The Pursuit of Happyness

(Spoiler alert) I saw the movie a few days ago with a friend; we are both entrepreneurs and both sat in tense stances as the story unfolded, sales were lost and made, relationships unraveled and were built; we had both, to a certain extent, been through some of these times ourselves. While the outcome of the movie was certainly cathartic, it was doubly so for me when I found out that his true salvation had not been in landing a constrained but comfortable job at Dean Witter, but rather in transcending this first step to become a free and significant player in the field on his own.

Some notes on the movie:

The homeless guy crossing the path of Will Smith, at the end of the movie, *IS* Chris Gardner.

The mission where he stays is the actual mission where he stayed. The extras playing the people waiting in line for access are actual users of this facility.

Various people who helped him along the way hold cameo roles in the movie, including a female pastor.

The abominable trainee boss at Dean Witter is played by Dan Castellaneta; aka Homer Simpson. Only one person laughed in the room when that character chipped: "So, who's going to get me doughnuts ?"; I now get it.