"Never let somebody tell you that you cannot do something ... not even me," said Chris Gardner to his 5-year-old son, Christopher, correcting himself after realizing that he had unknowingly knocked his little son's dreams of basketball stardom.
He had earlier told the boy he shouldn't be playing ball all day because he is unlikely to get good at basketball or get anywhere with it ... since his dad wasn't even an average player at it.
Correcting himself quickly, he said: "If you've got a dream, you got to protect it. People cannot do something themselves; they're going to tell you that you can't do it. If you want something, go get it. Period."
These are my favourite lines from the inspirational movie Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith and his real-life son.
It is based on the true story of Chris Gardner, a black guy in San Francisco, who refused to let a long spell of poor sales and mounting financial debts stop him from keeping on trying to improve his situation while staying true to his promise to himself that he'd never let his boy grow up not knowing his daddy. He didn't know who his father was until he was 28.
His long spell of financial lack saw his him descend from a rented apartment to a small motel room and then, a temporary shelter for the homeless, for which he and his boy had to queue up, day by day, with no assurance they'd get a room or bed to sleep for the night.
Then, one night, because he was a little later than normal getting out of work, the worst happened - they ended up without the temporary shelter.
That was when they ended up spending the night in a public toilet in the train station! Tears streamed down his cheek as he tried to cover the ears of his sleeping child as someone banged on the locked door, trying to get in to use the toilet :(
During this trying period, his wife gave up on him and left for New York. He was also haunted, challenged and even jailed by unpaid rents, parking fines and taxes.
Despite all these, he did not lose heart. He kept going at two things that he believed will give him the way out of his rut - trying to sell off his stock of Bone Density Scanner for immediate cash, despite rejections, mishaps and thefts; and pitching hard for a chance to be considered for a job at a stockbroking firm, and then working tenaciously and creatively at cold calls at his no-salary internship at Dean Witter Reynolds so that out of more than 20 candidates, he'd be the one to get the one and only one prized job at the stockbroking firm.
In the end, he managed to sell off every single scanner, including those he managed to recover from "thieves", raising money badly-needed to help him and son get by, day by day.
He also landed the job. That led to richly-deserved success, an investment bank of his own (Gardner Rich), and eventually, wealth in the millions of dollars.
I watched this movie for the first time last Monday when it was introduced at our weekly seminar, and again early today, with my 7-year-old son Jia Wei, gamely watching it with me on my recommendation. My boy enjoyed the movie and found a number of scenes touching and moving enough. Here and there, his voice broke as he asked me to explain what was happening.
If you haven't watch this movie, go watch it. I'm sure it will put a lot of thankfulness in your hearts while adding steel to your back.
If for some reasons, you simply can't get around to watching the movie, remember this:
"Never let somebody tell you that you cannot do something ... not even those closest to you. If you have a dream, you've got to protect it. People who cannot do something themselves are going to tell you that you can't do it too. If you want something, go get it. Period."
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