Chris Gardner: a self-made millionaire, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and philanthropist

Like most rags to riches stories, Chris Gardner’s consists of many ups and downs. When he was a child, his father left him. His mother remarried, to a man who was anything but a father figure. He made Chris’ life and his mother’s life a living hell. Chris was chased out of the house and really had nowhere to go. He eventually found a place in the Navy.

After the Navy, he became a medical supplies salesman. He then had a child with his wife, Sherry. His career in the medical industry was doing well for him then, but the future was uncertain. The industry was changing, so Chris had to look to somewhere else for employment.

One day Chris saw a man parking a red Ferrari. He went up to him to ask what he did for a living. The man told Chris he was a stock broker. That’s all Chris needed to hear. Now he wanted to pursue a career as a stock broker.

Chris left his job as a supplies salesman. He had little money and his wife left him. Chris had no job, no money, no wife, and no home. But he did have his son. His son gave him immense motivation to do what he had to secure a better life.

The two of them were homeless and slept wherever they could, including a bathroom at the subway station. While they were homeless, Chris studied for the licensing exam, which he passed.

They were still struggling, but they had more hope than ever before. Chris got a job at Bear Sterns in San Francisco. He made cold calls to get new clients and worked as many hours as he possibly could.

As Chris worked harder, their situation began to get better. They were able to find a place to live and Chris was starting to earn more money. In 1987, Chris was able to start his own brokerage firm called Gardner Rich & Co. in Chicago.

Thomas Chen is the president and one of the co-founders of Crystal Window & Door Systems, which last year booked $42 million in sales and has some 450 employees working at offices in eight states.

August 21, 1982 when he first step on the land of America. That was the day Thomas Chen landed at Kennedy Airport from Taiwan. He was 27, had little cash, spoke no English and knew only one person in his new home. He came to America to find opportunity.

Yes, the soft-spoken man is rich. However, money isn't this entrepreneur's only animating force.

"After a point, the money isn't important," Chen insists. "You want your dream to keep going. I want to keep expanding our business. The second dream is to create more jobs and to give back to the community."

It didn't take long for Chen to start adjusting in his early days in New York. Within two weeks of arrival he found a job working for a moving company. It paid $40 a day, and Chen considered himself lucky to get it.

"Because of the language barrier, I couldn't do anything," he recalls. "Most of the [available] jobs were low-paying, labor jobs. I needed to learn the language first."

Within a month of his arrival, Chen had signed up for English classes, spending his early earnings on private tutoring and group classes.

The money that was left over was stashed into savings (he received raises, and found better-paying jobs as his language skills improved). Within 18 months, Chen had salted away $10,000. A former metal worker in Taiwan who had never been to college, he decided it was smart to spend the money on a business he'd know best: welding.

In his basement apartment, he fashioned steel into window bars and gates, then sold the safety devices to customers in Chinatown and Flushing. Meanwhile, he read books and took classes on business management. The research paid off; He did well enough to start Crystal in 1987 with two partners.

Though his finances and lifestyle have change drastically, Chen has acute memories of his not-so-distant past. And because of his experience, he is committed to hiring recent immigrants who have similar dreams of success. To help them, Chen's ensured that Crystal provides free English classes for employees. He also has given Queensborough Community College a $250,000 endowment to provide scholarships so immigrants can enroll in the school's intensive English classes for free.

"He's not only a donor, he's a role model," said college president Eduardo Marti.