At Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, there was a promising football player named Braheam Murphy. Sam Greiner, his coach, was about to kick Murphy off the team, due to his grades dropping so low. Come to find out, Murphy was dealing with more issues than Coach Greiner could even imagine.
Murphy's mother had passed away when he was just 5 years old. His father had remarried, and his step mother had recently given birth to Murphy's half-sister, who had cerebral palsy. The family could only afford to live in a one-bedroom appartment, and was too small for Murphy & his older sister to live in.
Murphy was working a part-time job after football practice. And was able to stay at an extended family member's house, but only for about two days out of the week. For the rest of the time, he had trouble finding a place to sleep, and certainly had no place to call 'home'. Needless to say, this lifestyle didn't allow much time for homework, & studying. And at this point, it didn't look like Murphy had a real path to succeed in life.
After Murphy had explained to his coach about his current living situation, and how football meant everything to him, Murphy had asked Coach Greiner if he could live with him. Coach Greiner, who was obviously touched by this story, and who saw potential in Murphy, agreed to allow Murphy to stay with him and his family.
Now that Murphy had more stability in his life, he was able to bring up his grades, achieving a 3.7 GPA. And had now become the new quarterback for the football team. The rest of his teammates were so inspired by Murphy's journey, that they actually ended up winning the North Carolina state championships. Which happened to be the first time since the 1950s.
After being spotted by a recruiter from Army West Point, Braheam Murphy ended up receiving a full scholarship to play football for their school.
Thanks to certain types of shelters and organizations, homeless people are presented with a 2nd chance in life, and given the opportunity to get back on their feet. One organization in particular, called The Gratitude House, was founded by a man named Jean Manganaro. Jean is a successful person who dedicates his life & organization to helping people without homes.
However, Jean wasn't always a successful person. He grew up with alcoholic, abusive parents. And when he was 15, he had come home from school to realize that his parent had abandoned him. The entire apartment was empty, and it was apparent that they were not coming back.
With nowhere to go, and no one to turn to for help, he ended up falling in with the wrong crowd. And quickly became addicted to drugs & alcohol, just like his parents. With his new life of addiction & criminal activity, Jean ended up in a juvenile detention center.
Jean continued to deal with addiction & homelessness up until the age of 29. This is when he decided that he needed a change in life. Jean decided to head out to Florida to search for his long-lost brother. Once in Florida, he started attending AA meetings.
While at an AA meeting, another member of the group decided to cut Jean a break, and struck a deal with him. The deal was: Jean was allowed to crash on his couch for 2 weeks for free. After the 2 weeks, he had to find a job and start paying rent, otherwise he had to go. Jean gladly took on this challenge, and ended up finding a job shortly thereafter.
Jean then started volunteering to help local homeless people in Florida, and soon realized that due to government bureaucracy, there were a lot of holes in the system that prevented homeless people from getting the help that they needed. That's when Jean Manganaro founded his organization, The Gratitude House, to help the homeless get back on their feet.
The Gratitude House helps homeless people get back on their feet by presenting them with the same 'two-week, do-or-die' opportunity, that had allowed Jean to turn his life around.
Chris Gardner was a single father, taking care of his toddler son, after his wife had left him. Living in San Francisco, his single paycheck just wasn't enough to live off of, and was eventually evicted from his apartment.
He was homeless for about a year, and was often standing in lines at homeless shelters, or sleeping in public restrooms and park benches. At some point, he managed to find an internship program for a stock brokerage. While going through the program, he would spend all that money that he had, putting his son into day care.
After going through the program and getting the internship position, he would often sneak his son into his office at night, and sleep underneath his desk. He was finally offered a full-time position at the firm, after a year of unpaid work, because of his dedication and talent at stock trading.
Gardner is now worth over $60 million today, and donates a lot of his time and money to help homelessness charities. This story might actually sound familiar to some of you.. The movie 'The Pursuit of Happyness', starring Will Smith, was inspired by Chris Gardner's story.
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