Chris Gardner Quotes

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Chris Gardner

Profession : Businessman

Birth : February 9, 1954

No matter what you accomplish, when you're doing something you're truly passionate about... the opportunities are always going to be bigger.

Chris Gardner

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.'

Chris Gardner

The hardest thing that I had to do every day as a working single parent was child care, to have to leave my child with people that I did not know and hope everything was OK, that was the most painful part of every day.

Chris Gardner

What can we be in life? Few figures in history have answered this question with as much clarity and moral authority as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Chris Gardner

In order for you to find a job, people need to know you're looking.

Chris Gardner

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.

Chris Gardner

When I was a kid, we played a jump rope game called double Dutch - where you had to jump over two ropes swinging in opposite directions. Picking just the right moment to jump in was a practiced art form.

Chris Gardner

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.

Chris Gardner

When someone says, 'You can't,' what it really means is that they can't - so why should you get to?

Chris Gardner

Just remember, you're never too old to have a hero.

Chris Gardner

We can all look to our friends, family, and those we admire for inspiration.

Chris Gardner

Nine times out of 10, extenuating circumstances aside, I believe that people are where they are by some kind of choice on their part. You need to acknowledge that, 'Hey, I'm here because I steered my horse in this direction.'

Chris Gardner

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.

Chris Gardner

What I love about AT&T is that they are just as passionate as I am about rebooting the American dream.

Chris Gardner

My stepfather was fond of letting me know, quote, 'I ain't your... damn daddy.' That was something that was painful, to put it mildly.

Chris Gardner

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.

Chris Gardner

Long before I achieved financial success and became the subject of a Hollywood film, I was a veteran, a single father, and a working person who was homeless.

Chris Gardner

Too many veterans are poor or near poor and homeless because of it.

Chris Gardner