [inaudible 00:56:28] crucible hits.” Because we’re turning the corner right here, folks, and here it is. Chris concludes his last day of the internship, and he is summoned into a meeting with the partners. Warwick, I’m going to let you have all the great details about what happens once he gets in there, but the internship’s over, this is the moment of decision, he goes into meet the partners. What happens?

Warwick Fairfax:
Yeah, it’s truly a remarkable scene. So, here’s Chris. It’s the end of his internship. He’s again in that same room, the big table with the senior partner, Jay Twistle’s there and the other executives. And Chris is wearing a nice shirt and he sort of quips that he thought it’d be appropriate to dress for the occasion. In other words, maybe would be nice to wear a nice shirt rather than disheveled painting clothes with paint all over him. It’s sort of a nice quip.
And the senior partner thanks him and he says to Chris, “Well, you should wear this shirt on the following day.” And he lets Chris know that he has won the coveted position, the one of 20 that’s going to get a job at Dean Witter. And this is just remarkable. Chris is, I don’t know if he’s in shock, but he fights back tears. He shakes hands with all the partners and all the executives there, and they’re all smiling at him. They shake his hand, it’s like they’re happy for him. The senior partner’s happy for him, Jay Twistle, the other executive there, all of them. They want him to succeed. He has won them over. They admire him.
And we see that Chris rushes off to get his son, Christopher, at daycare. He embraces him. And as you pointed out, Gary, at the end of the movie, they’re walking down the streets of San Francisco, and they’re joking with each other. And I didn’t realize this until you pointed out that they had passed by the real Chris Gardner in a business suit. This is a true story, this movie. So, that was a nice touch that I didn’t realize. But yeah, it’s a great scene. And what it shows is the scene where Chris is around the table from the other executives, who give him his shot, that hard work, diligence, and perseverance, they pay off.
What’s interesting is just before the scene where Chris realized he’s sort of won the competition, he’s got a job, is that Jay Twistle comes to him and said he’s heard that Chris has signed 31 accounts from executives at Pacific Bell. Well, it turns out that Walter Ribbon manages the Pacific Bell pension funds at Pacific Bell. At the time it’s part of the AT&T Bell telephone network. Pacific Bell is the major telephone company in that part of the country, San Francisco, the Northwest. And so all of these people that he was glad-handing at the 49ers game, these other executives, most of them all worked at Pacific Bell with Walter Ribbon. And so that’s how he made all these connections and how he was able to sign up 31 accounts, all through that circumstances being at the game. And even after that, you have people coming up on the street to him who met him at the game. They’re actually giving Chris their business cards. How many people come up to a salesman and say, “Here’s my card. Please call me”?

Gary Schneeberger:
“Call me.”

Warwick Fairfax:
“Bother me. Annoy me.” He has made a significant impression on these folks.

Gary Schneeberger:
So, there’s a postscript to this work. Just before, as the credits roll, there’s a postscript where we learn how the real Chris Gardner, who, as you mentioned, we saw walking by in that final scene, how his dream turned out. It’s not just remarkable for Chris, but encouraging to anyone who has been through a crucible, that their worst day, their worst days, in Chris Gardner’s case, do not have to define them. Talk about that a little bit as we wrap.

Warwick Fairfax:
That end scene with the credits is remarkable. I mean, it was incredibly remarkable that Chris gets a full-time job, one of 20, after six months, no college education. If that wasn’t remarkable enough, it gets even more remarkable. These end credits say that after beginning his career at Dean Witter, Chris went on to found Gardner Rich in 1987, his own firm. That’s pretty remarkable. From ’81 to ’87, he’s so successful that he can found his own firm. That doesn’t happen often. That’s just remarkable. And then it says in 2006, Chris sold a minority stake in his brokerage firm, the one he founded, in a multi-million dollar deal. He isn’t just somewhat successful, he is off the charts, “Can you believe it? Is this really true?” Successful. If you said at the beginning of the movie that Chris Gardner is going to end up being a multi-millionaire, let’s say, given what’s happening in his life and the disadvantages he’s had growing up, it would be impossible. If not impossible, it would be one in a billion, one in a trillion. It cannot, will not happen. That’s just dream land. No way it’ll happen.
So, I think what this indicates is yes, the trajectory of Chris’s life is remarkable. He grew up without a dad, his wife left him, at one point he’s homeless, he was broke with the IRS garnishing his wages and pretty much taking everything he had. He had every reason to be angry at the world and give up. But that’s not Chris Gardner. He never gave up, he found a way to move forward. He pursued getting a career at Dean Witter even without a college degree. Few people thought he had any chance to pursue this career, let alone become extremely successful. It would sure seem that Chris was indeed successful in his pursuit of happiness. It seemed like it was mission possible.
So, I think what Chris Gardner’s life shows is that even when we’re in our darkest day, the bottom of our crucible, there is hope. There is always hope. Never give up, never give in. We have to believe in our dreams, pursue them with perseverance, even if nobody believes in us or our dreams. We often say that to get out of the pit, out of your darkest day, it’s critical to have a team of fellow travelers, people who believe in you. It couldn’t get much worse for Chris Gardner. He had no team of fellow travelers, nobody believed in him. All of the strength and courage he had to summon, that was all within him. That was all him. I mean, there was nobody else helping him. It just is remarkable, his perseverance and his ability to get beyond his darkest day, the bottom of his crucible. It just shows you the power of perseverance, the power of hope, the power of having a dream.

Gary Schneeberger:
Yeah. Folks, you may have noticed the house lights are on. The film has ended. Please clean up around your seat, and take your things that you have to dispose of with you as you go. And join us next week, because next week we are going to go to part six of our summer movie series, Big Screen, Big Crucibles. And the film that we’re going to cover is, Scott, give me that drum roll. We’re going to cover Erin Brockovich, which is another, like seven of the eight movies that we’re covering this summer, another story, a film based on a true story. So, until the next time we are together, remember, come see us and we’ll save you a seat.
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