From time to time, a song or a movie comes along that captures the hearts of audiences and becomes a blockbuster hit. Also, from time to time, that song or that movie will also teach us invaluable lessons about life, love, or even leadership.
Today I’d like to depart from my usual approach and take you through the lessons we can all learn from a movie called The Pursuit of Happyness. It’s not new, having come out a decade ago, but I’ve been thinking lately about what it can teach us.
The movie is based on the autobiography of the same title written by Christopher Gardner. It focuses on his struggles as a single parent of a young son, and how they were homeless for almost a year after Gardner invested virtually all of his savings in something that didn’t work out.
We see how his life started to crumble — his wife left him, he was thrown in jail, he lost his house, his bank account and credit cards, and was forced to live on the streets and in shelters with his son.
Luckily, with his self-confidence, a quick wit and strong determination to become successful, he soon landed an unpaid internship in the highly competitive stock brokerage Dean Witter Reynolds, and later earned a full-time position. It was a dramatic reversal of fortune and the climb didn’t end there. He went on to become a multimillionaire as the founder and CEO of the brokerage Gardner Rich — and as the author of the autobiography-turned-movie we all enjoyed.
If you read between the lines of Christopher Gardner’s story, you can see the many amazing qualities worthy of note: agility, persistence, collaboration, ambition, respect, compassion, true expertise as well as his enthusiasm of continuous learning.
All of these qualities have helped him fulfill his potential and ultimately reach his goal. Also, I find these qualities essential for leadership. Now, let’s pick a few examples to elaborate on further.
Persistence: Despite the many setbacks Gardner has been through, he never stopped trying and his persistence brought him success eventually. I find this quote from the movie very inspiring: “Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. 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. You want something, go get it. Period.”
In real life, successful people can visualise their successes and make up their minds about what they want regardless of whatever obstacles they have to face en route. It’s the main reason why they succeed and become successful leaders. Most people lack that type of conviction, which leads them to mediocrity.
Continuous Learning: Gardner is a great example of someone who believes that one should never stop learning. He was in his forties when he started as an intern at the stock brokerage. His co-workers were half his age but he didn't let that stop him and he didn't allow his age to be a barrier to his goals. Instead, he believed in himself and finally won the position that helped him further his career and even start his own company later.
In today’s constantly transforming world no one can possibly know everything. Those who can admit this fact and learn continuously are willing to challenge their own assumptions and will, in turn, bring more knowledge to the table.
Continuous learning is highly critical not only for leaders but for the organisation as a whole. This is because leaders who intend to grow personally and professionally are willing to learn and teach others. Here, they are demonstrating to their employees that they value continuous learning and are good role models.
The journey of Chris Gardner also teaches us another great lesson, and that is to remember that setbacks are a way of life. They are so common that we should learn to embrace them and not avoid them if we wish to be successful. In fact, setbacks should be seen as something to make us stronger, allow us to develop, to test us and essentially to help us strive.
Moreover, when setbacks are causes of your failures and mistakes, embrace them as they are life’s greatest teacher. On the other hand, when you focus solely on not failing, you’re not aiming for success but settling instead for a life of mediocrity.
Chris Gardner has, up to now, been an inspiring entrepreneur, author and philanthropist. His life journey is full of stories to be told and lessons to be learned I couldn’t possibly capture all of the lessons in one article but I hope that this will at least inspire you to overcome any difficulties and motivate you to pursue your goal, and possibly your Happyness!
-------------------------------------------
Arinya Talerngsri is Group Managing Director at APMGroup, Thailand's leading Organisation and People Development Consultancy. She can be reached by e-mail at arinya_t@apm.co.th or https://www.linkedin.com/pub/arinya-talerngsri/a/81a/53b
For daily updates, visit https://www.facebook.com/apmgroupthai
