Believing in Yourself: Kevin Hart’s Road to Greatness

Intro

Thank you, thank you, thank you, guys. A very warm welcome. I’m Kevin, and what we’re doing here, in, like, literally, didn’t take two minutes to say it. I mean, he’s in the middle of making a movie right now and flew down to just spend this time with us for an hour, so thank you, first of all. No problem. Listen, I want this is a group of people I think, you know, as part of who matched me, so we feed 100 million meals a year in the U.S. going to perhaps a half billion meals now, participating in all these projects. So we do this little thing at my house to make it intimate, make it fun, but we try to bring people that I think are true role models and some people, role models of the challenges they still have, and some people are role models of how to overcome it, and you clearly are that. You’re also, everybody here’s an entrepreneur, and you’re [ __ ] amazing. You’re a producer, you’re an actor, you’re a writer, you’re a [ __ ] comedy superstar. Now, tell me, how do you go from shoes in the world all? How did you get into comedy?

Getting Into Comedy

Over the years, you know, when you get dealt certain hands, you know, sometimes you have no idea what the turn is gonna be, and for me, it was always the thought. It was a thought of doing comedy, but I just never knew how. I never knew what to do with the approach to take, how to get there, and one day, a suggestion came up from co-workers of Kevin, “There’s an amateur night right around the corner at the comedy club called the Laugh House in Philadelphia. You should go do it.” And I was like, “I would love to do it. I never knew that these things existed.” And when I got the opportunity to do that, I fell in love with the moment that I didn’t know how to go get. I fell in love with the spotlight, with the stage that I didn’t know existed for me. I didn’t know was available for me at that time. And once I found out how to get it, there was nothing else that mattered except that. It was about that and that only.

First Time Onstage

How was that first time? Tell me about that first time onstage.

I was absolutely awful. I was horrible, yeah. I had jokes prepared, they just weren’t good jokes. But what was good is that I didn’t have fear. It didn’t matter that the jokes weren’t working. I was in love with the fact that I was on a stage. I was in love with the fact that there were people in the crowd and that I had a microphone in my hand. Every joke didn’t work, but I would figure it out. The silence didn’t deter me from wanting to be a comedian. I wanted to be a comedian. I didn’t know.

Decision to Be a Comedian

When did you decide you really wanted to be a comedian?

I wanted to be a comedian after I saw Eddie Murphy delirious. You know, my dad wasn’t in my house that often, but when he was, he was an Eddie Murphy fan, Richard Pryor fan, and I remember delirious. I remember sneaking and watching Eddie Murphy and seeing my household laugh at Eddie Murphy, and the quotes would go on for days and weeks about what he said. I remember Richard…

Comedy and Family

I remember Pryor albums and my dad laughing with his friends. They loved Richard Pryor and the things he said, how true they were, and how he was a bad man, and they loved him. What I found is that comedy brought my dad and his surroundings together. So, for the dark moments that my dad had in his life, which were a lot, the memories that I had that were all positive are associated with comedy, associated with laughter. So at a young age, I saw the power of laughter. There was such a negative cloud over my home that when I got to see what laughter did, it made me embody just that. So I wanted to bring that not just to my household but to the people. So I became the class clown, I became the funny guy day in and day out.

To my mother, you know, my mom was very straight. I made my mom laugh. My mom, she’s just a no-nonsense person. It would be, “Boy, get out my face, go there, sit your little ass down somewhere.” Okay, it wasn’t too much. But what I loved the most though is that there was a high level of support from my mother. There was always support. There was never a negative tone of what I couldn’t do. It was always, “Whatever you put your mind to is what you can achieve.” So when I got old enough to make the decision and say I wanted to do stand-up comedy, it wasn’t met with negativity. It was met with reinforced positivity and there was a timeline that was given to make it work. And if I didn’t, I had to go and do what she suggested. What was that? It was a year. I had a year. Go to school. It didn’t matter I wasn’t the best student. I went to Community College for two weeks, failed several tests at that time. Self-esteem was low. Google my SAT scores. Extremely low, most…

Lessons from Mother

What did you learn from your mother?

My mother was a woman who was never content. We were talking on stairs, and I told you, I said the one thing that I’ve taken from my mom that’s just branded in me, you know, it’s you get one life, and out of that one life, you’re only gonna get out of it what you put into it, and information is free, that’s what she always just said. There’s so much free information. She stayed in school. She always wanted more. She wanted more degrees. She just wanted to learn. And my biggest fights came with me not wanting to learn. You know, naturally, as a kid, I wasn’t that great of a student. I didn’t care for school. I didn’t want school. But as I got older and I became an individual, I realized the power of the thing that was preached to me so much, which was knowledge and information. So the thing that I’ve taken from my mom is that feeling of never being content, never being okay with where you are because after every level is another level, whether you realize it or not. And I always wanted to see what was past the thing that I got. I got here, but what was back there? I was never content with being here. So when you look at me now, you know, as a successful comedian, actor, and you start to realize the tiers, model put the model in there, you know, you look at producer, you look at writer, you look at network owner, you know, radio channel that I own, author. There are so many things that are acting as olive branches to a tree because I realized that that tree just grows. It doesn’t stop growing. A tree only stops if you choose to say, “I’m not watering anymore.” But at the age forty, I felt like there’s…

Mother’s Influence and Support

So much more water than I could put in this tree, and so many more things that I can have hanging from my tree, and that comes just from my mother’s ability to reinforce. What you think a child isn’t receiving, he may not be at the moment, but at a later time, the light bulb will go off and he’ll go, “Oh [ __ ], that’s what that was about.” My lessons that were taught to me at a young age of 14 through 18 have clicked in at the age 24 to now going on 40. That’s when I’ve realized all the work she did. She passed in 2006.

Relationship with Mother

Yes, what was that like for you because she was such an influence in your life, and I heard that she didn’t talk much about your comedy, if I heard this correctly, but you found all this material that she’s been collecting. Yeah, touch you.

What was your mom like?

You know, my mom wasn’t… she was a very religious woman. So, a little fact about my mother is that she never came to any of my comedy shows when I started. Even when things were going good, she never attended a comedy show, never. And it never bothered me because she supported me, but she didn’t like the environment. She didn’t like alcohol, she didn’t like smoking, she didn’t like cuss words, so she never went. And I was okay with that because that’s not what she was about. But she would always ask how it went, always wanted to know if it was still the passion that I felt that it seemed, if I was gonna go through with it. We had conversations about it. When she passed away, we found a box, and my mom had clippings and memorabilia from everything that I’ve done in stand-up. So, though she was never there present, she was aware and gathered all things that her child did that acted as anklets of any type of success, as mundane as they may have been, like Kevin Hart’s little flyers that were in a newspaper, she clipped it out, she saved it. The things that were in the neighborhood, that may have been on a local restaurant or cashier’s check cashing place outside, you can see the clippings, all of my hustle and bustle she tracked. And I think to me, that was the most amazing thing. That was my nod from an angel that acted as you.

Sometimes it’s better not to know.

Which you don’t know is sometimes better. Sometimes it’s better what you don’t know because finding out is going to do more than it would have been when I had known. If she had attended those shows and I find that box from when she passed, it’s not the same thing. But the fact that I found it after the fact, it was the biggest like, “Oh my God.” And it made me feel like the support that she gave was even bigger. And now, as I’ve achieved the success, I don’t feel like, “Damn, I wish my mom was here to see it.” I 100% know that my mama’s witnessing it at the highest level, and that there’s a constant applause and pat on the back, so there’s never the feeling or void of missing or not being present.

Tell me more about your mom.

I got tons of stories about my mom that would blow you all away. There’s a real one that’s famous I told when I did, over this is… I couldn’t pay my rent. I couldn’t pay my [ __ ] rent. I was living by myself. Stand-up comedy just held…

A Miracle with the Bible

I was 8, I was 19, and my half of the rent was $400 a month, and I just didn’t have it. And I was like, “Mom, look, you said you were gonna help me while I was doing stand-up. I know I was trying to do it myself. I need your help. They’re gonna evict me.” And she was like, “Read your Bible.” I read the Bible, but the notices on the door, like, they’re gonna evict me, mom. She was like, “Talk to me when you read your Bible.” And I’m like, “All right, whatever, mom.” Couple of days go by, they changed the color – notice, 2 notice is now shifted to pink. The pink means it’s real, mom. They’re gonna kick me out. I’m serious. I need the money or else I’m not gonna have a place to live. Did you read your Bible? Yes, then if you read your Bible, then you wouldn’t be talking to me. Mom, this is not the time. Then you didn’t read your Bible. Back and forth, I get off the phone. I’m frustrated. Nighttime comes. I’m in bed. Open up the drawer, and I was like, “Let me read this damn Bible. Just read the damn Bible, man, so I can really tell this woman that I’ve read the Bible and be honest about it so she can help me.” I opened up the Bible, and the rent checks for the rest of the year fell out of the Bible. It’s true, literally, for every month of that year. And I had missed months where I had to scrape and find it. It was always there. And her biggest thing was, “Don’t lose your faith. Keep faith. Read the Bible.” So from that day on, that’s when I started reading the Bible.

Ovarian Cancer and Last Moments

And then I had to go to her. She was like, “Yeah, he’s been lying to me all this time about reading the Bible.” Another one now, the stories are giving us some parenting. It’s if this is all real stuff. The other one is when she was at her sickest. You know, my mom, she passed away of ovarian cancer, and the thing about my mom, like I said, she was a very religious woman. So she didn’t tell us the severity of the ovarian cancer. Me and my brother found out when we were seeing her things were just changing, like she wasn’t looking good. So we had to basically drag my mom to the hospital, and we found out then that she was trying to take care of herself naturally. She didn’t believe in doctors. She didn’t want medicine. She wanted drugs. It’s just not what she was about. But at the time, of course, it was too late for the stages that she was at. And the doctor let me and my brother know that, at this time, it’s terminal. You know, unfortunately, you’re gonna lose your mother in, you know, 30 days. It was a short amount of time, and, you know, it hit me and my brother. We’re shaking up. Will, I goddamn, he’s like, “We should talk to mom about it before the doctor does. Like, it should come from us.” And we went to talk to my mom and tell her what the doctor said, and we started talking about the time period. And she was like, “You don’t have to talk to me about a time period of how much life I have left.” She said because that means that you’re wasting my valuable time with negativity. She said, “We could be doing other things.” She said, “I want you to talk to me, spend time with me, read books to me, be with me at the brink of what would be the worst.” So many, she was the trooper of all troopers, and we never talked about that until the last stages. We never talked about dying. Nobody was allowed to come in that room and mention anything about death. It was talking about great moments, family reunions, the time when the time when he lessons that she did, that she did what we love the most, Mom. It was nothing but laughter until her dying day. And that showed me that you can’t break a great spirit. Like, there’s something that’s awesome. There’s some people that have such a heavy weight on them with so much that they deal with, but they’re able to maintain the highest levels of positivity, and it’s because of their spirit. Yeah, there’s a higher thing than just wanting to be happy. My mom’s wanting will to be happy.

Authenticity and Self-Deprecation

Because of all that she’s done, yeah, it’s what I saw at the end. She put in all this time, energy, and work by dealing with my dad and his [ __ ] and trying to pick up all the pieces. They don’t know those last days it was about happiness. Don’t stress me out. Wow, there was nothing but happiness. So I could, like I said, the stories of Nancy Hart are endless. But when you see the way that maneuver and you look at all the things that I go through in my life, and people are like, “Man, he just keeps going. It seems like he’s not shaken or bothered or broken. You can’t break what’s been built to laugh, your humor.”

Self-Effacing Style

Always self-effacing, always self-effacing as a style. We live in a world where people often attack each other. It’s an interesting world out there with social media. But, you know, you have this unique style of self-effacing, but you still tell truths. You grow into who you’re supposed to be in stand-up comedy. You know, in the beginning, you’re doing a version of what you think is funny. You don’t know what’s funny, right? If you’re trying to figure it out. Yeah, coming out of your… you’re throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, right? That’s the gamble. The gamble of comedy is, “I think it’s funny. Let me see if you guys think this is funny. If you don’t think it’s funny, I mean, I was wrong within my gambling. I gotta go back to the drawing board.” The high volume of stuff that you think is funny ain’t gonna be funny. It’s not. It’s not going to be funny. Wow. But when you start to understand really good, everything I say is genius at this stage. Now, when you… when you start to get comfortable, you start to realize that I’m funny. I don’t have to force it. It’s… it’s in me. It’s… the funny is in me. So talking about my life and being true to who I am is what people are gonna gravitate towards. People love to relate. People love to see what’s real. You love to identify. If I sat up here and I talked about things that you guys couldn’t identify with or couldn’t walk away and go, “Wow, I’m alienating myself from my crowd.” The best way to open up and make myself a part of my crowd is to be real because we all love real. So my life, my mistakes, my ups, my downs, my marriage, my divorce, my kids, that’s what we all share. We just share it differently. We all travel. If you don’t travel, you want to travel. If you want to travel, where do you want to go? There’s so many things I can break down the X’s connective tissue between me and everybody. I can relate to everybody in this room, and I don’t have to change who I am because ultimately, you just want to know about the person that you’re watching. And when you walk away, you go, “Damn, that was interesting. That was funny.” But if you feel like you know me and you left, now you grow with me. So over the years, authenticity and honesty have allowed my fan base to grow with me. And if you look up, I’m about to be 40. I’ve been doing stand-up since I was 18. My stand-up special started when I was around 24. When you go and look at me from 24 to now, to age 39 going on 40, you’re gonna go, “Holy [ __ ]. I’m watching Kevin Hart become a man. I watched Kevin Hart go through life. He put it all out there on stage, and I feel like I not only know him, but I respect him because he never hid from who he is. That’s the only way that I can do stand-up comedy. I can’t do it in a way to… I’m talking about what I don’t know.”

Evolving Comedy and Adapting to Change

That’s why I don’t do politics. That’s why I don’t talk about divisive material. It’s my job to bring people together. I don’t want to [ __ ] divide us, bring us together. So that’s… that’s what I do, 100 percent.

First Real Breakthrough and Early Jokes

Tell us if you would if there’s a way to look at it, how do you start? Let’s say when you had your first real breakthrough. You told us about your first hit and flop. When was your first real breakthrough? And tell us what was one of the first jokes you came up with that frickin’ worked, that you’re like, “Okay, I got this [ __ ]!” First rememberable joke that worked.

The first joke that worked, I remember it. I don’t know where, but it was about people on public transportation. It was the perverted world of public transportation and how there’s so much that happens from the time that somebody gets on a bus to where they take a seat. And it was like grinding on people, accidentally kissing, chest bumping, and the whole thing was basically to say why I’m not comfortable on public transportation because of what’s been done to me on public transportation. And I had a joke about getting robbed by a little person, which was a horrible joke back then. And it was like a cross-eyed little person, and I didn’t know they were robbing me because they were looking at somebody else. Somebody was looking at me. It was bad. Now, this material is great material, admitting that off the bat. I’m just telling you guys my early thoughts. But this is what makes you realize how easy it is to misconstrue a joke. And within the times they were in when you don’t know how to tell jokes, you’re just throwing [ __ ] at the sink. In those times, insensitivity played a high part in what you thought was funny. Right now today, you have to be mindful of what you say because it’s changed. Now you’re living in a time where everybody’s voice can be heard. Social media has given everybody the opportunity to have a thought. Put that thought out there, and other people can either get on board with that thought or ignore that thought. But no matter what, my thought, my vision can be heard. When you’ve got it all, plus the world, people doing that at the same time, you now have no right, no wrong. Everything is an opinion. That’s my opinion. Is this my opinion? Is this? It’s so much. So for comedy, the best way to adapt to times is to simply understand that people’s feelings should be respected. I get it. I understand it, which is why over the last 10 years, I made the changes that I’ve made within the level of respect that you put out. You put out also a good energy of change. Some comedians do understand it. Some choose to be edgy. You have to understand the craft of comedy. The craft of comedy comes with a shock factor. So when you take away that shock factor that some people hold on to, you take away the one thing that they had in their arsenal that they feel made them funny. It’s not that they want to be disrespectful. Yeah, at one point, that’s what they were praised as. Andrew Dice Clay in his prime was the most disrespectful comedian and would say things and was vulgar, but

Embracing Change, Learning from Mistakes, and Perfectionism

That’s what made him Dice. If Andrew Dice Clay performed today, we would all sit and hold our chests and go, “Can you believe the [ __ ] that we’re listening to?” Because of the times, he would have to adapt and change to the times, like we all have to. And it’s not a bad thing. I welcome the change. I welcome the fact that, hey, within time, there should be change, there should be respect. But you also have to be really understanding that the only way to get to the point of change is to understand the mistakes that are made before the change. So I’m a person, I can raise my hand and go, “I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I did a lot of dumb [ __ ], but I’ve learned from it. I’m better from it all. And now I’m a better guy, and I’m a better comedian, and I’m a better craftsman, I’m a better entertainer, I’m a better businessman.” But it’s because of the mistakes that I made. Yeah, if I don’t make those mistakes, I don’t get to sit here and be the guy that I am today. You gotta [ __ ] up, you have to. And it’s like, I want people to understand that it’s okay. It’s nothing wrong with [ __ ] up, as long as you learn. You have to learn from it. Like I tell my kids all the time, you’re not gonna be straight-A students all the way through school. It’s not gonna happen. I want it to happen, but when it doesn’t, it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad student. It means, on this particular test, they threw some curveballs that you didn’t handle correctly. How do we accept this, learn from it, and then handle the next test better? If I got to the point where I was unrealistic and I go, “You didn’t get an A, am I being real? Am I being true to who I am? Am I really giving good lessons? Or am I allowing my kids to understand and grow?” I want them to understand and grow the same way that I have. And in any and everything that I’ve done in life, I can tell you guys, honest to God, I have learned and grown. That’s the dopest thing about being authentic. I’m real enough to say when I’m wrong. I’m real enough to go, “Yeah, I get that. I learned some [ __ ] from that. Yeah, I’m better because of that.” But I’m also real enough to say, as people, we all need to take one step back and go, perfection shouldn’t be something that’s expected from each and every single individual. You can’t do it. And at this time, that thing is being put on people, yeah, in all aspects of life. Perfection. Only perfection now. But perfection, which means there’s no way for you to grow. Mistakes, and the first thing I’m afraid of them digging up my SAT scores. That’s not the only thing that I’m truly afraid of. Everything else I can handle. I’m just gonna give that down. I got a 585 on my SAT. For this, I did a B-A-C-A-D-A all the way down to paper. We had a class trip the same day. This is a true story. Got 400 for putting your name on a paper. I just put it out there so you guys find it. There’s no… I admitted it first, and I learned from that. If I take the SAT again, sir, I will take it correctly. I did a B-A-C-A-D-A all the way down. 2004. Wow. The Upside.

2004 Paper Soldiers and 2019 Movies

In 2004, “Paper Soldiers,” I think what is this? What yours is 2019, yeah. 2004 movie started to give three years, three movies a year, almost not all good movies, not all good movies. Movie called “Pass the Potato Salad,” don’t go see that one. There’s nothing to call something like “A Business,” don’t go see that one. So many great victories because I’ve had a good run. “The Upside” was a really good movie. I love the fact that it overcame the obstacles that did that people got a chance to see it, and it showed a different side of me. I think that you know the dramas that I now have on the table that I’m about to shoot show a different side of me as well. You know, at this point in my career, it’s about constantly rebuilding and just maneuvering and finding new ways to reinvent myself. Drama is the best way for me to show my fan base that I’m elevating and constantly growing. And within stand-up comedy, it’s me making a decision now that’s what the next chapter for me will be. And it’s a tricky one, you know? It’s how do I come out with a new version of myself, especially within these times today, and that’s what I’m going back and forth on now. So it’s definitely gonna be an elevated version of me, I just don’t know what and how yet, and that’s the challenge, that’s me figuring it out like I do anything else. Many people, the hardest-working mindset guys in all of entertainment. Thank you.

The Drive to Succeed

You’re a writer, director, producer, all the things we just described, a mogul of course. But tell me, like, where do you get the drive for that? I heard a part from your mom, but when did you start to think, “I’m gonna be a mogul, I’m gonna do acting”? Like, where were the breakthroughs that took you from selling shoes to, and what was your mindset on shoes? So you’re gonna build something, baby, it’s the company, you know? When you tell me this room and you say that I have 44 people in this room, and these are all people that have taken on an amazing task with me, and they act as amazing partners. Some people go, “Oh man, that’s cool, that’s good for you.” And everybody in this room, I’m the guy that goes, “Well, what do they do? I don’t know what you guys do.” And then when I find out what you do, I’m gonna go and look those things up, and I’m gonna know, “Oh [ __ ], well, how did they get into that? How do these people get together? How do they meet? More importantly, why? Why are they all so keen on doing amazing [ __ ]?” I don’t like not knowing. I don’t like the thought of feeling of being content with not understanding or not wanting. So when I see what other people can do, what can be obtained from a thought, from a want, from a field, it makes me go, “Well, I got the same thoughts and the same feelings and the same wants. I don’t have what these people have. I haven’t done nearly had the thing that these people have done that makes me one of [ __ ] work harder. That means that I’m not doing as much as I could because these people are proof that the things that I want to do can be done. I’m not looking at one person who got lucky. I’m looking at 44 people that are doing amazing [ __ ]. Why aren’t I number 45 when I look and I sit in the room and I’m with Oprah, and I see home, and I see Jeff Bezos? I don’t sit in awe. I sit and think to myself, look at where they came from and look at what they are now. More importantly, look at the impact that these people have on the world for real.

Making an Impact

There’s a major impact that comes from individuals. The impact can be an impact of change, positivity, feeding the world. It can be so much more than you never sought out to do. I sought out to be an entertainer, a comedian. I didn’t think that I would get to a point where I got 170 million people. But just use it to promote what I love about what you do is like, you know, we played a little video here where you’re talking like, I mean, I’ve been feeling this way today. I’m down, but I remember my gifts. I remember I’m here to do it. I’m here to light people up. I mean, you deliver messages where people see into your life. Tell us about that. How has that affected your career? The way you use social media? How do you think about that? Because you don’t just market it. You let people know inside. You let them feel. You let them behind a curtain. And it goes back to saying, I didn’t expect to be able to have that type of access. And when you do, you’re now putting a different definition on your purpose. So my purpose is bigger than just making people laugh or selling movie tickets. Now, it’s a feel-good that’s associated with me. Yeah, now when I’m in the street and people come up to me, they say, “Hey, Kev, I had a heart attack, man. I swear to God, I didn’t want to get out of bed, but something about what you’re doing, what you said made me get out of bed. I’ve been trying to get in shape.” Hey, Kev, my kids. I lost one of my kids, man. I was so down, but dude, I see the way that you attack every single day. You make me feel like there’s something else for me in life, and I’m starting to feel better. When you start to realize that you have a different purpose, that you’re reaching people differently, that people give you a different level of energy because of what you put out there, giving it back to you. Yeah, you now go, “Oh, [ __ ]! I’m making an impact.” Yeah, I’m making an impact. Like, there’s a bigger thing that I can actually do here. There’s a bigger reach. Yeah, there’s more that I’m adding to my story. And for me to have three kids, if my kids can walk away from it all and go, “Yo, my dad did so much for so many people,” that’s bigger than saying, “Our dad was so famous and so funny.” That’s the difference for me. That’s what I’ll say. And that’s where I’m envious of you and what you’re doing. It’s because the success is one thing, but the success is now molded and shaped itself into a machine that’s for people. You’re helping people. And there’s a high level of story that comes with your name that’s different from the amazing motivational speaker and a guy that fulfills alone with inspiration. He’s also creating change. Yeah, that’s the difference. And that’s what I want. So I’m not content with not having that. Come show me. Where does it come from, you? Where does it come from, that desire to go so much more? Like, you want to make me pop, you want to light them up, but now you’re penetrating the way they think about fitness, you’re penetrating the way they think about being a parent. I mean, really producing that change. When did that trigger happen? Is that always been something?

I think you fall into it. I don’t think, yes, I think, I think that it starts to happen, and then it’s something that you fall in love with by seeing the progression. You see an opportunity to step into something, and you attempt it, and then you go, “Oh [ __ ], yeah, this is actually pretty amazing.” Hey, man, we’re gonna raise money, and we’re gonna give it, we’re gonna give a thousand kids a Christmas over the holidays. Yeah, Kev, you want to help out? Yeah, guys, I don’t give a [ __ ] about that’s dope. Here, oh man, I went here and I got to look at these damn kids’ faces. This is pretty amazing. Ain’t next year, what do y’all say we do 2,000 kids? I’ll take a thousand myself. Would y’all match me? Yeah, I did it again. Hey, you know what about education? You guys in providing the education, Kev, you got a college you want to give to? No, I didn’t go to college, but I want to make sure the kids don’t make the same mistake I make. What if I want to give out scholarships? They’re just thoughts, yeah, we’ll do it. Would you match what I do? Of course, have you. If I’m putting up, I feel that the people that are coming and stepping up to the plate should at least be able to put out what I put up. Last year, I sent sixty kids to college for free, free of education. The year before that, we did thirty. So this year, it’s trying to do ninety. I’m adding thirty every year, and I’ve been doing it with the United Negro College Fund, and they partner up, they just match what I did. So last year, I put up six hundred thousand, they matched it. The year before that, we did three hundred thousand, so this year it’ll be me trying to do 1.2 and see what we can do. But it’s trying to double and grow, and then it becomes something massive. But I got that from watching Oprah. Oprah sends all those kids to school every year, free events, free education. She just gives it out. I was like, it’s so dope because that’s an impact that she’s making. How do I follow a trend but make it my own? It also changes medical school for some kids. But my biggest thing is about within the urban community. What I found is that a lot of things just come from lack of knowledge, lack of understanding, lack of opportunity. And when you know that and you understand that, there’s a lot of real anger behind it but not efforts to change it. So it’s not something that you can change overnight. It’s something that you have to make the baby steps to basically help and motivate others to jump on a bandwagon that you’re creating. So sending kids to college from these communities is one. I was talking to you about what I’m doing with Chase Bank now, which is basically it’s called financial…

Educating Urban Communities

We’re educating the urban communities to understand more about money and how money works because we feel that’s where a lot of the mistakes come from, that’s where a lot of the downfall comes from early on in life, and simply thinking that debt is okay and thinking that it’s alright to start out behind and not knowing. So, me being a person that came from that environment, that has messed money up, not done it correctly, now is at a point where I’ve done it right, I understand it. I now want to educate and give information authentically that can be received based on where I’m from and what I’ve done. These are the things now that I’m realizing that my platform has put me in a position to do. The higher level of change that I make, what’s really making an impact for is now what I’m doing.

Investment in Self and Entrepreneurial Drive

So, why is your mindset different? Why have you invested in yourself? I heard you put up ten million bucks on here in one of the first film tours that you did. You put your ass on the line. Most people are looking to do their gig and get a little royalty or something. Why is your mindset different, and how did you become so successful in business? Well, the one thing that I’m most confident in is me. So, I’m gonna lose, I’m gonna lose on myself. At this point, it was where I knew that I would get a positive outcome and a good return on my investment. I wanted to, I knew that was better on me, and I knew the potential of my project and what it could do.

The biggest reason for my entrepreneurial drive right now is being a sponge. When you’re around other entrepreneurs and you see what the benefit of a creative mind is, it sparks yours. The only way to really get to my goal, if I’m trying to become a billionaire and I want to take that money, throw it back into several communities, I have to surround myself with other people that had that same mentality. And the one thing that I figured that everybody has, it’s not just one thing. There’s several different things. There’s several chances, there’s several ideas that you’re throwing things at. And out of those ideas, you find a great group of people that you can surround yourself with that can help you possibly position yourself in a way for these things to work. It’s not done as an individual, it’s done as an individual that gets a great team around them that can help bring your ideas to a reality. And that’s what I’ve been smart enough to do, is get on the right who’s the proximity with the people who’ve done it and that are great at being team players.

I have no ego, I don’t know it all, I don’t have the education that matches up with the things that I’ve done or that I’m doing, but what I do have is the understanding of how things work. When you get the people that have a different type of understanding and you match my understanding with yours, you have something that is destined to succeed because you’re putting a creative vision and a real hindsight with the education and the structure and the systemic view and combining those things, you now look up and you have companies. That’s how companies get built. And when you have a team, a real valuable team that has a high level of energy and effort and one and will to make something work because they believe in it, yeah, the chances of you losing are very slim. I’ve been lucky enough to work with great people, and I credit my team every chance that I get because I don’t get here by myself. I get here with people that help motivate and push and stay true to the course that we all are on. So, from Heartbeat Productions to Laugh Out Loud to Sirius XM…

Future Ventures and Long-Term Vision

• Right now, my book publishing company – I can say me right now with my newest one is to start my own audio book lane. I’m noticing that within audiobooks, they do amazing, but they go to one particular place. They have audio, but there’s really anything else out there. So what is something else that can act as a competitor that can engage and do the same thing? And if there is something, who acts as your catalyst to make people aware that is there? So, I’m a person that can do that. I’m a person that can springboard ideas based on my knowledge and also my fan base. My social media, my social media, a whole platform that I built, allows me to do things differently. I can also say that right now within fitness, I’m long…

Maintaining Energy and Passion

How did you keep your energy? How did you keep your energy? Your energy is part of your signature for everything. So where does that come from and how do you maintain it? I can’t do what I do and not be in shape. Yeah, we travel a lot, we’re up all night, we’re doing shows for hours at a time. You want to give the greatest performances that you possibly can. If you can’t breathe, you can’t do it. If you’re huffing and puffing, if you’re weaker, you’re in the hospital or you’re sick, you can’t do it. Yeah, your shows don’t last.

So every day, every day because of the dedication I put in physical fitness, I’m now launching my physical fitness health and wellness line. So we just launched a multivitamin called Vita Hustle. After that, we’ll be doing amino acids, we’ll then be doing an organic protein. Literally, you’re gonna see me lay out strategically something that people believe because they’ve seen how much dedication I put into it. I don’t just throw things at the wall because everything that I do should coincide with my life and my lifestyle. So from XD those are weights, I’m big in a gym, everybody knows that. So now I’m investing into weights and into high weights are built and lands. So you’re gonna see a lot of me in that realm, a business. You’re gonna see much more of me over there, and it’s because just that’s where another passion is and I think that’s where I can get an extreme following…

Long-Term Vision for His Comedy Specials

You talked about we both thought of our lives in long-term 10-year chunks. You were talking about your 10th special. Tell me about how do you think about life that way in terms of, you know, look at this right here, you’re looking at the long-term. My special right now comes out in two days, shameless plug. This is number six. The goal is to get to ten. The reason why I want to get to ten specials is because that gives you ten chapters of my life, like I talked about earlier. I’m allowing you guys to watch me grow and progress into the man that I ultimately want to be. So when I get to special number 10, you’re gonna see me at age whatever, you’re gonna see my kids at age whatever, possibly grown with kids, without kids. You’re going to see me now retire and do whatever. There’s gonna be an amazing punctuation on me in comedy, and you’ll get to say that you witnessed from the bad to the good because I’ll put it all out there.

At the end of it, there’s gonna be a tenfold series that basically says Kevin’s life in a nutshell and all my stand-up specials go together. So if you look at the names, it’s basically a big game that I’m playing that nobody else is aware of. You got a Grown Little Man, that’s because when I first started, I thought that I was a grown but I was little, so nobody believed me at the Grown Little Man. Seriously Funny came, the reason why the name is Seriously Funny is because I was serious about being funny. This is my career, there’s nothing else, guy, come very serious, I’m funny. So trust me, I’m not doing anything else. Seriously Funny. Laugh at My Pain. My Pain is when I first saw that within all the happiness that you can have, hurt. That’s when I lost my mother, that’s when my dad and his drug addiction got to another high level, and I had to deal with all this stuff while still trying to maintain a drive in stand-up comedy. Laugh at My Pain. That’s when Kevin took that hurt and didn’t know how to deal with it, so I started doing stupid [ __ ].

That’s when the next special came out called Let Me Explain. I had to explain all the stupid [ __ ] that I did because I saw you and you saw me go do what was pain, and then over the next year and a half, I did things that I had to explain. Now that I’ve explained, everybody was saying, “What now? We’ve heard him say why he did the things that he did, but what does he gonna do with his life now?” So I named the next special What Now. At the What Now, I’m back, highest of high. I’ve regained my composure. I’ve let all that emotional baggage go. Career is out the window. Movies are great. I [ __ ] up again. Irresponsible. What did I do? Irresponsible things. So right now…

Comedy Role Models

• Who do you really respect in comedy today? Who appeals to you today?
  • Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Bill Burr.
• Jerry Seinfeld’s consistency in doing comedy for himself and his passion for it is inspiring.
• Dave Chappelle’s authenticity and staying true to himself regardless of others’ opinions is admirable.
• Chris Rock’s brilliance on and off stage, his business acumen, and his willingness to adapt and learn from Kevin Hart’s approach.

Brand and Leadership

• Kevin Hart sees himself as a flawed individual who openly acknowledges his imperfections. Despite his flaws, he excels as a father, husband, provider, and visionary.
• His leadership style is collaborative, emphasizing teamwork and making his team feel like an integral part of his journey.
• He values leading by example and helping his team members succeed in their own right.

Kevin Hart’s brand can be summarized as a flawed family man who loves to lead and sees his team’s success as a testament to his leadership.