Celebrating Our Failures
By Fanny Bates

或许你从未听说过克里斯•加德纳，但是你很有可能看过由好莱坞巨星威尔•史密斯与其子主演的电影《当幸福来敲门》。该片于2006年上映，全球票房3.07亿美元，位列当年全球票房榜第13位，威尔•史密斯还凭借这部电影拿到了当年奥斯卡影帝提名。这部成绩斐然影响巨大的电影正是改编自克里斯•加德纳追逐梦想的自传。

很多成功的创业者，都有一个不怎么样的童年，但加德纳的童年不仅是“不怎么样”，甚至可以说是“悲惨”了。加德纳三岁的时候，父母就离异了，继父对加德纳非常糟糕。后来在鱼龙混杂的收容所里，年仅8岁的加德纳甚至被男人性侵。在这样的环境下，加德纳从小就下定决心：“我要做一个有钱人！”在母亲的鼓励下，加德纳坚持上完了高中，之后又在叔叔的影响下做了一名海军，后来他转行做了医药设备销售员。

但后来当他想到纽约转行做股票经纪时，他发现妻子带着家里所有财产离开了他，加德纳只能抱着儿子，开始了找工作的生活。他从无薪水的实习生做起，曾经带着儿子流浪街头、住公厕或者收容所，最终在杀出重围转正后，加德纳努力赚钱，生活也日趋改善，不再露宿街头、不再拖欠税单、儿子也进入更好的学校。1987年，33岁的加德纳创办了自己的股票经纪公司，仅仅1年后，他的年薪已达100万美元，并给自己买了一红一黑两台法拉利。

这就是美国著名股票经纪人克里斯•加德纳的故事，他演绎了一个美国版丑小鸭变白天鹅的励志传奇。哪怕交不起房租，哪怕缴不上税单，哪怕要靠卖血生存，他对生活都没有失去信念。

即便流离失所，他依然选择了乐观，选择了坚持，一手提着尿不湿、一手提着骨质扫描仪，努力奔跑在纽约的街头巷尾。他曾失败得几乎一无所有，但是他最终从失败中走出来拥抱了人生的成功！“生命不息，奋斗不止”，克里斯的精神值得我们每个人学习。

Most people have never heard about Chris Gardner. However, you probably watched his life story on the screen. With the American blockbuster “The Pursuit of Happyness”, this life story became alive for all the future generations who struggle with everyday remedies and try to follow their dreams. Noticed the “y” in the title? No, actually this word is not misspelled. This title was written on the wall of a daycare centre where Gardner’s son once went during some of their worst days. But the word somehow came to signify Gardner’s own pursuit of happiness.
 

So how did he become the man who celebrated his own failures? He didn’t have a happy childhood, he was a child of divorced parents so he grew up in a foster home. However, he didn’t succumb to the odds, even though he experienced some hard times. After marrying and the birth of his son, he started to sell some medical equipment. He decided to invest all the money that was left to start this business. And here is where his celebrated failure starts to happen.
 

This investment became a huge financial burden to him and his family. His wife left him and he needed to take care of his son. After failing to pay his income taxes, he lost his home. He and his son became homeless. They slept in public toilets, airports, parks, and hotels. It seemed that there was no light at the end of the tunnel.
 

Was it worth the risk? It seems that failure is inevitable in some phase of your life. However, you have to think big and push forward. Everyone who succeeded in life - great businessmen, inventors, and leaders – have accepted failure as a necessary step to great success. We actually need to accept the idea that attempts are always accompanied by failures and mistakes. You should learn to practice failures. Always expose yourself to various ideas and approaches, bearing in mind that failure is the most natural thing in the world. When we "grow up" we assure ourselves that we should not be wrong anymore. But life teaches us differently. Success is almost always a series of failures with a happy ending. If you already have to experience them, try to choose the right time and space. The truth will release you - literally.

That's actually what Chris did. He embraced failure and let it go with the flow. He continued to sell equipment and his failures didn’t stop. The equipment was stolen from him several times, and there were days when he didn’t have a single cent in his pocket. However, one day, he met a man who would eventually change his life. While experiencing one of his bad days at work, he saw a man walking out of a red Ferrari. He stopped by, asked a man what he does for a living and the man pointed out to a piece of paper hanging on the door of a huge building. That was a call for an internship. He actually encountered a twist of fate and met the manager of Dean Witter, a huge brokerage company having an income of several millions of dollars.
 

It seems like this was just another failure, another step backward in his career. When he told his wife that he would become an intern for a stoke broker, and work without a salary, she decided to leave him. He had failed as a husband and as a father.
 

Despite all odds, he evaluated the viability of the idea that he could pass the internship test and become one of his best employees. When the manager saw that Chris’s methods were really clever and engaging and, while the manager struggled to solve the Rubik’s cube, Chris did it in a few minutes, they knew they shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. After passing the entrance exam, he became a full-time employee. He earned his first million when he was 34 and eventually established his own company, Gardner Rich & Co. To reward himself for being successful, one of the first things he bought was a red Ferrari. He became a living example that dreams do come true.
 

So what is his major secret? The only thing that was repeated constantly in his life was failure. He failed as a husband, as a father, as a son, and as a businessman. However, he decided to face facts as they stood. And he resisted the temptation to blame others for his failures. He failed over and over again and that’s why he succeeded. By rising above the failures and embracing them, he triumphed.