The Pursuit of Happyness

　　在酒鬼繼父的暴力陰影下，克里斯的童年充滿了恐懼。鮮血與眼淚齊飛是常見的場景，因此小小年紀的克里斯在心中發誓：將來一定要當個好爸爸。長大後的克里斯曾加入海軍，也做過短暫的醫生夢，但女人先占滿了他的生活，結果卻是妻子和情人都離他遠去，只剩下幼子與他相依為命。

　　克里斯想提供寶貝兒子更好的生活，但當個小業務員能賺多少錢？這時，在證券業工作的『法拉利男』出現了！他那部鮮紅的拉風跑車帶給克里斯空前的震撼，也讓克里斯立志做第一個打進這一行的黑人。縱使克里斯衝勁十足，但開始時總是艱困萬分。他曾帶著一歲多的兒子睡辦公室，沒日沒夜地做電話訪問，最落魄時甚至住過捷運公廁、接受流鶯的幫助，還不得不去賣血，但他都靠著堅定的意志撐過去了。

　　漸漸熟悉投資的要訣後，克里斯終於能夠買下自己的房子和法拉利跑車了，但他的夢想不僅於此，他決定開發從未有人涉足的市場：為黑人明星、企業家做資產管理。事實證明他的眼光獨到，生意興隆到讓他能夠自立門戶，經手的資產規模並高達數十億美金。現在，克里斯仍常回憶起推著嬰兒車走在顛簸街頭的辛酸日子，回首成功的路途漫漫，但當幸福來臨時，一切的付出都是值得的。

The astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street

At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city’s working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, ＂HO-tels,＂ soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station.

Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city’s invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district.

More than a memoir of Gardner’s financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family’s cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream.

作者簡介

克里斯．葛德納

　　葛德納財富管理公司的執行長。這間資本額數百萬美金的證券經紀公司在紐約、芝加哥與舊金山皆設有分公司。葛德納也是個熱心的慈善家和極具感召力的演說家，全心參與許多與教育有關的公益機構。他同時更是個好爸爸的典範，並榮獲『國家父愛推廣組織』頒發的年度最佳父親獎。

　　葛德納在密爾瓦基出生長大，育有兩個孩子，在紐約和芝加哥都有住所。完成夢想後，葛德納決定把自己的奮鬥經歷整理出書，並請名作家昆西．楚佩撰寫。

昆西．楚佩

　　曾與爵士樂大師邁爾．戴維斯合作《邁爾．戴維斯自傳》，並著有《邁爾與我》、《小史帝夫．汪達》。他也是位著名的詩人，詩集作品有《環環相扣》與《語言的建築學》。