A biography for Chris Gardnerhasn’t been written yet.
“I am very, very conscious of time. I always wear two watches. People ask me, 'Why do you do that?' Because I was late once,and it cost me a huge opportunity.”
“Veterans who are homeless may not have a home, but that doesn't mean they don't have diverse skills that could be put to use to meet the needs of an expanding job market.”
“I'm known to be aggressively early.”
“I cut grass, I did yard work, I did roofing, I cleaned basements to take care of my family.”
“I didn't grow up in a household where dinner conversation was, 'How did the market do today?'”
“Your skills may not be anything out of the ordinary, but you can do miraculous things with what you've got. Maybe it's your parenting skills, or your compassion. It may be your curiosity, your imagination or unique style of fashion. Even if it seems to be no big deal, the lesson here is we all have unique abilities and talents.”
“If you're lucky enough to have a permanent position, don't feel entitled. Companies value longtime employees' institutional memory, but to be irreplaceable, you must stay invested. Take the initiative and assume new responsibilities.”
“My mom had to be resourceful. She grew up dirt poor in rural Louisiana.”
“Just remember, you're never too old to have a hero.”
“Salespeople are the most important people in any organization. Until a salesperson gets an order, nobody in the company has a job.”
“My first ambition in life, I made up my mind I was going to become Miles Davis. I studied music, music theory. I played trumpet for nine years. One day, my mother explained, 'You can't be Miles Davis. There's one, and he's got that job.'”
“What I love about AT&T is that they are just as passionate as I am about rebooting the American dream.”
“Business school professors don't take selling seriously because they don't know how to sell. It's easy to talk about business theory and production time and just-in-time development. Selling is much more difficult.”
“Most of us have heard the saying, 'Cleanliness is next to godliness.' That's a sentiment I value, but another virtue has inspired me to revise that saying. As far as I'm concerned, what's next to godliness is resourcefulness.”
“Passion is not something you have to talk about. People feel it.”
“My biggest hero was my mother. She told me every day that I could do or be anything. I knew it, I believed it, and I embraced it.”
“I made a decision as a five-year-old boy that my kids will know who their father is.”
“I do one thing - I don't do it on purpose - but I always make other guys look underdressed.”
“I'm a Levi's guy.”
“I was blessed to have the guys at Bear Stearns as mentors. They taught me a lot, but most of all, they taught me that there's nothing wrong with selling if you're selling the right product to the right person.”