Last night I watched The Pursuit of Happyness
It is a movie about Chris Gardener (played by Will Smith), who spends his life trying to achieve happiness as he navigates through family, work and obligations. The plot is remarkably written. I knew this was going to be my kind of movie before I even hit play.
In the movie, Will Smith is a struggling medical device salesman whose entire family depends on him selling the devices to put food on the table. As he goes from hospital to hospital, his wife works (often overtime) in a factory and gets increasingly frustrated with her husband's incompetence and eventually decides to leave both Will Smith and their son (played by Jayden Smith)
As luck would have it, Will Smith chances upon a stockbroker driving an expensive car and he is immediately drawn to how happy everyone looks in that firm and wants that life for himself. The problem is, he needs to go through an internship program lasting for 6 months that doesn't pay a salary in order to get the job.
Here's the catch, the internship takes in 20 people every six months upon which only one person qualifies to work in that firm. The risk to reward ratio isn't that great.
This essentially is the crux of the movie; of the struggle he goes through to take care of his son, sell the medical devices in order to feed and house the two of them, all the while working in the internship in order to get the job.
Throughout the six months Will Smith becomes homeless (twice), sleeps in a public toilet with his son, stands in line for a place in a community house and so much more that I'd rather not say in the hopes that you'd be intrigued enough to watch the movie for yourself.
Oh, and all of this is based on a true story.
I'd give the movie a 7/10. I've outlined the lessons I took from watching this movie;
LESSON 1 - THE THIRD DOOR
Will Smith had never studied after high school. Yet he got the internship at the stockbroker firm. I don't want to spoil the movie but the method he employed to get the internship wasn't just filling the application and hoping for the best. It was unconventional. This is a recurring theme throughout the movie where Will Smith takes his own fate into his hands as much as he can
This reminded me of Alex Banayan's book called THE THIRD DOOR. The concept is that all of the world's successful people have employed the third door to be successful in life.
What is the third door? To reach your goal, it’s just like in any nightclub, there is always a way to get in :
queue like 99% of the people, hoping to get in
use the VIP line, easy when you are a billionaire or celebrity
jump out the line, run down the alley, crack open the window, sneak through the kitchen..there is always a way! And most successful people took this third door.
Do you see the unconventionality in the third door?
If the concept still sounds sketchy, a friend of mine recently got a job, not through the conventional way of applying via LinkedIn, but by tracking down the email of the CEO of the firm he wished to work at and sending him an email and attaching his CV. He got a call from HR the next day, went for the interview and got the job.
I have an interview tomorrow, not through the process of conventional job applications, I got on a call with someone who is a few years ahead of me in my career, asked him a few questions and he referred me to his boss and they called me for an interview.
In short, the third door works. Don't let the notion of "this is how it's always been done" stop you from doing something bold. Send that message, make that video, talk to that person, have a coffee with a stranger, start that podcast, write that book.
LESSON 2 - CHILDREN DESERVE HAPPINESS
The most gut-wrenching part of the movie was when Will Smith couldn't find a place to spend the night and he had dragged his son along with him from place to place for hours before deciding to spend the night in a public toilet.
I won't go into how he pulled this off, but he did it in the most humble and appreciative way where the child did not feel repulsed by the idea of spending the night in a toilet.
Of course, Will wasn't perfect. You can see in the movie a few times of him snapping at his son when the stress got to him but the lesson here is that often times when we are worrying about something and our niece or little sister wants us to play with them - it will do good to remember that they cannot relate to what we are going through. When we snap at them, it will send a message that we don't want to spend time with them. I am not saying it's easy and we are certainly not to blame for getting annoyed but maybe next time we can be aware enough to at least speak to them kindly and patiently.
LESSON 3 - THE PURSUIT FOR HAPPINESS
I might be reading too much into this and there might be a good deal of personal bias that spills into this lesson........ BUT
During the movie, Will wonders if the reason why it's called the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS is that happiness is meant to be pursued forever but never attained.
Towards the end of the movie, I felt like Will Smith realized that even if he attains the entire world, it will always leave him wanting for more and his happiness comes from his son who was always beside him i.e. it's not the materialistic things that bring you happiness in this world but the people around you.
It's not about the destination, it's the journey. It is the little thing in life. And I say this because although Will Smith gave up everything to get qualified for the internship program, he never once let that interfere with his obligations as a father. In fact, oftentimes you will see that he put himself at a disadvantage at work so that he could be there for his son.
The best part about this whole movie is that it is based on a true story. I find myself increasingly appreciating documentaries and autobiographies because of the amount of wisdom they contain. Especially, if it's something relatable like the movie. Someone has already walked the path, we just have to reflect and walk our own walk.
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