Hard work pays off…
I started the day with some household work and thought that it would be a good idea to turn the TV on and watch something I have watched before. It so happens, I happened to open one of my favorite movies, The Pursuit of Happiness. A movie that became a personal inspiration for me during a time when I was too much overwhelmed with what I want to do and what I should do.
Pursuit of Happiness, directed by Gabriele Maccino and produced in the year 2006, is a drama film starring Will Smith as the character of Chris Gardener. It is a true story based on the life of the businessman Chris Gardener. Throughout the movie, we see Chris Gardener struggling to keep his family together while also having financial problems. Chris Gardener sells medical equipment, and it isn’t until he meets a broker that he realizes he could do much more with his life. He applies for an internship program at a broker’s firm and works hard to stand out in the program. In the meantime, Chris continues to sell the last of the equipment he has at hand to pay for certain necessities like rent and food. For some time, everything seems to be going well until Chris is faced with a tremendous problem: one night he faces the difficulty of having no money because his bank account has been cleared since he had tax debts. At this point Chris is broke and lost. He has to move out of the apartment, and find a place to live with his five-year-old son. In the first night Chris and his son spend the whole night in the subway, riding the sub back and forth until the spend the night in the bathroom of one of the station. This is the peak point of the movie for me, because it showed the helpless, but hopeful condition that Chris was in. Even when he had lost everything, and had nowhere to go, he did not give up, possibly for the sake of his son. However, I always believe that there is some kind of pushing force within us that keep us alive, along with other reasons we may have in our life. If it hadn’t been for Chris’s determination and hope for a better life, they would have ended up in a different condition. In the end, Chris and his son manage to achieve happiness, through hard work, endurance to difficulties and patience for a better future.
Not very long time, I had some difficulties with my university work. As a young mother, I was left in conflict between my motherly responsiblilites and school work. It was not easy to get through reading, writing, studying while at the same tme making time for my kid and taking care of him. After watching this movie, I realized that there is nothing a person cannot do, once he/she puts his mind to it and works hard to get it. In my culture, there is a belief that intention and belief is half of the goal you want to achieve. The other half is hard work, patience and endurance. Which is really what Chris went through in his struggle to become a successful broker. From my experience, I like to believe that each individual has the potential to build a future for him/herself, but we have to try and believe. Because, the road to achieving success goes step by step and the first step is to believe, the next to work hard.