Permission To Dream

By Chris Gardner

About the book

In Brooke’s Harmonica, award-winning author and public speaker Chris Gardner illuminates the power of dreaming. As a homeless single father in San Francisco, Chris grounded himself in his mother’s words, “You want something, go get it.” Armed with this advice and his go-getter attitude, Chris made the astonishing transformation from the streets to the high rolling life of an investment banker—with his son on his hip. This enthralling tale opens with Gardner’s granddaughter asking him if he knew President Obama? As a big money man in Chicago, where Obama is from, of course the two outliers know each other. Brooke tells Gardner that she wants to meet Obama. Gardner makes the arrangements and the President and Brooke engage in a funny exchange during her visit.Brooke’s request and eventual manifestation of her dream reminds Gardner of his last days with the love of his life, Holly. Suffering with a brain tumor, she was on her deathbed and asked Chris what he planned on doing with the rest of his life? Consumed with taking care of her, he had no definitive plans, until one day he was hanging out with his granddaughter and became inspired.Brooke was a harmonica player. On a winter day, she and Gardner ventured out together into the freezing rain so he could make good on a promise to get her what she told him was the harmonica of her dreams. During the trip, the two ended up stranded on the Southside of Chicago, where Chris, out of his comfortable environment, explained to her how he came to be a wealthy man. This made him recognize how powerful dreaming can be at every stage of development and that we need to tap into this mind space to achieve a life of happiness and reward.Brooke’s Harmonica is a blueprint for dreaming one’s way to success. While highlighting dreamers from a variety of industries, such as Elon Musk and Greta, Gardner introduces his concept of “The Rep, The Rap, and The Rolodex” for getting your dreams off the ground. The Rep is demonstrating a stellar reputation; The Rap is being able to talk a good game; and the The Rolodex is about maintaining productive relationships. He shares information on the necessity of aiming to become world class no matter your vision, because the world is a competitive global marketplace. He shows that it’s never too late to create opportunities for one’s life and never too late to reinvent one’s self. With the end goal being to shape your life into a masterpiece, which will allow you wealth untold—whether intellectually of financially—to share with others.

To Chris, personal dreams are a responsibility for the overall betterment of the entire world. He wants us to know that we have the power to choose and achieve our own direction. Brooke’s Harmonica is a philosophical guide to turning dreams into action—immediately.