The Power of Drive | Kevin Hart’s Journey to Achieving Success in 23 Minutes

Everybody successful lays a blueprint out. You laid the blueprint out. I saw myself honestly as a model when I first started.

A model? Yeah.

You're going to have bumps in the road. You're going to have things that happen that make you have a hiccup. I come from a happy place. Even though my place was dark, I'm happy. Jim Carrey the comedian doesn't stand a chance against Robin Williams the comedian. I think I'm sexy. I tell my lady all the time, babe, I'm sexy. As a father, you want to teach your kids certain things. But I look back at my life, George, you know, I don't have a lot to teach.

He's an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. In 2015, Time Magazine named him one of the top 100 most influential people in the world. He currently stars as himself in the lead role of The Real Husbands of Hollywood. He's Kevin Hart, and here is my take on his top 10 rules for success. Rule number 1 is my personal favorite, and make sure to stick around all the way to the end for some special bonuses.

Everybody successful lays a blueprint out. You laid the blueprint out. You know, I can go down a list from comedians to actors to entrepreneurs to self-made moguls. You look at Russell Simmons, you look at Jay-Z, you look at Tyler Perry, you look at Puff. I mean, you're looking at people that start off with a small vision and that vision manifested into something beyond expectation. So what I did was from the people around me, my mentors, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Pryor— Who are all on the walls. All on the walls. Yeah. All on the walls. So you surround yourself with that. I surround myself with a constant reminder of who's great constantly. I come down these steps every day, I look at Richard, he's great. I see Eddie, he was great. I see Chris Rock, he was great. It's a constant reminder, what am I trying to achieve? I wanna be great. So that motivates me. So the thing that separates me is my drive. My drive is other people's success. Are you surprised by your success at all? I don't wanna say I am because then I think that that means you're doing something for a lesser benefit. You know, I think you do anything to maximize your potential in whatever realm you put yourself in. Within entertainment, there's so many doors that you can go through. I mean, you're literally looking at 15 to 20 doors. Yeah, but going back in your life, would you ever see yourself in this position? Position? Now, I saw myself honestly as a model when I first—

a model? A runway, runway model?

No, it was weird. Kids' clothes. I was in the business. The point that I'm making is I saw myself going in a direction where I would be able to make people smile, and stand-up comedy is one thing that I knew that would be able to put me in that position. And stand-up comedy has taken me into a place that, you know, is amazing. I love this. Life is too short, and I feel like everyone needs to live, love, and laugh and understand, like, you know, you're constantly evolving. Things are constantly changing, things are constantly putting people in a position where they can get better and do better. We're doing a lot better, a lot better. You're going to have bumps in the road, you're going to have things that happen that make you have a hiccup and question, are we doing better? But that's life, that's the course of life. But I'm a positive person, I'm a realistic and positive person. So I see where we are, I'm happy where we are, and I know where we can be 5 or 10 years from now. They can continue to get better and grow. For me, you know what, I believe hard work pays off. You know, when you say it's been my year and it's my time, you know, Hollywood has a way of making everything seem like an overnight success. Oh my God, where did this guy come from? Oh, this kid, who is he? Look, he's a massive star. I had 18 years in the business, you know? You put in your 10,000 hours. I put in my time, you know? I got dues that have been paid and paid again and paid one more time after that. I stayed true to my dreams and by doing that, eventually they came true. A lot of comedians go out on stage and they're hiding who they are. 'Cause we know there's a lot of comedians come from a dark place. They do. You let it all out there. I come from a happy place. Even though my place was dark, I'm happy. I'm happy simply because I have no reason to be angry. Life is too short to be angry. So the things that I do feel a certain type of way about it that I may get upset about, I let it out. I get it out on stage and I allow other people to judge it and laugh at it. And the reason why you're laughing is because I'm being honest. And I think when people can relate to that honesty, the truth is always the funniest. It is the funniest. I don't care what happens to you. There is a positive and a negative in anything that happens to you. And if you think about it after you're done being negative, I guarantee you'll laugh. I guarantee you, I don't care how bad, how severe it is, after it's happened, when you really break down what happened— The human condition. Oh my goodness.

It takes some time sometimes. Well, if you really give it a couple hours, a couple hours.

If you ask any comedian that has a real understanding and knowledge of stand-up comedy today, people probably say Dave Chappelle is the best pound for pound.

Okay.

Um, and that's including everybody. That's, you know, this is one of the most creative guys on the planet. And when it comes to breaking down the joke and making a joke, uh, a joke within a joke within a joke, Dave Chappelle does it like nobody else. It's a science. Um, true story, me and Chris Rock watched Dave Chappelle at the Comedy Cellar. Me and Chris Rock went up already, you know. Me and Chris Rock, I called Chris, hey Chris, come down, I'm working on some material, I want you to look at it. Chris said, all right, me too, I'm coming down. He said, I watch you, you watch me, let's punch each other up. Watch, uh, I watched Chris after he watched me. We talking about our sets. Dave Chappelle comes in randomly. Dave Chappelle goes up. Me and Chris watch Dave Chappelle. Swear to God, we took out, we took out our material, balled it up, and was like, what the fuck are we talking about? Like, we were so pissed off with our level of thinking. Yeah, like, and Dave Chappelle, he was fucking around. Ah, shit, man. But he's that good. Now, Louis C.K., on the other hand, as polished as they come. Louis C.K. is a bad boy, man. Like, Louis C.K. will take your common premise, and that premise becomes a 10-minute bit. And that bit becomes a story and an arc within the whole set that he's doing. And when you look at it at the end of his set, what he's brilliant on is you know who he is. That's a great comedian. When you walk away and you know that guy's life, but not in a way to where you studied it, but in a way to where you related to it. And he made, he painted such a perfect picture that all you did was just go, oh my God, I get it. I know that Louis C.K. is divorced. I know Louis C.K. has two daughters. I know that one of his daughters is his favorite. I know that the other little girl, he likes her, but she's an asshole. I know, I know this because of not only his material, but he says it in a way to where you can see he's authentic. It's not, this isn't forced comedy. And I think that's the brilliance behind those comedians. Robin Williams. Oh man. Dope. Dope. Jim Carrey. Wow, damn, of all people. All right, we gotta, we gotta be honest. Yeah, we gotta be honest. Okay, all right, um, Jim Carrey the comedian doesn't stand a chance against Robin Williams the comedian. Uh, I think it's better to break these two down, um, for, for comedic acting. Because Robin Williams as a comedian, when you understand, if you really, really are educated on Robin Williams, one of the best impressionists to ever do it. And to really, like, when I say dive into an impression, Robin Williams became the people that he impersonated. Like, he literally set the arc for so many other people behind him to start to break it down and get all the little nuances. Because from the body posture to the facial to the mannerisms, Robin Williams, pound for pound, was the best at it. When it comes to comedic acting, goddamn it, man, Jim Carrey, you know, if you don't want to give him his respect, that's on you. I will. Jim Carrey, when it comes to physical comedy, I don't think nobody touches Jim Carrey when it comes to physical comedy. I think Robin Williams is amazing at adapting to whatever character he chooses to be in the film. But Jim Carrey sacrifices his body for a take. Jim Carrey throws himself against a wall. If you look at Me, Myself, and Irene, the scene where he fought shot himself and grabbed his neck and threw himself off the cliff and got up and jabbed and had the conversation between the two guys. Jim Carrey set the tone for other people to do it. And Get Hard, where I'm trying to do the prison yard scene and I'm imitating the people, that's a reflection of Jim Carrey and what Jim Carrey has shown. When you go look at Ace Ventura: The Pet Detective, and from the silliness of Jim Carrey talking with his butt, that stuff now, if you look at it and you think comedy, man, That stuff sticks in people's heads. Jim Carrey acting like he was birthed out the elephant's butt and playing like the baby stuff. He is a different level of thinking. And he just went dark for a minute and then went into serious roles. But I don't think anybody touches Jim Carrey in that realm. And, you know, from what I do and what I attempt to do, I'm attempting things and creating nuances from the things that I've seen from the greats. And Jim Carrey is one of those greats. Shout out to Robin Williams. I can't do impressions, but if I could, I would definitely try to do them the way you did it, brother, 'cause nobody does it better. Rest in peace. I am beyond confident. I'm not cocky. I'm so confident. I'm confident in who I am. I'm confident in the person that I am. I think I'm sexy. I tell my lady all the time, "Babe, I'm sexy." I just got 2 ugly toes.

That's it.

That's the only thing. I just— I love me. And I think— You sexy with your socks on. Yeah, yeah. I don't take my socks off. I don't take them off. But I wear good socks. That's the plus. I just don't believe— I don't believe in change. I don't believe in doing things to manufacture my body to appeal to what I think people might like. This is it. This is what I was given. This is my playing cards. If we was playing poker, I got to make this hand work.

Yeah.

This is it for me. And this is what I'm going to ride out. So how do you not embrace it? You get one life. Yeah.

One.

You get one life. I'm going to embrace my— Do you run out of energy emotionally?

This is him not sleeping.

This is me on no sleep right now. I don't. I can't express how happy of a person I am. I can't express how inspiring and, I guess you can say, motivating my life and the people around me are. I think there's a fine line. You don't ever want to offend people. You don't ever want to stir up any trouble. So at the end of the day, if you keep it self-evolved, you're fine. You know, the key in the art that I've learned is basically to do these things, but to do it in such a cool way people laugh, but they go, yo, even though he's saying the things that he's saying, the way he's saying it is funny. The way he's saying it, the way he goes about it to get his point across is very unique and funny. And that's the trick to being universal and making everybody laugh. What can you pass along to your kids that they would understand? Ah, well, you know what, George, it's funny you say that because I've been having a hard time with figuring out the type of life lessons that I'm trying to hand my kids. Basically, as a father, you want to teach your kids certain things. But I look back at my life, George, I don't have a lot to teach.

Here's the one thing.

My daughter— and this is me being very honest, you guys— my daughter's a little princess.

Beautiful.

She's spoiled. So I'm one way with her. But with my son, I'm like, I live in LA. I'm in the Valley. My son ain't around tough kids. My main thing is teaching my son how to fight.

And how old is he?

My son's 3, OK? Now, look, you don't want to see what goes on in these daycares, all right?

These little kids are crazy, all right?

I caught a little boy putting paste in my son's mouth.

That's when I had enough. I said, I'm going to teach my son how to defend himself.

Now, the only problem I'm having, my son thinks he's Spider-Man, George, for real. Like, listen, I'm not joking. Like, when we play, he wet me. He like, pfft, pfft, pfft. But because I'm dad, like, because I'm his dad, when he does it, I got to act like I'm caught.

I'm like, oh, no. No, let me out.

Let me out. So, but it's us playing. Let me tell you why this is bad. I'm not joking.

So I go to pick him up from school, right?

This little boy is hitting my son in the head with a truck, right? My son on the floor doing this.

He was trying to— he tried to web me. I yelled. I got so mad. I said, boy, you're not— get your ass up. You're not Spider-Man, man. You're not Spider-Man. He tried to get me while I was talking. But I had to play.

I was like, OK, let me out.

Let Dad out.

Y'all laughing.

I'm being so serious, man. In my household, my son is in trouble if I don't save him. He really thinks he's Spider-Man, George. Oh, wow. Don't judge my son, OK? Don't judge my son. I had my son— I had my son come here and web this whole audience right now. My son will web all y'all. He is, man. Y'all better act right. Act like y'all caught in the net.

Kevin, I want you to pretend that you're Dwayne in high school, and Dwayne, you're Kevin in high school. OK. And answer just a few questions. I'm Kevin Hart, high school right now, 17 years old. OK. And I'm a DJ.

There you go.

OK, got it. What would you like to be when you grow up? Uh, if I could be a fireman, that would be cool.

Fireman.

I'd love to be a fireman. Are you going to eat that pudding?

Gonna eat that pudding.

Okay, do I— you come back with something strong. Yeah, okay. Um, I'm Kevin Hart, right? Right, in high school.

Okay.

Um, yeah.

Hey, hey, hey, hey everybody, hey! Hey girl, hey girl.

No, she ain't hear me, she ain't hear me. Hey, what's up, money? No, no, she ain't seen me. Come on. Oh, come on.

Hey, Miss Johnson.

Yeah, I'm gonna do good on that test.

Yeah, yes.

I'm sorry, I think it's too flies having sex behind you. Look at this. I'm very serious. Look how big that is. That's two flies.

You see that? Wow.

I'm sorry, that was pretty amazing to me. Never seen anything like— oh, oh, Jesus Christ. All right, as a little guy, what's the strategy to fighting? First of all, uh, I don't want people to fight, man. You know, I'm a guy that promotes positivity, so I love love. But if you are going you want to fight and you small, you bite.

You bite? Really? You bite, man.

Go low and bite. Go for either a calf or an Achilles tendon. That's what you bite. Really? Everybody knows that. It'll take your opponent out. Nobody can withstand a bite on Achilles tendon. You're gonna do this instantly. That person goes down, you get the best of them, you won. Everybody knows that.

Did you have that growing up?

Like, did you have a lot of struggles being a short guy and trying to fight?

Never.

Now I'm a known killer, man.

Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Samari Alexander asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of the top 10 rules had the biggest impact on you and why. What change are you gonna make now after watching this video? Leave in the comments. I'll join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, or whatever your one word is, and I'll See you soon.

How's everybody doing?

It's a beautiful crowd, man.

I love big crowds. Just to get something off my chest before I even start, everything I say up here tonight is a joke, okay?

It is nothing else.

I don't want nobody taking none of this stuff too serious. I don't need nobody coming up to me after the show talking about who's the funny one now, all that type stuff there, ready to fight and stuff like that. Look, I'm a bitch and I will let it be known. Home, all right? You on the same page with that? I don't like to fight. I've been robbed a lot. I'm traumatized because a lot of stuff happened in my past. On top of all that, I don't need y'all stuff. And you know, it's at a point now where it's mental. I get scared real fast. Matter of fact, I'm going to ask this group right here, don't y'all be making no sudden movements and nothing like that. Matter of fact, put your hands on the table so I know what you doing at all times. I'm going to close my show. That's my time. My name Kev. I will walk walk right on. It'd be different, man, I'm serious. It would be different if I was getting robbed by big people, you know, people that should be robbing people. You know, like, you're a big guy, you rob me, I'm gonna have to accept it. You know what, you're bigger, I'm taking it. I'm gonna let it go. But it's not going down like that, you know. I'm getting robbed by women, groups of kids running up on me now. I got robbed by one real strong midget. He didn't even have a gun. He just kept headbutting me. He just kept on headbutting me. I finally just fell. I was like, that's enough, Mr. Midget, and I fell. You know you real scared if you call a midget mister. That's how you know. I was like, that's enough, you know. I think the worst time though, when I got robbed by a cross-eyed man, that took the cake. Let me tell y'all why I'm mad that he robbed me. He got upset with me because I didn't know that he was robbing me, you know. He was cross-eyed. What the hell was I supposed to think? He just came out yelling, give it up! Where you at, baby? Let me talk to you. Stop playing with me and don't move. Give it up. I have not moved since I've been standing here. Tyrone, give it to him, cuz I think he's serious. I'm talking to you. I said, you wait a minute, all right? I thought you was talking to him, okay? Now you talking to me, you need to look at him. When you talking to me, you talking to me. I was so scared, y'all, cuz I run a lot, you know. You don't realize I run a whole lot. That's usually how I get Did you know it is rules and regulations to get robbed? Did you know that? They say if me and you together, right? Somebody run up on us to rob us. If I run from the situation, I'm a bitch. That's what they say. Now me personally, I don't agree with this because there's been situations where I had to run on certain friends of mine. At this time, I'm gonna have to say the hell with them. You know why? Because they saw the gun just like I saw the gun. That means they chose to stay if they wanted to. I chose to run and get the hell out of there. And for some reason, until this day, my girl does not understand why I ran. Listen, I'mma tell y'all something. They started coming, I told her, I said, "Go!" And she stayed. And they beat the mess out my girl. I've never seen nothing like that in my life, y'all. And she got upset with me because she thought that I was, you know, I was standing and just watching what was going on when they was going. That wasn't the case. And by the time I got away, I remembered that she had the keys to the car. But when I turned around, they were still hitting her. Dinner and stuff. So I was like, I'm gonna wait till they finish. Ain't no sense in both of us getting our asses whipped, you know. That would be real selfish of her, wouldn't it? Somebody had to drive home. That's all I would say. Somebody had to get us home. That's all I had to say. People don't realize, you know, females, y'all just don't realize, man. People are too crazy to be fighting everybody, man. People are losing their minds now to be fighting everybody. And I'm sorry, I'm not a hostile person. I'm friendly and I'll admit it. I don't like to fight. I'm a friend. I'm your friend, all right? Don't you take nothing out on me. It's me. You know where I was when I saw some of the craziest people I seen? While I was on the train. I swear, y'all, I've never seen this many crazy people in my life. Have you ever sat next to somebody on a train that sleep for the whole train ride, but when they stop, come up there, just pop the hell up and get up and walk around the train? Don't nobody touch them or nothing. You be sitting next to them, you like Who touched him? I can't believe this. He got right up. Old people, they really get me mad because they get upset with you when you don't want to give up your seat, you know. No, to hell with you. I'm tired too. When you see them, do what I do, act like you sleep. Look at this. I can't believe this. I can't believe this. She coming back. She coming back. Go back to sleep. Don't give up your seat. I don't. But you know who I love? Y'all like that pervert guy that stands like this in the center and then You know when the bus get real crowded or something, that's when he gotta grind on everybody butt to get to the back. Excuse me, baby, watch out, let me get to the back. Stay right there, sis, I'm just trying to get to the back. Don't move, watch out, I'm just trying to get right here. right there. I'm almost there, baby, don't move. I can't believe they sat you up front. Oh, goodness. He is a professional grinder. Be careful. He does that for a living, man. And you know, they not the only people that's crazy. Me, myself, I think dirty people might be some of the craziest people out there too. 'Cause you have to be some kind of crazy, a mental person person just to decide at some point in your life to be dirty, you know? That's a crazy decision, you know? How does something like that go down? Would you just wake up one morning mad? I ain't washing my ass no more! And then you go back to sleep? That's it? Because that's not something you can just forget to do, you know? You can't keep saying, I forgot to wash my ass. That's good for the first couple days, but 3 weeks later you still saying the same thing to your friends. They gonna start to question you. Going on for 3 weeks. Everybody wants a tattoo now, you know, everybody needs a tattoo. I have no problem with tattoos. I feel that if you're going to get a tattoo, get something that you know what it says. Everybody want a Chinese tattoo now. For what? You don't know what it really says. You walking around thinking you got Black Power or something on your head. Turn out you go into a Chinese store, you got salt, pepper, ketchup written across your face, and you don't know. The homies start laughing. Oh, come here, come here. Look at this, all salt and pepper ketchup right there. Oh, nah, this ain't Black Power. No, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to. Salt, pepper, ketchup. Be careful. Do things that we know we were doing, man. Stop. You know what's funny in the gym though? Y'all see those people in the gym that are too strong? Y'all see somebody in the gym that's too strong? Got too many muscles, you know? I saw this one guy in the gym, he had Too many muscles. I had to tell him. I said, that's enough. Goddamn, don't you lift nothing else? Where you gonna put that muscle? And he talking about something. No, I got this sore spot behind my ear. Do me a favor, put 345 pounds on the back of my neck so I can go ahead and lift that up. And I went to go get it, and I looked at him in the face. That was the midget that had robbed me. Hey, y'all been a great crowd. My name is Kevin Hart.