Entrepreneur's Table

'Happyness' for sale He's gone from homeless single dad to successful stockbroker. And that's just the start for Chris Gardner Inc. By Jia Lynn Yang , Fortune Magazine reporter September 15 2006: 2:22 PM EDT (Fortune Magazine) -- In 1982, Chris Gardner was just another go-getter in the training program at Dean Witter's San Francisco office, making $1,000 a month. He was also homeless. Gardner couldn't afford both day care for his 20-month-old son, whom he was raising alone, and a place to live. So for a year he and Chris Jr. slept where they could - cheap hotel rooms in West Oakland, a shelter at a church in the Tenderloin, under his office desk, even, on occasion, the bathroom at the Bay Area Rapid Transit MacArthur station. He remembered the words of his mother, Bettye Jean Triplett, another single parent, who grew up during the Depression outside Rayville, La., where slavery was still a living memory: "You can only depend on yourself. The cavalry ain...

Zipper Down on the Highway to WELATH Have you ever discovered that your zipper is down and wondered how long you had been parading around in this condition and why no one informed you? They may have been too embarrassed. The solution is to let you be embarrassed. How do you navigate these sensitive situations? I had an article up here with a severely misspelled title for at least a week. I spelled "wealth" as "welath."no one said anything - or noticed - OR did they? I was embarrassed - but not much. I misspell all the time, but usually not in a title. Should someone have said something or would that have been nit picky? I just finally saw "The Pursuit of Happiness" last night - at least I thought I did. Then I looked and it was spelled HAPPYness - just like a recurring scene from the movie where Chris Gardner is repeatedly annoyed at the misspelling on a wall in his neighborhood. It is funny how little things keep us from f...