The_CEO_Magazine_ANZ_-_December_2016

COVER STORY

Homeless

to hero

Giving himself permission to dream and always following

the master plan are the driving forces behind Chris

Gardner’s global success and life at home.

WORDS WENDY KAY | IMAGES ANDREW COLLINGS

W

hen the Pope beckoned Chris Gardner forward, the

passionate philanthropist had no clue regarding the best

way of greeting the man.

“How do you greet the Pope?” he asks with a huge smile, as
though he’s laughing at himself. “I don’t know. Do you bow?
Do you kneel? Do you kiss the ring?”

To gain some sort of inkling and to pick up any tips, Chris made sure he was
last in line to meet Pope Benedict XVI. But nothing prepared him for what
came next.

“I finally get up to him — he was a short guy — and I lean into him and he asks:
‘How do you like my shoes?’”