Kevin Hart is a household name these days, but this wasn’t always the case. Before he became the highly successful comedian, actor, and producer that we all love to be entertained by these days, he experienced his fair share of struggle, challenges and failure. And now that he’s broken into Hollywood, won countless awards, and built up an impressive fortune himself, we aim to unravel exactly how he managed to do so in this Kevin Hart Success Story special.
“Everybody That’s Successful Lays A Blueprint Out.”
– kevin hart –
Before we dive into his story, know this, we agree with Kevin Hart. Success lays a blueprint, which is why we investigate the inspiring success stories of icons like Kevin Hart. We know every story has something to teach, and if you want to learn about success, then success stories such as this one will do the trick. That said, if you’re ready to learn how Kevin Hart went from being a shoe salesmen to one of the highest paid entertainers in the world, let’s jump right into his inspiring story.
KEVIN HART’S STORY OF SUCCESS
Early Days | The Kevin Hart Success Story
Kevin Hart was born in Philadelphia, PA on July 6th, 1979, and into what many would consider a challenging home life. With a father who was rarely around due to alcoholism, drug addiction and his consistent frequenting of jailtime, Hart was essentially raised by his mother.
After Hart’s mother limited his and his one sibling’s (an older brother) time with their father, due to his negative influence (i.e. stealing money from the family, coming around the kids high, being reckless, etc..) they would ultimately have to make due in without their father in one of the toughest neighborhoods, with just one committed parent at the helm.
Fortunately, Kevin Hart’s mother was a strong religious woman with a good head on her shoulders. She was a mother who always encouraged her kids to better themselves, and to set big goals and strive to achieve them. She not only gave great advice to her kids, but she lived out what she preached, and set a good example by continually seeking to better herself, educate herself and grow in her career.
To cope with his troubled upbringing, and the negative cloud over his home life, Hart would turn to comedy. In fact, he would leverage much of the trauma he experienced in his younger years, into much of his early comedic material. As a fan of stand-up comedy from a young age, Kevin Hart would eventually give his dream a shot once he graduated high school.
The Struggle
Kevin Hart’s debut into the world of stand-up would be riddled with struggle. He gave the stage a shot initially in Philadelphia after some his co-workers informed of the opportunity, and encouraged him to give it a shot, but bombed the show. He then moved to shows in New York, and sought out gigs in Massachusetts as well. Hart would commute nearly 2 hours daily to New York from Philadelphia to try and get noticed in the big New York comedy clubs.
Hart was making moves, but he struggled initially. From getting booed off the stage, to having chicken thrown at him, his act wasn’t an instant winner. And despite his best efforts, and even working a side gig as a shoe salesmen, Hart eventually fell behind on his rent and was threatened with eviction.
Fortunately, his mom believed in him, and helped him get back on his feet. She supported Hart by paying for his rent for a whole year while he strived to make a name for himself, under the condition that if things didn’t work out after this trial period he’d go college.[1] Fortunately for Hart, and all of us (current and future fans) he was determined to make a name for himself.
Despite the awkward silences, the boos, and the bombed shows, Kevin remained fearless, and kept doing shows. And with every bad joke, and every failed show, he slowly and methodically improved his craft. Things especially changed for Hart when he realized his strategy of trying to be like every other big name comedian wasn’t working.
Thus, once Kevin stepped into his own authentic act, people really started to take notice and that’s when his career began to take off.
Rising To The Top
Kevin Hart’s comedy started to really get noticed, and it was after his acts started to be stolen, that his fame really took after in the world of comedy.
But Hart’s ambition was to be more than just a stand-up comedian. He also wanted to make his way into Hollywood and become an comedic actor. So, he took action and went for it.
Eventually, Hart landed his first movie role in the movie “Paper Soldiers”. He then made it on the air for a short lived pilot in 2001, which never got picked up. Then, he got his own sitcom known as “The Big House” just three years later. However, it would be a very short-lived show which only lasted six episodes.
But, Hart didn’t lose heart. Even though the plug was pulled on his sitcom, he didn’t quit. He kept on pursuing his comedy career, waiting for his next big Hollywood opportunity to arise while he did stand-up around the country and took on smaller roles in various movies like “Scary Movie” 3 & 4, “The 40 Year-Old Virgin”, “Barbershop”, and “Little Fockers”.
After awhile though, all those small roles started turning into medium-sized roles, and as he racked up more and more roles, the bigger opportunities started coming in, like major multi-million dollar comedy tours and landing serious roles in major blockbuster hits like “Ride Along”, “Get Hard”, “Central Intelligence”, “Jumanji”, “Jumanji: Next Level”, and many more.[2]
And he’s been going strong ever since. With 96 and growing acting credits under his belt, Hart has managed to successfully build for himself a decent-sized multi-million dollar fortune.
On top of this, he’s also the founder of the fast growing multi-million dollar media company known as Hartbeat.[3] Needless to say, Hart has this “success thing” figured out.
Kevin Hart’s Success Ethos
Kevin Hart followed his passion to become a world-class entertainer. But it took more than just passion for him to achieve the massive success he now enjoys. In fact, it could be said that Kevin Hart’s success is a biproduct of his work-ethic, grit, and comedic genius.
However, he has his own take on exactly what allowed him to be so successful. So, in his Kevin Hart’s own words, this is why he succeeded:
Kevin Hart persisted in the face of failure and rejection, and if you want success, he believes you should too…
Kevin Hart didn’t just dream about success, he took action to make it a reality. There’s no denying that he encourages you to do the same…
Hart believes that hard work and determination are critical components to success, and that without these two ingredients, success is impossible. So pay he to his success wisdom when he says…
Lastly, Kevin Hart doesn’t just work to work. He believes that if you’re going to be putting in the effort, it should at least be towards getting better. So, don’t just work to work, work to improve, to grow, and to add value. In other words, commit to continuous improvement, a.k.a. kaizen…
Related: Kevin Hard Quotes On Success
Inspiring Success Insights
Hopefully these four Kevin Hart insights paint a clear picture of his success ethos. However, if you’re looking for a bit more, give this short video a view. It does a great job conveying what makes Kevin Hart tick and it’s extremely inspiring. Enjoy!
Video Credit: Chispa Motivation (Subscribe Here)
Final Thoughts
There you have it, the Kevin Hart success story that describes his journey of growing up with an absent father in a troubled household, to then struggling to make rent as he pursued his dream. To then reaching the heights of achievement after many years of persisting in the face of rejection, long commutes, and even longer days.
We also covered the success ethos that we believed helped Kevin Hart find success. And we provided his success wisdom that he’s laid out for all to learn from. Here’s are those combined success insights once again as a quick recap:
Work Ethic | Grit | Taking Action | Kaizen
Now that you have a few of Kevin’s secrets to success, it’s up to you to apply them to your life. Wishing you all the best on your journey to success.
Till you reach your aims,
STRIVE
PS – If you enjoyed our Kevin Hart Story on success, then you’ll likely enjoy reading about these equally inspiring stories of struggle and success.
