Permission to Dream

In the spirit of The Last Lecture, The Secret, and The Alchemist, this small book presents BIG ideas for turning your one day into today, including the generational transfer of a dream and a powerful blueprint for a masterpiece lifefrom the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir and major motion picture The Pursuit of Happyness. On a winters day, Chris Gardner set off with his nine-year-old granddaughter Brooke to find the harmonica of her dreams. The search sends them North beyond the wall into a foreboding Chicago neighborhood and, soon, on a harrowing adventure that will change both of their livesand ours. Chris is still mourning the loss of his girlfriend to brain cancer. Her question haunts him: Now that we know how short life can be, what will you do with the time you have left? After five years, he feels an urgencywhat he calls, Atomic Time in which every second countsto find an answer, but is stuck. Even while giving Brooke permission to aspire to one day become President of the United States, he knows its time to reclaim his own permission to dream. Lost, Chris and his granddaughter board a bus, reminding him of earlier rides through dark times when dreams of a better life kept him alive. As the two wind through a changing cityscape, Chris reflects on past lessons that offer powerful guidance for dreaming your way to monumental success. At its heart, this book lays out a blueprint for building a dream-come-true lifeeven during uncertainty. Gardner delivers the secrets to achieving a prosperous careerfrom a method for identifying your ultimate dream to a playbook for becoming world class at it. His tools include the new 3 Rsor the Rep, the Rap and the Rolodexwhich reveal how to earn a stellar reputation, develop a rap for marketing yourself, and amass a Rolodex of rewarding relationships. No matter how much wealth you achieve, Chris notes, true success comes from enriching the lives of othersso all can still have access to the American Dream. Toward the end, Brooke observes that in Atomic Time its never too late for anyone to reinvent themselves and change their fortune. Chris, hearing her, realizes what his next pursuit will beto go back to high school and give permission to dream to the next generation of problem solvers and change makers. A true fable, Permission to Dream is a timeless and timely manifesto for turning dreams into actionbeginning right now.