Lessons I Learned From Will Smith

Will Smith inspired me in this true story of Chris Gardner, a San Francisco salesman struggling to build a future for himself and his 5-year-old son Christopher. When his girlfriend Linda walks out, Chris is left to raise Christopher on his own. Chris' determination finally pays off when he lands an unpaid internship in a brutally competitive stockbroker-training program, where only one in twenty interns will make the cut. But without a salary, Chris and his son are evicted from their apartment and are forced to sleep on the streets, in homeless shelters and even behind the locked doors of a metro station bathroom. With self-confidence and the love and trust of his son, Chris Gardner rises above his obstacles to become a Wall Street legend.

In Will Smith's movie "I Am Legend" he plays a brilliant scientist that survives a man-made plague. His dogged determination is again displayed in his relentless effort to find a cure for the plague that is turning everyone in disfigured, blood thirsty mutants. He is badly outnumbered, the odds are stacked against him to even find someone else out there that's still alive and not infected. But in a classic twist, he discovers that he is actually the cure. But the fact that he never, ever, gave up, and continued to work on a cure without even knowing if anyone else was still alive, speaks volumes towards his character. We all need that kind of dedication to what we are doing.