Permission to Dream with Chris Gardner

“Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something, not even me. All right! You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they want to tell you you can't do it, you want something, go get it. Period.”

Chris Gardner is the CEO of Happyness and he loves his job. his first book The Pursuit of Happyness became a New York Times best-selling book as well as Washington Post #1 bestseller and it has been translated in over 40 languages. That book was the story of Chris's life and he always thought of it as a way to project onto the world that anybody can do anything no matter what the obstacles are, no matter what the adversity is because we all embrace the power of choice. His book also inspired a film that became critically acclaimed, iconic and perhaps more relevant today than when it was first released. That movie was The Pursuit of Happyness. Will Smith played the part of Chris Gardner, he receive a Golden Globe Screen Actors Guild award and Academy Award nomination for his performance.

The first and most important decision Chris ever made in his life is that his children would always know who their father was. The second most important decision that he ever made in his life is that he would become world-class as to whatever he did in his life. This decision led him to an uber-successful career on Wall Street.

Chris shares some serious powerful lessons: #1: how we can make powerful pivots in our lives when we're confronted with adversity and Challenge and how we can show up as a more empowering and compassionate father than we ever thought possible even when we're dealing with everyday stress and the obstacles in our lives and finally that our circumstances do not define our future success.