1. By Larry Geist

2.  By Chris Gardner  How Chris went from being a poor kid living in Milwaukee to owning his own brokerage company, teaching that you can do anything if you want.

3.  Chris’s mother tells him he can make a million dollars if he wants to.  Later on, Chris meets a man driving a Ferrari and asks him what he does.  Sets him on his goal to become a stockbroker.  “It was biblical. One of the ten commandments handed down from God to Momma: ‘If you want to, one day you could make a million dollars.”

4.  Chris leaves his job as a medical tech to pursue his goal of being a stockbroker.  Chris has to set up meeting with brokerage companies while not having a home and taking care of his son.  After getting accepted into the Dean Witter training program, he has to study to complete the test to become an actual broker.

6.  Quotes: Gardner, Chris, Quincy Troupe, and Mim Eichler. Rivas. The Pursuit of Happyness. New York: Amistad, 2006. Print.