Talk:Chris Gardner

Name
The author publically and professionally goes by the first name Chris, rather than his more formal given name of Christopher. You can see this on the cover of his books and the url and title of his website. So, to have edited everything at wikipedia that mentions him as "Chris" into "Christopher", including his own wiki page, is not only pretentious, but incorrect. It does not follow wiki's standards and practices. i.e. the Marilyn Monroe wiki page doesn't redirect to Norma Jeane Mortensen Baker etc. etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.114.147.142 (talk) 21:23, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Poor stub
Someone out there must have a good handle on what Chris Gardner did in order to achieve his success. Please tell us about it. Jtpaladin 15:31, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
 * If you feel the article needs work (and a lengthening), then why not slap an expand tag on it? -- Kicking222 22:32, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

Dating discrepancy
According to Gardner's interview with the S.F. Gate, he was born in Louisiana (Moving to Wis. at age one), was homeless in 1983, and founded his firm in 1989. This source seems perfectly credible to me. There must be other sources out there which contradict this information, as other contributors keep altering this entry to read otherwise. Rearden Metal 04:56, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Link under "Chris" or "Christopher?"
I've seen his name appear both ways, though more commonly "Chris Gardner" and with "Christopher" or "Chris Jr." referring to his son. The book he authored is under "Chris Gardner."

Whatever happens is fine with me. I suggest that the main entry be "Chris Gardner" for the reasons mentioned above. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Brinabina (talk • contribs) 20:42, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

NPOV?
Was this article written by Chris Gardner's PR agents Brinabina and Wackymacs? It reads like something on the back flap on a self-help CD series. I'm not going to edit it because of it being a current topic, but I thought I should point this out (and I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice it).

Dan McCarty 20:51, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Eh? I'm a bog-standard Wikipedian just helping out. Take a look at my user page if you want to see that I'm not a PR agent. I am getting more and more fed up of Wikipedia because we have so many suspicious and arrogant users here. What is the exact problem you're seeing here? I am referencing the information I add and its NPOV (neutral point of view). — Wackymacs 21:04, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm, personally, not into Wikipolitics, okay?

Whatever you think about our writing styles is just fine with me and if you think it should be improved, then go for it. Edit away!

All I can say is that when I finish my initial contribution, I'll reference everything so that I'll be working within Wiki's established guidelines. As far as I see it, that's really the only problem with it so far.

Brinabina 22:46, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, not to cause anyone to be defensive, but had the same initial reaction as Dan McCarty that I thought the article was written by a PR agent. Part of that reaction was the use of "highly acclaimed" in reference to the movie with no link to either critics reviews or award nominations. I tried to address that with my edit, but I'm new to this, so I don't know how to add links. The other part is the style of the writing- the tone of the article is quite dramatic ("Chris Gardner's childhood was fraught with discouraging circumstances and hardships", etc), which is nice for story-tellng, but doesn't seem to convey the authoriative, facts-based "reporting" that one would expect from an encylopedia. Mkim07751 15:12, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Well; if anoyne is cleaning it up -- a good place to start is to remove all the positive adjectives; it is not very NPOV to start every other sentence with an opinion of what follows, and _then_ moving on to the facts; references or not.

It reads as though it was written by the subject's mother. The length should probably be cut by 2/3. Uucp 04:53, 7 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Yep, and 7 years later it still hasn't been cut. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.199.76.177 (talk) 20:00, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

2001 Pardon
Says clinton pardoned marc rich in 2001 -- clinton wasn't president in 2001.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.180.57.119 (talk) 04:31, 11 February 2007 (UTC).


 * Sure he was, for about 3 weeks until the inauguration. Walt 02:29, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

1 million?
According to the infobox, Gardner is worth > $1 million, yet in the intro it states that he is a multi-millionaire ($2+ million). Someone with references on the subject should check his current net worth. Regards,  Signature brendel  22:36, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I did some publicly-accessible fact-checking on Mr. Gardner and according to the National Association of Security Dealers(NASD)'s website, Mr. Gardner has disclosed to them in 2005 that he has a $684,000 IRS lien against him, going back to 1994. My question, therefore, is whether multi-millionaire is an appropriate description of Mr. Gardner's financial status. ConcernedCitizen2006 20:03, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you for that, please provide the link to the IRS lien so we can reference that article.Trade2tradewell 08:32, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

The link to the NASD BrokerCheck System is http://pdpi.nasdr.com/PDPI/. You then have to accept their disclaimer, select that you want to check an individual broker, enter Christopher Paul Gardner as well as his brokerage firm (Gardner Rich), and then you should be able to click the "Deliver Report" button. ConcernedCitizen2006 02:21, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that info. Once I clicked the link, I counted six general steps that one would have to take before being able to receive the source. How can that be used as a reference? Surely, you brought up a very valid point. My question is directed at Wikipedians as to what would be the appropriate way to go about referencing this fact. Brinabina 21:31, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Comment regarding GA candidacy
I have to say that when I saw this at WP:GAC yesterday, I was amazed; I recall reading the article a few weeks ago, when it was a few (mostly) uncited paragraphs. So in that regard... wow. The editors working hard on this page have done an amazing job. My one big comment regarding the candidacy is that the fifth ref (re: Oprah) is slightly broken and appears in the text of the article. I attempted to fix it, but I couldn't figure it out. Other than that, the article is excellent. -- Kicking222 14:20, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Message for Brinabina: I am bringing this article to Featured status - however I see that you've recently made substantial changes (and it seems you've done a good job!) Despite this I will be making one or two changes to the article as well. Please feel free to contact me.SJCharlton 18:31, 17 January 2007 (UTC) SJCharlton

Hi, nice to meet you! I'm in the final stages of bringing the article to GA status. I should be making my final changes and submit to review by tomorrow. In the meantime, feel free to edit or contribute. Brinabina 19:39, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! I've tracked the changes I've made to the article (bits of all sections except Business ventures which looks good as is). The changes don't affect the content but are concerned with making the article flow and creating a standard style throughout the piece. Feel free to edit or contribute to what I've done.SJCharlton 21:00, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the points raised above, this is a very well constructed article. Plenty of references; a very interesting read too if I may say so. As a result, I have passed this article for Good Article status. This certainly should be put forward for featured article status soon. Congratulations to those of you who have put so much hard work into this article! Wikiwoohoo 14:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I heartily disagree. While it meets the standards for a Good Article in regards to copious inline citations, it entirely fails to be presented in an appropriate tone of voice, and neutral point of view. The article reads like a puff advertisement for Gardner. For instance, the first line should be a concise 1 or 2 sentence summary of who he is. Instead, it goes right into his history without even an introduction. Hardly featured article quality. Further, it does not meet the criteria under article 1 and 4 for the Good Article Criteria. Definitely not 1, 4 is somewhat debatable, but no way is this near feature article quality at the moment. I mean read the thing, it could be ripped straight out of Gardner's bio page. This article needs to do a little more informing, and a little less praising. &rArr;   SWAT Jester    On Belay!  22:46, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Unsourced text
"Chris Gardner should be recognized as the best Rubik's Cube solver because he solved it in a taxi cab ride. He is way better than Tyson Mao because he relies on patterns he memorizes in his head rather than a method with algorithims. Tyson Mao is overrated."Where is the source? This is just stating an opinion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.85.226.17 (talk) 04:36, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

The Car
In the article its claimed that Christopher brought a Ferrari from M. Jordan. This is true, but the article claims the car was red. I saw the story originally on 60 minutes and he was driving a Nero black Ferrari 512TR which was claimed to be Jordans. It had a licence plate that read something like "NTBAllN" - I don't know what the thing was specifically because I can't even remember (or know) how many digits there are in plates in the US. He said it meant "Not a baller" or "Not a basketball player" because of a trip he made into a slum area where he was asked by young African American kids if he was a rapper or NBA player - because they'd never met a black man who had a Ferrari that wasn't wealthy unless they were playing ball or dealing drugs.

I do know my Ferrari's though, and the car was definitely a Black 512TR. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.87.17.22 (talk) 11:38, 2 February 2007 *(UTC)

Good Article Candidacy review
Good Article Review see Good article review &rArr;   SWAT Jester    On Belay!  22:52, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Its bean its bean
I think this article needs some editing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.130.18.93 (talk) 05:20, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Photo
I see that Wikipedia has permission to use the publicity photo. It's my understanding that this kind of permission is not sufficient. The image needs to have GFDL or similar licensing. (Be advised that GFDL licensing releases it to downstream use, alteration, etc.) There are people who patrol around looking for this kinda licensing issue and delete images that are not properly licensed. --Ling.Nut 03:36, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
 * On second thought I'm kinda remembering that GFDL is not the way to go for images. A dedicated editor of this article should be on top of the licensing issue(s). --Ling.Nut 03:38, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Rape Victim?
I noticed this article is part of the category "rape victim" ... some bad joke, or did I miss it in the article? A quick ctrl+f for "rape" doesn't bring up anything either. 69.236.117.84 18:48, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
 * He was a rape victim, as he explains in his book. Romis 00:21, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah i heard hewas too. ((User:SkywalkerX2)) —Preceding unsigned comment added by SkywalkerX2 (talk • contribs) 20:24, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

$30,000/yr in 1981 is poor?
The article states he made less than $30k/yr in 1981 and implies that is a low salary. But that would be worth over twice as much today - for comparison when I started working in 1990 $20k was a fine salary and $30k was considered a great starting salary. Can someone with access to the original sources straighten this out? Walt 02:34, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Correction, it states less than $30,000, which does leave some (I would say too much) room for interpretation so someone should still look it up and see if we could get a more precise salary. Also, it is expensive to live in San Francisco so $30,000 may not be a great salary over there at that time due to living costs. Finally, this would have just reflected a stage in his life and only slightly diminishes the hardships he went through as the core story is him going from homeless without a college degree to owning his own investment firm.--Jorfer 21:43, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

A stipend of $1000/month in 1980 is equivalent to more than $80,000 per annum today. How could such an income be regarded as low salary? Don't make a mockery of poor. June, 05, 2007 (UTC)


 * $1,000 x 12=$12,000-taxes-inflation I don't see how you come out with $80,000.--Jorfer 14:15, 5 June 2007 (UTC)


 * He says $1000/month, and then $80,000 per annum. Thanks for the math lesson but you forgot to multiply the months to equal a year, then do taxes and inflation.


 * You mispoke then because you said ($1,000 x 12)(¨months to equal a year¨)-taxes+inflation(which was my mistake)=$80,000 when you were stating (($1,000 x 12)+$80,000)-taxes+inflation=His salary --Jorfer 15:13, 28 June 2007 (UTC)


 * In any case, the following:
 * He was hired as a sales representative for CMS, a medical equipment and supply company that offered him a yearly income of $30,000 which is equivalent to $65,450 in 2008, which is more money than most families survive on today.
 * is written as if to refute claims that he ever was poor or to contrast with his portrayal in the film. It would probably be more encyclopedic to end the sentence at "$30,000  .  " and let the reader make the judgment about whether or not this is poverty.Originalname37 (talk) 19:48, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Questions about current status
This article seems to have been updated at different times in different spots. It opens by saying that he is the CEO of Gardner Rich; later we read that he is (present-tense) owner of 75 percent of Gardner Rich; and one paragraph later he's sold his small stake in the company. I searched online and found nothing definitive saying he was no longer Gardner Rich's CEO, but I got some hints.

Fair use rationale for Image:Film poster.jpeg
Image:Film poster.jpeg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 12:49, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Book.jpeg
Image:Book.jpeg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 06:36, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Bad Chronology
The intro states that Chris is CEO of Gardner Rich as of 2008, yet the article says he sold his stake in 2006. Somebody should look into this. Realdog (talk) 15:32, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

In addition, it says that he was born in 1954 and served four years in the Navy after graduating from high school, and was discharged in 1974. Assuming it's late 1974, then he joined the Navy in Dec 1970 at the latest -- which means he graduated from high school in December 1970, at the latest. Which means he was 16 when he graduated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.219.232.14 (talk) 21:39, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Semi Locked
I have semi-locked this page because of vandalism. Shougunner (talk) 15:43, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
 * [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Gardner&diff=204004903&oldid=204004768 Adding a protection template] does not protect an article; only administrators can protect articles. Graham 87 08:04, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Lack of Political Views Mentioned
Gardner has expressed support for republicans several times in recent history, yet this appears to be completely left out, while several statements that imply he could be more left wing are clearly included. Sounds fishy... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.78.18.166 (talk) 05:02, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Homelessness
Why didn't he apply for aid? San Francisco is known for its generous welfare programs.Cousert (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 18:46, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

BLP
About half this article is uncited. Claims about his childhood go back ultimately to his own recollections, or more preisely, to what he chooses to say about them. That they have been reprinted in a bio and a movie does not make everything in them true,; If they are included the source needs to be made clear (i.e., "According to him....") and an exact citation given every time. I removed one paragraph that stuck me as particularly untrustworthy.  DGG ( talk ) 04:10, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

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Assessment comment
Substituted at 11:36, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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