Chris Gardner and his toddler son spent a year living on the streets of San Francisco, in and out of shelters and run down hotels. All while working in the financial district to get a job that would provide them with enough to live on.
Ultimately, Chris becomes the Chief Executive of Gardner Rich & Company, a multimillion-dollar brokerage. Today, Chris is an avid philanthropist and motivational speaker.
Born in the south to a father he never knew, and a loving mother who was jailed twice by an abusive partner, Gardner not only survives, but succeeds, where so many with similar backgrounds fail. But the most important thing he’s done is honor the commitment to never leave his son, taking loving, patient care of him. In this way he brakes his families’ cycle of men abandoning their children.
Well worth reading; it makes you realize what people can do with the right motivation. The Pursuit of Happiness has also been made into a movie by the same name.