Chris Gardner’s life is the definition of a success story.

From living on the streets to owning a multi-million dollar brokerage firm, Gardner is able to share his story with thousands of college students across the country.

On Feb. 1, Gardner will come to Columbus to teach Ohio State students ways to beat the recession, while also providing personal experiences.

His understanding of the current economy is a reflection of his success in the financial world. But, the road to his success was challenging and long.

With dreams of becoming Miles Davis as a child, Gardner’s musical aspirations were soon diminished when he learned the importance of being yourself from his mother, whom he speaks to everyday.

“My mom convinced me that you got to be you. She said to me, ‘find what that one thing is, and be passionate about it,'” Gardner said in a phone interview.

After graduating high school, Gardner joined the Navy and then moved to San Francisco to work as a medical research associate at a scientific medical supply distributor. He found this work unfulfilling, so, just a few years after his son, Christopher Jr., was born, he became determined to find a more lucrative and rewarding career.

In 1983, after splitting from Christopher Jr.’s mother, Gardner earned a position in Dean Witter Reynolds’ extremely competitive training program. With a two-year-old son, Gardner secretly struggled with homelessness, surviving only on a $1,000 monthly stipend.

By getting to the office early and staying late, his hard work paid off when he was eventually offered a full-time job.

In 1987, Gardner opened his own brokerage firm, Gardner Rich LLC, in Chicago. Although Gardner did not know what he wanted to do when he grew up, he knew he was “going to be world class at something,” Gardner said.

And world class he became. Once his success was apparent, he wrote a book in May 2006 called “The Pursuit of Happyness,” a memoir of his struggle to become the person he is today.

The purpose of the book was not to write about himself, but to show people the potential each person has. It was eventually translated into 30 different languages and distributed across the world.

The book was then made into a movie in December 2006, with Gardner’s character played by Will Smith. The moment Gardner found out that Smith was going to play his character, he was dissatisfied with the decision.

“I was not feeling it. Then my daughter convinced me otherwise. She said, ‘Pop, don’t worry. If he could play Muhammad Ali, he could play you!” Gardner said.

After asking Gardner what he felt when he first saw the movie, he explained that it actually took him many months after it was released to get up the courage to see it.

The struggles that people see in the film are just a small part of Gardner’s daily life. When Gardner watches the movie, he is reminded of the particular details of that life.

His first viewing of the film was in Rome, where it only played in Italian, a language Gardner does not understand. An elderly Italian woman made him sit through the whole movie, holding his hand the entire 117 minutes.

Gardner’s decision to misspell the word “happiness” comes from his idea that the “y” is there to represent “you.” He believes people can only bring happiness to themselves, so the focus is on you when it comes to personal success.

“Baby steps count too. I knew if I kept doing the work, kept doing something, I would eventually get somewhere,” Gardner said.

Gardner’s advice to college students in particular is to stay in school because “you can never be too smart.”

He urges all students to continue with their education until they are certain about what they want to do with their lives. Gardner believes it is important not to compromise between being practical or passionate; it is possible to be both.

To learn more about Gardner’s advice during this economical time, OUAB and Alpha Kappa Psi are sponsoring “Resisting the Recession with Chris Gardner” Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. in Independence Hall. Free tickets with a valid BuckID are available at the Ohio Union now.

Resisting the Recession will focus on breaking cycles and the struggles he overcame to achieve success.

“This challenging time will be the most exciting part of your life,” Gardner said.