Hundreds turned away
By: Beth Prusaczyk
Issue date: 2/1/07 Section: News
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Gardner, author of the recent book-turned-movie "Pursuit of Happyness," told the story of how he went from being homeless in San Francisco during the early 1980s to becoming CEO and president of his own brokerage firm in Chicago in 1987 to a packed house Jan. 29 on the Browning Mainstage.
Approximately 900 students, alumni, faculty and public filled the auditorium, while anywhere from 500 to 1,000 people were turned away outside.
Overwhelmed by all who attended and disappointed so many were turned away, Gardner started his lecture by challenging the Webster Alumni Association to build a bigger theater. Gardner himself offered up the first $1,000.
The book and movie "Pursuit of Happyness," staring Will Smith, have both had success on the New York Times' Best Seller List and at the box office.
Gardner said the book was important to him because a movie only has so many frames on a roll of film.
"Thank God I did the book because I could go back and discuss what I had in me before ... and that was my mother," Gardner said.
Gardner said his mother was the one who put the idea of success in his head. He said he remembers watching a college basketball game when he was young where the announcers were predicting the amount of money the players would make if they went professional.
"I said, 'One day that guy is going to make a million dollars' and my mom said, 'Baby, if you want to, you can make a million dollars,'" Gardner said.
The thought had never entered his mind before that day, he said. Gardner said he didn't have any known talents that were capable of making a million dollars.
"I can't sing. I'm not good at running, jumping or catching balls," Gardner said. "I'm the only black man in America that can't dance."
It wasn't until Gardner walked onto the floor of a trading room that he realized what his mother was talking about. After begging and pleading, Gardner was given a chance to enter a training program at a brokerage. However, when he arrived for his first day, he found out the offer was no longer available. To make matters worse, Gardner had quit his previous job to take the training program and was now unemployed.
"Remember one thing: unemployment will not help your relationship," Gardner said.
Gardner's fighting with his girlfriend led to police uncovering $1,200 in upaid parking tickets and therefore he was held in prison for ten days.
While in jail Gardner said he could only think of one thing: his son.
"He had seen my face every day for his first entire year on this planet and now I wasn't there," Gardner said.
After Gardner was released, he went to an interview. On the biggest day of his business career Gardner said he told his boss the truth about jail and his girlfriend with his son - and that was the best thing he could have done.
Gardner said it turned out his boss had been divorced multiple times and told Gardner about his ex-wives. The next day, Gardner's boss personally walked him to the training program.
Gardner said the program involved doing things the brokers felt were beneath them. He said he made 200 phone calls a day, then, went to a boarding house at night and studied. Gardner said he could do nothing but study because he could not locate his ex-girlfriend or his son.
One night, however, his ex-girlfriend showed up at his door with their son and turned him over to Gardner. But the boarding house Gardner was living in did not allow children. The pair was homeless.
While at the training program, from which he received a monthly income of $1,000, Gardner said he was forced to leave his son every day, screaming and
crying, in the care of people with whom he did not feel comfortable.
"All I could say was, 'Look son, I'll be back,'" Gardner said.
Gardner said he spent many nights with his son in a subway bathroom playing a game called "Shhh."
"I told him, 'No matter what anyone says on the other side of that door, no matter how hard they bang, we are invisible, we aren't here," Gardner said.
Gardner also spent nights at a shelter. However, if he arrived too late the shelter would be full and he and his son would be forced elsewhere.
"Something as simple as missing a bus can make the difference in where you sleep at night," Gardner said.
For a year, Gardner carried everything he and his son owned with him each day. Eventually he was able to afford a place of his own.
Gardner said the first morning they woke up and got ready to leave their new place, his son asked him why he wasn't taking all the usual bags and stroller with him. Gardner said it was the best feeling to be able to tell his son they had a key and didn't have to carry everything anymore.
However, Gardner's home was not near his training program, so he made the long commute from his apartment to his son's daycare, to work and then back, sometimes not arriving home until 9 p.m.
Gardner said when they were returning home each night, they would pass the "ladies of the evening" beginning their shifts. He said for months these women saw this man with a baby in a baby stroller and knew something was unusual.
"They would try and give him candy, but I told them 'no' and then eventually they started giving him $5," Gardner said. "There were many times when I couldn't have fed him without those ladies giving us $5."
Gardner eventually caught the eye of another brokerage firm that offered him a higher paying job. He surpassed other introductory level employees, but not without one particular client testing his emotional limits.
"He would call and tell me every nigger joke, every Jew joke and every spic joke and then at the end tell me to give him 50,000 shares of whatever was selling," Gardner said. "At 50 cents a share, that's a $25,000 commission and I'll laugh at nigger jokes all day for that."
Gardner said business is not a black thing or a white thing - it's a green thing.
"I had just fought and crawled my way out of the gutter with a baby on my back and now was not the time to sing 'We Shall Overcome,'" Gardner said.
However, Gardner did have to face the Texan when he came to visit. Gardner said he thought one of two things would happen: the Texan would stop doing business with him or he would quit doing business with everyone else and work only with Gardner.
"He did all his business with me and stopped telling nigger jokes," Gardner said. "He tells knock-knock jokes now."
However, Gardner said his financial success is not what he considers his greatest accomplishment. His biggest success is having raised two children that have become special young people.
Gardner said when he was young, his father was not around and his stepfather took every opportunity to remind Gardner he was not his son.
"I made up my mind at 5 years old, not knowing what a promise was, that no one would ever talk to, treat or terrorize my children like that," Gardner said. "The only way I could do that was to be around."
Gardner talked about breaking the cycle of men not being there for their children. He said he has raised a son that knows the importance of this and through that he has influenced generations.
"Everyone has opportunities to break some cycle," Gardner said.
Philip Crawford, a junior photography major, said Gardner's lecture was entertaining, intellectual and inspiring.
"The part that stuck with me was how being poor isn't always about addiction to drugs or alcohol," Crawford said. "I think that struck a lot of people."
Gardner held a small Q-and-A session after the lecture. Some members of the public reached out to Gardner by telling their own stories. One woman said she had been homeless on and off for two years in San Francisco and had never been able to talk about the experience until she heard Gardner's story. She said he gave her the strength to face it.
Another young boy asked Gardner what advice he could offer someone growing up without a father. Gardner was so moved he told the boy to meet him afterward so they could talk in private.
Gardner seemed most touched by a man who introduced himself as a homeless person who had found the courage to pick himself up thanks to Gardner's story. Gardner embraced the man who said, "I love you."
After the Q-and-A session, Gardner held a book signing.
Crawford waited in line for Gardner's signature. He said he read the book before it became a best-seller.
"The book was very emotional," Crawford said. "I related to a lot of stuff."
Campus Activities and the Multicultural Center and International Student Affairs brought Gardner to Webster using the student activity fee.
Shay Malone is the program coordinator for the MCISA.
"He transcends everyone," Malone said.
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