Kevin Hart: Why overnight success is a thirteen-year grind

1. 0:00 – 2:47

   Intro

   1. KHKevin Hart0:00

      You can't be afraid to verbalize your ignorance. That's holding you back.

   2. Give me an example.

   3. I can give you several. Like investing. I'm like, "You're telling me that if I put this money in here right now, I get 30X, 20X? What the (beep) ?! It's a (beep) scam."

   4. SBSteven Bartlett0:16

      (laughs)

   5. KHKevin Hart0:16

      I know a scam when I see one. Go find you another, idiot, 'cause it ain't happening over here, buddy.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett0:21

      (laughs)

   7. KHKevin Hart0:21

      But (laughs) when you go and you say, "I don't know what that means. How does investing really work? I don't know where to get it," now you're a part of the right conversations, you're a part of the right opportunities, but you get there by being the dummy in the room. And now look at what I'm able to do. Kevin Hart! I love it! I love it!

   8. Kevin, it took 13 years from where you did your first standup to you having your moment, but why didn't you quit?

   9. Because of the lessons that my mom gave from being very scarred from my brother. So let's go back. I grew up in North Philadelphia. My brother sold drugs. My dad was always in jail, out of jail, but my mom wasn't gonna let that happen with me. So we had an agreement. I had a certain amount of time to make comedy work. And in my mind, it wasn't gonna be hard because there was no other option. I will figure it out. So I was driving from Philadelphia to New York every day. I wasn't coming home until 4:00 AM and I was doing 25 to 28 sets a weekend, (beep) . I worked that for a very, very long time and the struggle left you with days of, "What am I doing? Can I pay my rent? (beep) this, man." But my mom's biggest lesson was, "You're not quitting." And not many people are going to do the 13 years of hard (beep) . Most people opt out at year two and wanna go find a quick return. Only you keep quitting to start something else that you think is an idea. It's just a cycle. You're never completing anything. You gotta make a choice of the thing that you're gonna do and finish. I made the choice that standup comedy was what I was going to finish because if I focused and did it well, that would open up the doors for me to do everything else that I wanna do.

   10. But they say that you can't have everything in life.

   11. Mm-hmm.

   12. So what is the cost? Have you struggled with your mental health? What advice have you got for young men in terms of, like, what it takes to be a good man?

   13. It's a weird thing that's happening where the definition of a good man is so foggy. It seems that in these times today, more men are being forward, wanting to express and talk, but the fear of being judged after-

   14. Do you have that fear? I see messages all the time in the comments section that some of you didn't realize you didn't subscribe, so if you could do me a favor and double check if you're a subscriber to this channel, that would be tremendously appreciated. It's the simple, it's the free thing that anybody that watches this show frequently can do to help us here to keep everything going and this show in the trajectory it's on. So, please do double check if you've subscribed and, uh, thank you so much, because in a strange way, you are... you're part of our history and you're on this journey with us, and I appreciate you for that. So, yeah, thank you.

2. 2:47 – 3:29

   What Made You Who You Are Today?

   1. KHKevin Hart2:47

      In so many ways, you're clearly an anomaly. For you to be the way that you are, there must be some kind of early context that people need to be aware of, a certain wiring or a cauldron that has, has sort of shaped you into who you are. What is that context that I need to understand?

   2. I am a very driven individual and I'm driven off of ideation. I, I like the fact that you can have thoughts and if you're in love with the thoughts that you're having, you can be energized to bring those thoughts, like, into a bigger reality. That's, like, that's the real fuel

3. 3:29 – 4:04

   There's No Success Without Failure

   1. KHKevin Hart3:29

      to the brain for me.

   2. Do you think at the, at the very core of you, that's what's motivating you? Because-

   3. Absolutely.

   4. That's like a process, but the, the outcome of that is success-

   5. Yeah.

   6. ... in all its, all its forms, its material success.

   7. Or, or failure. I mean, like, there is no success without failure. They go hand in hand. And with, uh, failure comes amazing lessons, adjustments, and you get sharper because of the shit that you've done wrong or that you didn't know to approach a certain way that you now know how to approach. So, I embrace the concept of failure just as much as I embrace

4. 4:04 – 6:45

   What Were You Like as a Kid?

   1. KHKevin Hart4:04

      the win of success.

   2. Had I met you at 10 years old or 15 years old, how similar would you have looked in each other's view?

   3. Not even, not even close.

   4. (laughs)

   5. Not even close. Not motivated to do the things that I didn't wanna do. Uh, not a good student. Kind of fucking off school, the opportunities that come with school, the extracurricular activities that I didn't wanna do that I was doing that my mom made me do. Hanging out was the thing. Hanging out was the luxury, it was the fun and it's... it wasn't available. My mom was strict so I didn't have the luxury of doing all those things, which is why I wanted them more.

   6. I found this photo of your mother.

   7. Yeah. Me and Nancy Hart.

   8. She was strict.

   9. Very strict, with me. Uh, my older brother, he had the, you know, he had, uh, he had a little more lenience. He, he... freedom. You know, he... Curfew, late at night, but my brother did all the, all of the other stuff. My brother sold drugs, you know, d- did the, you know, the smaller tiers of crime and, and stupid shit as a teenager to where my mom felt like she wasn't gonna let that happen with me, so she was much more protective, um, because of the mistakes that she saw that she made with my brother.

   10. Ah.

   11. You see what I'm saying? So I got the-

   12. Yeah.

   13. I got the short end of the stick.

   14. Ah.

   15. So I didn't have the curfew. I didn't... I wasn't able to go hang out. I wasn't able to do all those things and that's why I wanted that so much, so I rebelled in the spaces where you have to do this. And I was like, "Well, you don't let me do this, so I don't-"

   16. Mm-hmm.

   17. "... I don't wanna do this." So I kinda fucked off a lot of those opportunities.

   18. And your father?

   19. Henry Weatherspoon, Spoonie Geez, my guy. Uh, you know, a fuck up in the eyes of most, but my, my dad. You know, he didn't necessarily do the right things in life. Um, gang, crime, all of the shit, jail, in jail, out of jail, drugs, uh...I mean, that, that environment that we were raised in is not, like, you know, the, the best environment for, for anyone, but it's a, it's an amazing environment for those that live in it because it's all we know. And the normalcy is the low. My mom strived for the higher side of it. My mom was education, uh, degree, trying to get another degree, trying to get a master's, trying... My mom was, like, always wanting to get better, always wanting to educate herself more because she felt that it was the biggest strength

5. 6:45 – 9:57

   I Didn’t Grow Up with My Dad at Home

   1. KHKevin Hart6:45

      that nobody could control but her.

   2. And they separated?

   3. Yeah. They were never, never married.

   4. Never married?

   5. Never married.

   6. And did they physically separate at, at a certain point?

   7. I mean, I think my dad, my dad only lived in the house with me in, like, my really younger years. Like, maybe when, from, like, five to seven, maybe eight, if I can remember. Like, I didn't have, I didn't grow up with, like, my dad home, you know? So when my mom was like, "Fuck that, you're outta here," it was over. Like he went... My dad, he was a weekend dad or every other weekend dad or, you know, during the week, stop by. Then he was in and out of jail, then he got on drugs, we didn't see him at all.

   8. How did you understand that as a kid? Like, how does a kid understand their, their dad coming and going, being in jail, drugs?

   9. You are a product of your environment and in that environment, that's the norm. So when you, so when you say, like, how did you understand that? Well, nobody had they dad.

   10. Yeah.

   11. Right? Like all, (laughs) all my friends, our dads, like, we see them when we see them and we love them because that's what we, that's what we thought that it should be. It's not like I'm going over a volume of homes where I'm seeing the father sit with the family and the mom and they're doing dinner and they're having conversations and they're, you know, it's this happy household. I, I, I only had a couple of examples like that. I remember when I went over one of my friend's houses, um, from the swim team, and I remember he had his own room. It was, like, crazy.

   12. (laughs)

   13. "You get to close the door and shit? Like, this is your space?" "Yeah, this is my room."

   14. (laughs)

   15. I had a hallway. We ain't have no goddamn room. We had a hallway, my bed's in the hallway. Every- you could always see me. This is where (laughs) -

   16. (laughs)

   17. ...this is, this is where I am. Me and my brother right here in the hall on these bunk beds. (laughs) My friend had grass, he had a backyard. I went, "This is fucking crazy. Yeah, we don't have none of this where we live." So because that is the norm, I never, it never affected me. Right? Like, I never, I was never taken back by the obstacles of our household. My mom and dad just didn't get along and it didn't work. All right. It is what it is.

   18. Did you have male role, role models at the time?

   19. I don't think that I was in the space of know when it comes to role model. Like at, at this time, like, I, I, I didn't have the mindset of what a role model is or should be, I just had good people around me who acted as, like, parenting aids to my mother to help her because of her schedule. But I never remember, at that age, looking at other families like, "Oh, this is what I, this is what I want and this is what I'm striving to get or gain." You know? Like, I, it was, it was shoulder shrug, a lot of shoulder shrugs. It wasn't until I got older that I think the lessons, not I think, I know, the lessons that my mom was kind of laying down

6. 9:57 – 15:09

   The Biggest Lesson I Learned from My Mother

   1. KHKevin Hart9:57

      started to click in differently.

   2. I mean, one of those lessons that your mother was trying to lay down can be seen-

   3. In the Bible, 1,000%.

   4. ... with this. There's a-

   5. Mm-hmm. Best story ever. Best story, um, that I'm able to tell.

   6. She put something in the Bible that's hanging out there-

   7. Checks.

   8. ... as you can see.

   9. Checks, man. I couldn't pay my rent. I cannot pay my rent, I needed help and she was like, "Well, I'm not helping you until you start reading the Bible." And I was like, "Mom, I'm reading the Bible." I was lying, just lying, but, "I'm reading it. Come on, Mom, this is real. Mom, they're gonna kick me out." "Are you reading your Bible?" "Yes." "When you read your Bible, then talk to me." And she did this for, like, a while and one day I was like, "You know what, man?" I was, I was literally by myself and I was like, "What am I gonna do?" I said, "Let me get this Bible. Let's read the Bible." And I open up the Bible and, like, my checks, rent, like, multiple months of rent checks had fell out and I was like, "You know what? That's pretty amazing. Pretty amazing." And then I had to actually open a Bible and, and start reading the Bible. But that was her way of, of course knowing that I'm lying, first of all, (laughs) and B, giving me, like, one of the best lessons ever, you know? Somewhere along the lines, the gems that she dropped started to click and the idea of not starting things that I'm not gonna finish, that's what really resonated with me the most. So, like, I started a lot of stuff that I didn't complete in the younger years. That was me and my mom's battle. "No, you're gonna finish it," and she would make me finish it. "No, I wanna quit." "No, you're gonna finish it." So I ended up doing a lot of things with an attitude which is why I half-assed it.

   10. Mm-hmm.

   11. But then as I got older, you realize, well, why are you putting time into something in the beginning that you don't wanna see through? Why? Or just because you have, like, a rough moment or a rough patch?Why is it so easy for you to quit? Why, why is the idea of quit so quick to you, to come up with, and why are you so comfortable with the results of that? I shouldn't be, and that shouldn't be my, like, motto. So we don't stop. If we start something, we see it the entire way through and at the end of it, even if you don't like it to the highest level, you know that you put your time and energy into something that you're at least proud, proud that you did, proud that you were able to put a period on that sentence. And now you can start the next thing. But it's not until you complete something that you can honestly sit with yourself and go, "That's, that's, that's what life is." That's called seeing things through, the entire way.

   12. What was it that changed in you? Like, what happened that made you suddenly start to take opportunities more seriously?

   13. When you saw the opportunity, you fucked off. I remember the, the, the, my big dummy moment, and I've had a lot, so I don't know how much time we have to go down, but I got a lot of dummy moments. But my biggest dummy moment, we hooky school to go and have our senior day. We go to Great Adventure Theme Park on the East Coast and there was a moment where we're done and we're talking, we're like eating and hanging out, and all my friends were talking about the colleges they were gonna go to. And they had already been accepted, they had already had letters and shit. When did y'all do this? Wh- when did everybody apply? When did everybody... When did you guys take the SAT? I just, I took mine but I rushed it because I wanted to get here, I wanted to hooky. Wait, wh- how do you guys know where you going already? I had no knowledge, no idea. All my friends have went on to the next stage. They let me be the dummy by myself and that's when it dawned on me that, like, nobody cares about you more than you should care about yourself and nobody is giving you the road map to, like, the winds. You have to go find that information, you gotta go discover it. You gotta, you gotta wanna get it, you gotta wanna do it. And with the right help, the right world of knowledge, it can better help position you but ultimately, you have to wanna, you gotta wanna do it.

   14. Was

7. 15:09 – 16:34

   I Thought My Future Was in a Shoe Store

   1. KHKevin Hart15:11

      it finding the thing, your thing, that put some wind in your sails and made you more of a, apparently sort of motivated individual? 'Cause at some point you go from being that Kevin to the Kevin that can't stop working.

   2. Yeah. Well you, well that was my lightbulb moment.

   3. Okay.

   4. My lightbulb moment was looking at what not applying to myself got me. I felt like the dummy that doesn't know what he wants to do with his life and now I'm at community college, I'm working as a lifeguard. I eventually went to go work for City Sports, which is a sneaker store, and I remember when I started working at the sneaker store, talked about this for years too, I was like, "Oh man, this is, this is cool, this is what I wanna do. I got the thing that I wanna do." I was so excited that I went and got a job, found a job, "I'll do this forever and I'm gonna make it to the highest level so I can have a career." So I become the manager and after being the manager, I worked for corporate and this is something that I can build, like, I was already aspiring because I was like, "I, I gotta figure out what I'm doing with the rest of my life. Where's my life?" And now I'm panicking. What do I... Ugh.

   5. (laughs)

   6. And I was flourishing in the space of sneaker sales, right? Education and college degree, I don't have, but in the space of personality, in sale, I was able to manoeuvre. This is it, this is my

8. 16:34 – 22:40

   The Proposition That Changed My Life

   1. KHKevin Hart16:34

      calling. That's where the real beacon of light presented itself through ideas of my friends, "You should do stand-up because you're funny. You should try stand-up."

   2. Do you remember where you were when they said that to you?

   3. At my workplace. I'm working every day, I'm on the floor.

   4. And someone, a colleague of yours at work?

   5. Colleague. Alice, colleague of mine that I work with.

   6. What did your brain think when she said that? Was it, was it just blowing on a fire that was kind of already there or was it lighting the fire?

   7. No, I think it, the, the fire was lit. Like I, I never thought about pursuing stand-up comedy prior to. Like, the idea came up, I was always funny but I wasn't like, "Man, I gotta figure out how to become a comedian." That was never a thought. I knew that I was very funny, I knew that I was entertaining, I knew that I could make people laugh, I love being the centre of attention, I love the idea of a stage and a light. But that wasn't the thing. I wasn't like, "I got it and this is what it's gonna do." It was presented and then I went and did the amateur night and that's when I fell in love.

   8. Why did you like the stage and the light? And, and why did you like performing?

   9. The laugh.

   10. Why?

   11. There's nothing better than the laugh. There's nothing better than being on stage, having the bright light and the only energy of good that you're able to take away from what you're doing is the laugh. Ha. (laughs) Hearing people laugh, I was like, "Oh shit."That feels different.

   12. Why?

   13. This, this is, this is energizing. This is like-

   14. How does it make you feel about you?

   15. I feel like I'm doing a service of good. If I can make people feel better, if I can brighten up your day, it's a service of good. That means I'm like, a shepherd of some sort. I'm... I am responsible for making people feel better? Oh my God, that means it's success. I can bring people to one destination, and everybody can share a moment in a laugh and all relate that it came from me. Oh my God, this can get global. This can get bigger. Well, this is starting to change now. Oh, wow. Wait, this has opened up doors for me to do this or that or this or that. It all started with the laugh. It all started with the stage.

   16. So you went to that comedy show? Um, I've got a... I was looking at some of those early clips of you performing. It's funny 'cause thi- I think this is the early 2000s.

   17. Okay.

   18. But I mean, you pro-

   19. Oh my God, Caroline's. Caroline's. This right here, my best set in the beginning of my career. Everything I say up here tonight is a joke, okay? It is nothing else. I don't want nobody to take none of this stuff too serious. I don't want nobody coming up to me after the show saying, "Who's the funny one now?" Yeah. Yeah. This, this... That tape. So that was when, you know, the thing I needed was a tape.

   20. Mm-hmm.

   21. And the reason why I needed the tape was so that I could send it to the other comedy clubs so that they can have an example of me, my talent, and then dictate or judge if I can get a live audition in person.

   22. And how old are you at that point? In 2009?

   23. I'm like... Right there, I'm like 18, 19.

   24. That's crazy.

   25. 18, 19 years old.

   26. 'Cause you're so... That clip is so funny. I watched it this morning, and I, I was dying.

   27. It... If you could understand the feeling of getting off that stage, having a good set, and then them putting the tape in my hand, it was gold. I got it. I got a good tape. I gotta go make copies of my tape, and then I just gotta send them to everybody. I just used to... Whew, whew, whew. 'Cause it was, it was, it was value. It was value. Started getting in comedy clubs, started getting auditions, started getting more. "Oh my God, Kevin's up for an audition." Uh, movie audition, casting directors, they all got that tape. Everybody got that tape.

   28. From that period onwards, from 18 to, let's say to your early 20s, you were at this point a very motivated individual. You were working hard.

   29. Very.

   30. You were focused.
9. 22:40 – 27:04

   13 Years of Struggle & Failures to Reach the Top

   1. KHKevin Hart22:40

      you, I will figure it out.

   2. Can you draw me a picture? If your career was a graph-

   3. Mm-hmm.

   4. Okay, so I'm gonna say here is 18 years old and you're four- 46 now. So you're 46 now. This is the axis of this graph, and on this axis we have, let's say, success. And th- on this axis we have age. Can you draw me a pitch, uh, a line that shows how, how it would-

   5. Success and age? Okay, so success for me, knowing what I wanna do in life comes here.

   6. Yeah.

   7. All right? Now figuring out w- how to get to, like, money, revenue, uh, just supporting yourself through telling a joke. Man, that's gone, that's gone here for a second. We flatlining. Okay? Like I'm... I mean, I'm making people laugh.

   8. (laughs)

   9. I'm, I'm getting in some comedy clubs. But you only get paid with food. But then something weird happens where you start figuring out, "Oh wait, here's kinda where the spots come in. I can make money on the weekends, and I can get $20 to $25 a spot." So rather than doing one spot, I would do, let's just say in a weekend, I got to the point where I was doing 25 to 28 sets.

   10. Oh God.

   11. A weekend.

   12. Wow.

   13. Where I started making 500, $500 a week, $400 a week.

   14. How many years in is this to that you're sort of making 500 a week?

   15. This is 18... Let's say 22?

   16. Two, yeah.

   17. So I was driving from Philadelphia to New York every day, but because of that-Well now, you gotta get into a comedy festival. All right? So now, let's start to go here 'cause we did these spots for a while, but then I got in a comedy festival. Oh, shit! I got in a comedy festival, that's when the industry saw me. "Who's this new guy? Who's this guy with all this energy? Who's this fucking guy? This guy here, he's got something." All right, so I started meetings, general meetings and now, I get a holding deal. So let's go up a little bit. I think it was ABC, they gave me like 250 grand. So they're holding you in hopes that they get something. Nothing happens, so we're flatlining here. Now I'm just waiting for the phone to ring? That's how this works? What if I want to create my own thing? Create a show. Oh my God, show gets picked up. I create something else, they decide to do it. Oh shit, there's a pattern. I can do that as much as I want. I can treat that just how I was treating the spots and stuff in New York. I'm out. I'm moving to LA. No plan, no nothing. Flat line. I'm here. I just did it, I just came and moved out. Fuck, man. This is weird. I don't like this. (laughs) Work, I'm not getting no work, man. This shit is, is real stagnant. I'm going on the road. I wanna, I wanna work the road. I'm gonna be a headliner and I'ma do colleges, so I'ma get college money and comedy club money and I'm gonna do it. I worked that for a very long time, right? Very, very long time to the point where now, I'm selling out comedy clubs. And after I started selling out comedy clubs, my person at the time was like, "Yo, we can probably do theaters. You're adding a lot of shows." Are you a millionaire at this point? No. No, I'm just an active, active comic. The next stage of success, right, was let's go from comedy clubs to theaters. All right? Boom. Let's go here, then let's go up again. Theaters start selling out real quick. Oh, fuck. Let's go from theaters, right, to like arenas. Oh, shit. Will Packer, he was like, "I got this book that I wanna make a movie, it's called Think Like a Man. Steve Harvey wrote it. I think you're funny as hell. I been tracking you on tour. I want you to be the star." We film it, Think Like a Man comes out. Think Like a Man did 90-something million dollars in the box office. And Will says, "Hey man, working with you is great. Let's do something else. I got this movie called Ride Along. You and Ice Cube would be great." Boom. Ride Along does 140, like the movies just started to pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. Get Hard, Central Intelligence, Me and Barack. I mean,

10. 27:04 – 29:31

    How I Got Into Business & Business Development

    1. KHKevin Hart27:04

       it just happened so fast. So now, because the movies are working, I'm like, "This is so cool," but while this is happening, I should figure out like how to kinda create my own source of like opportunity. Like, people keep bringing opportunities to me. How do I create my own source of opportunity? I'm gonna start a, a production company. I need to start developing. But now I'm like, "I created that, let's create something else." So then I say, "Let's go like, Heartbeat Ventures and let's do a VC." Oh man, I'm creating a bunch of stuff. Hey, these entities around me, it's all happening because of my likeness. My likeness allows me to get in these rooms and start relationships and put myself in a position to make deals and create long-term revenue. How do I get more of that? Wow. Like NASCAR, people attach themselves to the car that they think is doing the best, I'm a car. I should have brand partnerships. Chase, DraftKings, Fabletics. I should have my own brands and businesses that I'm building where more opportunity for long-term revenue can present itself. Gran Coramino, wine, spirits. Now, oh wow, I've grabbed this concept of business control ownership and mirrored it with Kevin's drive in entertainment and visibility, leveraged that to get me into the rooms where I may not be as visible or as strong, but once I'm embedded into these environments, I can bring them value. I can help amplify or uplift their brands, their products. Mm-hmm. So, my case study of Fabletics, of DraftKings before I got there versus after I got there, Chase, financial literacy, like C4, like these are things where I'm now, well I'm not just a partner, I'm an owner, I'm a endorser, I'm an ambassador. Oh wow, this is where the real money is made. The ecosystem of life. How do you tr- how do you put yourself in a position to be a part of everyday movement

11. 29:31 – 31:54

    The Importance of Not Quitting

    1. KHKevin Hart29:31

       in life? You're looking at things at a much granular scale and now, I go way back here to when I was like not really focusing, not thinking about life, not thinking about how things connect, I'm now able to tap into the lessons that my mom gave and I'm like, "All good things that happen, happen when they're supposed to," but now I'm poised and polished enough with a mindset that understands well, I don't wanna start something that I'm not gonna finish, so if I'm gonna put myself in position to do these things, how do I make sure that my partners know I'm willing to give my all? How do I show that I'm not gonna quit? Which back here, my mom's biggest lesson was, "You're not quitting. If you start it, you're gonna finish it." So how do I make my partners that I'm now saying, "You should work with me"?How do I make Netflix secure in knowing that when you get me, you get 100% of me, and that I'm never going to quit, I'm gonna finish it all? How do I make my other studio affiliates understand in working with Heartbeat, it is in my best interest to bring you great product, great material so that you understand what we do so that we can continue to drive a business that has the best interest for both of us? How do I sell you on that? So now my business of sell mirrors and matches my business of grow. Nothing that I'm doing doesn't go hand-in-hand. And I should be able to embed the products or the partnerships that I'm now operationally, like, attached to into the ecosystem of entertainment. So if I have a C4 can and I'm doing an activation in health and wellness, well C4 as my partner, I should integrate you in this opportunity. Hey, my movie, we have an opportunity to basically wear a product. I should be in Fabletics in this scene, because this makes my partner feel valued and positioned. Oh wow, this is what I do. I elevate... I'm, I, I basically navigate my space of ownership in a way, like, only I can to elevate my partners so that my partners go and say,

12. 31:54 – 38:21

    Advice to Young People

    1. KHKevin Hart31:55

       "You're different, this is different, and this is what we need more of." That's my graph.

    2. I've got some questions about the graph.

    3. (laughs)

    4. So I guess the, the parts that I'm curious about are this initial period when you're 18 where, like-

    5. Yeah.

    6. ... nothing's really happening.

    7. Nothing.

    8. Because so many of my listeners, probably most of them are at... in some pursuit or sort of professional endeavor in their life in this kind of stagnant moment.

    9. Mm-hmm.

    10. Where maybe they enjoy it, but like, it ain't paying the bills.

    11. Yeah.

    12. No one believes in them.

    13. Yeah.

    14. Maybe some of their friends are rolling their eyes when they tell them what they're doing.

    15. Yeah.

    16. When you look back on this season of life, like, what is that season and how'd you, how'd you get through it?

    17. Nobody believed that I was funny when I said I was gonna be a comedian. Like, they were like, "You funny, but not comedian funny." Like, my friends were, "Yeah, what do you mean you gonna get on stage? What do you mean?" "I'm gonna get on stage, I'm gonna be a comedian." Get back, "How? Like Eddie Murphy, like, I wanna be a comedian." "Yeah, but you're never gonna be Eddie Murphy." "Yeah, I know, but I'm s- I'm saying, like, I'm gonna do it, like, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be a star." "No. I don't know, man. (laughs) I don't know about the whole star thing. I think you're tripping. I think... I don't, I don't, I don't think that's it." Nobody has the confidence in the decisions that you're making for yourself like you do. So if you're waiting for that to connect in the beginning stages, it may or may not. If it doesn't, it shouldn't prevent you from, like, following through on whatever the, the line of, like, go is for you. The money is never coming fast. We're in a time today where this generation has found ways to make money in a entrepreneurial manner that we've never seen before. Like the, the social media machine and how this generation navigates that machine to find revenue and to own is unbelievable. That didn't exist. We didn't have the... Like, in, in my time, uh, we didn't have that.

    18. Mm-hmm.

    19. We just had the struggle, and the struggle left you with days of, like, literally sitting in the living room going, "What the fuck, man?"

    20. So why didn't you quit? Because no money, everyone's doubting it, w- what, what were you believing in?

    21. I was believing in, in the idea that I finally found the thing that I wanna do.

    22. So it was passion that was really-

    23. Yes.

    24. ... you anchored to it.

    25. I, I found the thing that I wanna do, and I'm not gonna quit it because I love it this much and I strongly believe that the sun is at the end of this dark tunnel, but I gotta be willing to get there, and I, I just don't know how to get there yet, but I'm gonna figure it out. That's why I'm going to LA. I was in New York, but after New York, they say go to LA. I'm gone. What you gonna do when you get there? I'll figure it out. I can always get on a plane and fly where I gotta go for standup if that's the case. I can always go and make money doing standup if I have to, but I'm not gonna get to the star by just doing that. I gotta, I gotta go there, I gotta get close to it, I gotta smell it, I gotta feel it, I gotta find out where the people are that are trying to do it too. I gotta get acting classes, I gotta, I gotta get around to the, the Hollywood, like, what is holi- I gotta get there. And what happens when you're there, it fuels another s- another, like... another appetite of h- of hunger 'cause I'm there and in real time I'm seeing people better. I remember... I tell this Katt Williams story, and I don't, I don't even think I told Katt this, uh... There was a moment where I was opening for Katt Williams, and I remember, I remember being at the, the BET Comedy Awards, and I'm in, I'm in attendance and this is like, you know, I'd had a couple of shots at some things but they just, you know, it wasn't... things weren't sticking, like the, the, the pilots that I thought were gonna hit weren't gonna hit. The, the things that I thought were gonna happen, they just weren't... it just didn't seem like it was adding up, right? Like the, the roles were little small roles or little small cameos but, like, it wasn't... it wasn't the thing. And I remember Katt Williams said during the BET Comedy Awards, he had on, like, a leopard suit destroyed.Destroyed the Comedy Awards, destroyed this moment and audience goes crazy, stands up. I remember being in the audience and I was like, "That's it." I said, like, "That's the, that's the thing. That thing, that reaction, that roar, that moment. I gotta be patient because my moment is going to come." I witnessed his moment and he, after that moment, Friday After Next, you know, that, I mean, he went on and started to do crazy things in his career, right? But I witnessed the moment and in that moment, my takeaway was that he was ready for the moment. His material, the, the jokes, everything. Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm. It all hit. And I didn't watch it in a, in a manner of, like, jealous or angry. I was like, "That, that's it. Like he's probably out of here after this." I mean, it's the BET Comedy Awards. At the time, I'm like, "This is the biggest thing ever," right? This is the Comedy Awards. By the way, they never did the Comedy Awards again.

    26. (laughs)

    27. I think this was, like, the last one that they did. But that moment, if the ball is dropped in that moment, then the moment goes. You don't know when the moment is presenting itself but I'm staying with the thing because I know that the moment is gonna come and when I'm in the moment, if I knock that fucking moment out the park, all things will change.

    28. When-

    29. But you may not know it,

13. 38:21 – 40:31

    The One Moment I Knew Things Would Change Forever

    1. KHKevin Hart38:21

       you may not know when the moment comes.

    2. When did your moment come?

    3. Shaq's All Star Comedy Jam. The reason why I equate it with the story with Katt, uh, I believe it was Tommy Davidson, it was DeRay, Cedric the Entertainer was the host. I headlined it. I end up having one of the best sets that I've ever had and at the end of the Shaq's All Star Comedy Jam, I say goodnight and they do, like, a slow motion walk off. It's a slow motion thing and it's like I'm, I'm walking, the crowd stands up and they're going crazy. By the way, I don't know the slow motion walk off is gonna happen in the edit of the special, but I remember in real time, crowd's standing up, stars were there, everybody was there, right? And in that moment, show you how fucking crazy the world is. This is why I hate that, like, me and Katt went through our stuff and we're much better now. I'm gonna show you how the world aligns. Katt was in the audience at the Shaq's All Star Comedy Jam and Katt was watching this show, he was just there as a fan, but at this time, everything big is happening and I had a moment and that was the moment that then took me and shot me out the cannon. And if I wasn't prepared for the moment, then I wouldn't have known all the things to come. Okay, but that then set up, I was releasing my special, my special, Seriously Funny, I was taping in two weeks. So Shaq's All Star Comedy Jam goes, they rush to put it out, it crushes. I then tape my comedy special, Seriously Funny was my next special. Seriously Funny destroys, but it only destroyed because of Shaq's All Star Comedy Jam and the audience that watched that and that was like, "Oh, my God, this guy showed up in droves for Seriously Funny," and then Seriously Funny was like, "Oh, shit. This big-ass special," and then the arenas and everything,

14. 40:31 – 45:25

    It Took 13 Years to Make It

    1. KHKevin Hart40:31

       boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

    2. So about 12, 13 years s- from the moment you did your first, sort of, stand-up event, er, you having your moment.

    3. Mm-hmm.

    4. And I find that fascinating 'cause those 13 years, most people aren't willing to do something for 13 years without their moment showing up.

    5. Mm-hmm.

    6. Like, when you hear, like, I don't know, sh- on Instagram or quotes or you watch motivational videos and stuff, if they told you that it would take 13 years for you to have your moment, almost nobody would take part.

    7. Nobody, no. They-

    8. But those 13 years are your training.

    9. I mean, so Scooter Braun told me one time, he was like, "What makes him different is the work that he's willing to do in something." And he was like, "You know, if they were giving out, like, a million dollars for somebody that can hit a fastball pitch, you know, from, uh, from the best pitcher in baseball, right? And this thing would basically require everybody, everybody's gonna go and try to hit this because everybody wants the million dollars. So the first day of the announcement, the line to hit this pitch is gonna be droves, right? Like, probably millions of people. Who knows how many people will be in this line and people will go up and strikeout and after that they would go, 'Damn, it's over.' Like, 'I missed.'" Not many people would, like, miss and then go stand back in line to go hit the ball again. He was like, "I'm gonna keep getting in line. What you'll find is that the line will get smaller and smaller because of how many people are dropping out and optioning not to wait and do the hard thing again." That comparison and that world of understanding is like something that equates to life very well, right? Not many people are going to wait through the 13 years of, like, bullshit, hard shit. Most people opt out at year two.Maybe three, no money, whatever, I need to figure something else out. Year six, "Fuck this, man. Stupid. What am I doing? Why am I doing it," right? "I'm gonna go find the quick avenue or the quick return." 'Cause money is the... that's what it boils down to for most people. Where's the money? Where am I making the money? When the money comes, it comes. What you find is that it's not hard to make money. Once you start making money, you learn how to make money. Like, you, it comes with education, it comes with understanding and it comes with a better resource of mind that makes you go, "No, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna build this, and I'm gonna go here. I'ma meet, I'ma present, I have an idea, I'm gonna pitch it." Like, you, you're now a, a much better machine because you understand money is no longer the thing that you think it was when you get to it. But getting to it, to get that understanding, you lose the pack. You lose the pack because the pack is like, "I want it here. And because it didn't show up here, I gotta go figure out a new thing to do that's gonna give it to me here." And they gotta recycle, like-

    10. They lose focus.

    11. Yes, you, you're never completing anything. You never finish nothing. So the thing that you think you're focusing on, you keep quitting to start something else that you think is a idea, and it's just a cycle. It's a cycle.

    12. Don't you notice that people come up to... I notice this a lot with young entrepreneurs, especially those that aren't having success. They start one thing. W- they, when they come and tell you what they do, they tell you 17 things.

    13. 17.

    14. None of them have ever worked, but they say 17 things.

    15. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

    16. And they think that more, doing more things is increasing the probability of success.

    17. 1000%. 1000%. Where it's the opposite.

    18. (laughs)

    19. It's the opposite. It's the, it's the thing that you actually thought of that you are going to put 100% of your mind and focus into to complete. And then after that, you're able to pick it apart and take the good, the bad, the whatever, and either restart that thing again to improve it or make a decision to do something else, but you finished. I made the choice that standup comedy was what I was going to finish. I made a choice that becoming a good comic and a good headliner, if I focused and did it well, that would open up the doors for me to do everything else that I want to do. If I don't have that, how

15. 45:25 – 47:37

    The Deep Expertise That Allows You to Succeed

    1. KHKevin Hart45:25

       do I expect to get in?

    2. I was speaking to Evan at Snapchat and he was talking about T-shaped people. So you have, like, a broad understanding of, of, of a lot of things, but then you're like, really deep on one particular thing. And that one particular thing is almost, I guess you could see it as the, like, screw that gets you into the industries. So for me, mine would have originally been marketing, but I was able to use that, like, deep expertise to then launch this media business, 'cause it's still the same game of marketing that I did for, for 15 years. I was able to go into, like, the stock market because they really needed to understand marketing. And it was that deep expertise in one thing that was my leverage in all of these really interesting rooms, and it's kind of what you were saying at the start. Like, you had this deep expertise, this deep IP experience value that allowed you to, like, break in as an investor and then to production and all these other areas.

    3. I mean, the value, the value for me, it was self. But the value of self and understanding of how to truly control and operate that and navigate that correctly, that's a, that's a world of its own. So the bigger that the star gets, the brighter that the star shines. If you are paying attention, it's only positioning you to go in places where people say, "Oh my God, I know you," and where you can shake your hand, but the interest of just knowing you because of the place from the star, it allows a moment for the conversation of, "So what is it that you do? Oh my God, like, that's, that's so cool. I would love to learn more about that." And what you'll find is that the resource of opportunity over there are endless. "Oh my God, are you serious? We would love to partner with you on something like this. I mean, in this space? Are you talking about mental health? Wellness? Listen, strong voices and confident voices or inspiring voices, there could be a lot for us in what we do here. Hey, maybe there's a partnership that we can form." Oh my God, man, back to school. Kids, I love kids. I'm thinking about doing more. Like, here's something where I think I can have a very, very good cadence and a, and a very good energy towards getting kids hype about school education because it's not something that I took serious.

16. 47:37 – 53:18

    Be Comfortable with Coming Across as Stupid

    1. KHKevin Hart47:37

       How do I help?

    2. Where did you learn? So when I look at this graph here, I see this sort of moment where things become, go up and to the right very quickly where you start to get into entrepreneurship, but at this moment that comes before it, you didn't know this stuff.

    3. Mm-hmm.

    4. So at some point you acquired information. So for the people that are listening now that are thinking, like, "How did Kevin go from a kid that was in this rough area, Dad wasn't around much, his mom was raising him, to a guy that knows all this stuff?"

    5. Mm-hmm. You get there now by being a sponge and not being afraid to ask questions. I am, I'm very secure in myself in being the dummy in the room. I am extremely secure in saying, "I don't know what that means. Explain that."

    6. Give me an example of a context where you-

    7. I can give you several. Like, v- venture and investing, I was a firm believer that, uh, nobody's stealing my money.

    8. (laughs)

    9. Ain't giving you nothing. "Yeah, you gonna go and put it where?"

    10. (laughs)

    11. "Yeah, no. My money gonna stay right here under my bed."I'm not doing that. "So give you- you want me to give you money and you telling me you going to get- you going to take that money and then that money is going to turn into," what?

    12. (laughs)

    13. Yeah. (laughs) Okay. Go find you another idiot-

    14. (laughs)

    15. ... 'cause it ain't happening over here, buddy. Get your scamming ass up outta here. Okay? I come from the world of everything is a scam, okay? It's a fucking scam. I know a scam when I see one, right? But, when you go and you say, "Well, how does the stock market really work?" Or, "How does investing really work?" Or, "What do you mean you making money while you sleeping? What does that mean? What do you mean by that? How does this brand partnership shit really work?" Like, you- you can't be afraid to, like, verbalize your ignorance. And- and the bigger problem, which I'm sure a lot of your viewers have, is, like, insecurely, like, just being quiet about the shit that they don't know, as if you're gonna figure it out because someday, one day, somebody's gonna go, "Hey, you look like you need to know."

    16. (laughs)

    17. (laughs) Like... It'll never happen that way. It's never gonna happen. You're never gonna run into a person who's randomly gonna talk about the things that you wish you had more knowledge in. It will never happen. And what you'll find is that information is not free, but it's available. It's not actually hard to obtain. It's only hard to people that are very insecure about just verbalizing, "I don't know where to get it." Look at how many how-tos, help-tos... All of these things that they... The- the success that we're seeing in entrepreneur and influencer, streamer and all of this other entertainment, is the same success as you're seeing in, uh, we can call them motivational speakers, how-to experts, uh, step one through five and what to do. The idea of, "I'm here to service you and give you the information that you don't know is available, so let me tell you how to get it."

    18. Mm-hmm.

    19. "Here's where I'm going to help you. Three easy steps to making sure that you can." And I don't care if you wanna go to the world of athletics or you wanna go to corporate or you wanna go to entertainment, like, you can break it down. Golf, do you know how much money is being made in a game of golf because you got millions of people that are trying to give people information on how to better improve your golf swing? 'Cause I don't want to- I don't want to say out loud that my swing ain't shit, but I don't know, man. I keep coming down on top of the ball. Why the fuck am I coming down on top of the ball?

    20. (laughs)

    21. I don't know what's happening. And some people would rather go out in their backyard every day, hit the same ball-

    22. (laughs)

    23. ... than just ask somebody, "Hey, man, any way that you can tell me how to come... Like, what- how do you get that bitch in the air?" So now people online go, "Well, we're just gonna put it out here." And that person that's struggling quietly, well they're gonna discover me and in silence they'll watch and they'll look to improve because nobody knows and they still get to be quiet. That's the problem.

    24. Just give me a minute of your time and I'll tell you about a device that my team's been using that they won't seem to shut up about. It's called the Note Pro and it's by our sponsor, Plaud. This tiny card clips onto the back of your phone and captures everything. But why it's so clever is that it picks up multiple voices at the same time. And when someone says something important, you just push this tiny little button here and that moment gets highlighted in your notes and captured. It records the conversations that it hears, takes those conversations, creates a transcript, and it uses AI to synthesize all of that information into whatever template suits you. You get a summary, action points, highlights, and even a mind map sent straight to the Plaud app. So I highly recommend you check out Plaud's products using the link in the description below. Don't tell anybody this, but if you use code DOAC22, you'll get 22% off on

17. 53:18 – 59:12

    Seeing Behind the Curtains

    1. KHKevin Hart53:18

       some of Plaud's products. There's also unknown unknowns, which you would have experienced. I remember you talking about, um, you got to see behind curtains and you didn't even know people were behind there.

    2. (laughs)

    3. And when I- when I heard you say that, it was the perfect metaphor and analogy for exactly what I had experienced in my life coming from a kid that came from a very normal background, was- was born in Africa, moved to the UK, mother's Nigerian, dad's English, and didn't know that all these, like, rich people were back here playing money games. I thought the way you make money is you, like, work in McDonald's, you, like, work really hard, you might become manager, da-da-da-da-da. And then at, like, I'm gonna say 27, being sat in a billionaire's kitchen and watching him on the phone and he's calling his boy and they're doing 15 million just before the IPO happens so that they get a better price and I'm thinking, "Fucking hell."

    4. It's all... It... The- the- the thing that I've realized, right? When you look at your biggest investors, right? You'll find that they're all together.

    5. Mm-hmm.

    6. None of them are investing in the new thing alone. They all are like, "Well, it's better with you, so do it with me." "Well, what about Gary?" "Yeah, call Gary too, let's see if we can get him in here." "What about Michelle?" "Yeah. Hey, Michelle, what about Melissa?" All right. You'll find that this group of 10 people, all who could easily do something on their own-Do not believe in the struggles of self when you can combine this machine of great minds to provide another great opportunity. And in success, well, this thing works, the company gets bigger, well, let's use our resources to go out and make sure that we align the personnel they already have with more amazing individuals, create more jobs, more opportunities for new minds to become successful. And then in those minds building and that personnel, like, elevating, well now this person that was at the bottom here, we then go and ask this person to run this thing, and now underneath this thing, we get another version of a downpour. New minds, new personnel, new things. Okay, this whole business venture, this whole business of company build, whether it's tech, lifestyle, health, wealth, it doesn't matter what it is, you will notice that the people that started from the bottom are now running the new companies of today, and now the source of personnel that's underneath it, will be the minds running the company of tomorrow. It's not like rocket science once you're behind the curtain. Once you go, "Oh, shit." (laughs)

    7. (laughs)

    8. I remember when, when I first started, like investing, they said, "Oh my God, Kevin, like your, your money in this would add a, a crazy amount of value." "Well, I ain't putting in what y'all put in." "No, but the fact that you're involved in it at all is just big, that you believe in it. We're able to say that you believe in it with us, it's huge." "What do you mean by that?"

    9. (laughs)

    10. "Are you tryna fucking steal? What are you doing?"

    11. (laughs)

    12. "What are you doing, man? You're talking too fast. Say what you said again, slow down so I understand it."

    13. (laughs)

    14. "Don't talk fast to me because I'm so insecure 'cause I don't know what you saying and it might be some shit in here."

    15. (laughs)

    16. But it's, no, well, "We know that you're, you're doing well over here and your movies and all that stuff is cool, but this is different. This business, Kevin, could be different for you. It's a business of multiple. So we play the game of multiples, of X. So what your money is today, well, we think in success, if this is a light bulb or a bottle rocket, you 30X, 20X." "What the fu-?"

    17. (laughs)

    18. "You're telling me (laughs) that if I put this money in here right now, and if my voice is attached to the thing that I think it is, which is a crazy, crazy venture, a crazy opportunity..." "Well, yeah, Kevin, I mean, look, we all believe that. But with your voice, we may be able to say it a little louder." Oh my. "Oh my, okay, well I did it. Oh my, I won, I got a return. Oh my. Oh! Oh, so now I figured it out." Now, now you're a part of the right conversations, you're a part of the, the right opportunities. But, once again, the information is discovered because of the opportunity to be the fly on the wall in the spaces that you never imagined yourself being in. But now look at what I'm able to do. I'm able to take this information, take all the shit that I know, come and have these fucking organic conversations like I am now, and we're sharing it. And some people that are watching this are gonna take that information and go, "I knew it!" And I'm doing the right thing, and it's a matter of time before I get around them, and when I do, oh my God, the things that I have, the stuff that I have on the table, the things that I have created, the opportunities. I'ma be the next person to bring the thing that everybody else is involved in. I'ma be the next person to be the fucking energy source to tomorrow's future, future within. Like, people just need to hear how fast it happens, quick it happens and, and, and when it does, what you're supposed to be ready for.

    19. And you were able to invest in lots of great companies like Function Health, that's valued at-

    20. Mm-hmm.

    21. ... 2.5 billion now. Eleven Labs, everybody knows, in the tech space knows Eleven Labs, which were valued at, valued at three billion now. Moonpay, um, young, Yoga Labs, Sweat Pals, Radiant, Nororganics, Palta, um-

    22. Tons of stuff,

18. 59:12 – 1:02:34

    How Much About Business Is About People?

    1. KHKevin Hart59:12

       stuff that you would never expect me to be in.

    2. How much of this game have you learnt in hindsight is about people? About like getting y- 'Cause even when that person was saying to you, that analogy you gave of they're telling you to put your money into this thing and you're going, "Fuck me, is, are they stealing?" You're gonna have to lean on someone you trust.

    3. Mm-hmm.

    4. Like, someone in your circle that you know.

    5. Mm-hmm.

    6. And I'm, I'm wondering, 'cause people don't talk about it enough, how, how important it is to, like, collect the right people. And can you think of moments where you, like, met a person and that was like game-changing in you understanding a whole new world and what was behind the curtain?

    7. All of my people could see this, so I'm, I'm just gonna be extremely transparent. Like, you, before you get to the right people, you run through wrong people. And with wrong people you can go like, "They're wrong, they don't work. I gotta get somebody else." Or you can grow with people. I'm a believer of the grow. Right? Like, I think it's dope when we can all say we started a certain way, but we're ending up in a completely different space. Along that journey of grow, some people won't make it. You can be patient and you can want the best for some, but they might not want the same for themselves. So because of that, the fall off presents itself to be a little more consistent, um, than what it should be, right?

    8. Mm-hmm.

    9. But in business what you'll find is that the emotions can be your, like, can be your worst asset. Having emotions in business, attached to business-... can be everything but beneficial to the business. So the more that I was able to detach my emotions from the world of want and understand that the things that I'm doing are to better position the business, and the people that have worked so hard to help this business get to where it is today, I have a service to them as well. How do I bring in the right valuable assets to put us in a bigger position to win? Sometimes you gotta let go-

    10. Mm-hmm.

    11. ... of things that you thought would be the thing, but you can, you can climax, you can, you can get to a place where it's a ceiling, and you're like, "We're not gettin' past this ceiling unless we go get the right people, unless we go get the correct personnel." So I am a firm believer in talent. I'm a firm believer in rewarding those that do a job and that can do a job at a high level. But the only way that you realize that is to get out of the way. I had to learn to stop tryin' to control everything, stop tryin' to do everything, stop tryin' to be with my, m- the one with my hands in everything, and put people in a position to do the thing that they've been hired to do and do it well. But the patience that you have to have in learning people, in dealing with people is a talent within itself. I wanna say, like, you're... At this stage, I'm more, I'm more of a hard drive of other people's issues or problems

19. 1:02:34 – 1:04:50

    The Importance of Communication in Business

    1. KHKevin Hart1:02:34

       than I am a person.

    2. (laughs)

    3. I, I am a hard drive of, "Can I talk to you? I wanna tell you what's goin' on. I have an issue with... Hey man, look, I'm tryin' to do this. I don't know what they tryin' to do. Here's what I'm tryin' to do." And you have to be a positive source of solution all day, every day, because if you're talking and you're talking to do anything but solve, then you shouldn't be in the chair of control. So I am solution-driven every single day because I am faced with a new problem attached to the ecosystem and the community that I've built underneath me of how to navigate or how to better navigate in the world, because everybody's trying to do something to prove that they're worthy of the seat or seats that they have or that they want. So every day, you're dealing with a board of shuffle and a new board of opportunity.

    4. And drama.

    5. And every day, you're tellin' people, "Not now, in time, slow up. I hear you. We'll deal with it. Let's all talk together. Communication is key. Let's table this and make sure everybody's on the same page." You're saying things five and six times 'cause you have to make sure that you're the best example of what you're speaking. So every day-

    6. (laughs)

    7. ... the thing that you never thought would come into play is communication and, like, the ability to fucking give great dialogue in the hopes of getting the return of effort and work. So now you're goin' back to ground zero when you were with your mom and you were with your friends in the early days of life, and what was the thing that I told you I did very well? I connected with everybody. In the lunchroom, I was at everybody's table. Didn't matter who you were or what you were or what race, wh- didn't matter. In this space of now business and corporation, if everybody doesn't feel like they can trust or believe or follow my direction, my vision,

20. 1:04:50 – 1:10:24

    How Do You Know Who to Trust in Business?

    1. KHKevin Hart1:04:50

       something about what I'm doing is wrong.

    2. How does one build an empire that relies on people when they naturally don't come from a place of that information? So they, they might have trust issues. Like you were referring to these kind of trust issues, like, "Wait a minute. You're tryin' to steal my money." How does... I- you've got this big empire of lots of different verticals within, within Heartbeat and your, your companies and your personal IP. You're gonna have to be trusting a lot of other people with your wealth, with your business, and with your, with your children's inheritance, and I hear so many of these stories of, "I trusted a guy, and I lost everything." Especially, honestly, especially in the, like, Black community.

    3. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's a major fact. Um, but we're also a community that gets taken advantage of because of the lack of knowledge, right? W- we get fucked over more than we don't because, "All right. Well, it says here that you're a lawyer and that you have my best interests. All right? It says that you're my manager, and you have my best interests. All right. Well, you read the paperwork? All right. You read the contract, and it's good? And I'm just signing, right?" My ignorance doesn't mean that I'm lazy. My ignorance means that I believe you, and I don't know to second-guess or second-check or to hire or onboard people to second-guess, to second-check, to show me fine print, fine line, because it's impossible. I can't get fucked 'cause you said... "Well, yeah, I can't, but, uh..." You said. Go back to the emotions, and why I say emotions had to be removed. "I'm gonna have somebody look at this just so I know that it is what it is. Oh, I wouldn't lie to you. I know, but it's in the best nature of business just for me to make sure that my eyes that I have lay eyes on it, and they can just say what you just said, but just make sure I understand it correctly."Yeah, but you don't have to do that. It's nothing against you. It's just a practice that I have within the way that I now approach business. And anything that you do, it's never personal. I don't take offense to anything that you wanna check or background check on me. You should, it's business. I think that we don't get a fair level of understanding for our fuck-ups, for our mishaps, of how the road presented itself for somebody to take from me. So when I'm recovering from the take, well, you got to start at a safe space. My space was never safe because there's sharks, so they focus on the fucking prey. The young talent in the music business is prey. So the sharks see the young talent, whichever one gets there first has an opportunity to fucking give me the presentation of the world and make it bells, whistles, and candy. Well, if I get there right and the prey doesn't have the right people around them, I'm going with the shark every time.

    4. I guess you, there is a, an element of responsibility here which people don't like to acknowledge-

    5. 1000%.

    6. ... that you like, you gotta take responsibility.

    7. 1000%.

    8. I, I, I've signed bad contracts in my career and I was like, I look back at 20 years, I go, "Fucking, you know, I lost a lot there." But that was on me and if I don't take responsibility, then it's gonna happen again. But there's also, you, you, you'll know a lot of people that become victims.

    9. I don't think it's the worst thing, right? Like, it's, when it happens early on, like, I got a lot of friends that are in the music business, a lot of artists that are now independent artists that control and own their labels and are doing much better at this position than they were when they were signed underneath the big thing and they were getting taken. But after finding out how it was and why it was, they said, "I'm gonna go create my own." Like, you know, when you look at the biggest labels that are independent and you look at the artists that fall underneath these independent labels, well, you'll look at a blueprint of people following-

    10. Hmm.

    11. ... the person that was, like, in front of them and what they said. But it was only because they learned the business of the business, right? Like, so being a part of a business that's just succeeding and you being embedded into it-

    12. Hmm.

    13. ... and just being the work for hire that just follows the suit of what they say, well, that's not smart if you have an opportunity to mirror what they're doing and create your own. So, what I do like within the culture is a lot of the artists that are, that are independent or that are, that are now, like, able to say, "I have my own version," whether it's studio, production company, label, independent label, whether it's own line of product that they share ownership with. Like, people are now learning to follow and, and repeat what the conglomerates are doing. I can use a conglomerate and I can take your machine and create a small version of a machine underneath yours and partner with you and give you a piece of my machine, but it allows me to own, I can leverage the, the, the bank of opportunity and consumer that you have here under this brand.

    14. What's the cost though? Because you know, you're

21. 1:10:24 – 1:18:05

    What's the Cost of Success?

    1. KHKevin Hart1:10:24

       incredibly successful. You've got all this empire of companies and businesses and ventures you started. They say that you can't have everything in life.

    2. Mm-hmm.

    3. Especially not at the same time. So what is the cost of this pursuit?

    4. Time.

    5. Because... Time.

    6. Time.

    7. Is your ambition, like, an unsat- insatiable?

    8. Yes.

    9. It just won't, you couldn't switch it off if you wanted to?

    10. No.

    11. And does that not make you feel like you're being dragged versus being driven?

    12. You for sure have your days. I'm absolutely stressed out. I'm stressed the fuck out on the daily, but I operate within stress.

    13. Are you happy?

    14. I'm 1000% happy, but I'm stressed out with the concept of I have to do.

    15. If your life ended now, God forbid-

    16. Mm-hmm.

    17. ... do you, do you think if you, if you found out today that it was ending, you would reflect on it and say, "Do you know, I think I might have had things in the wrong order?" Would there be any misprioritization in hindsight if today was the day?

    18. If life ended today, I could cross my legs comfortably and be okay that it's, that it's time I did it correctly. I made sure that I applied myself to the best of my ability. I tried my best to put those that I loved in a better position so that they could see more and do more. My last name and my family name is much stronger today than it was yesterday. The idea of the world is something that I was able to see and understand better because I was blessed and fortunate enough to travel and meet so many. People are made to, like, we're, we're here to embrace, we're here to love. We're here to, like, share.

    19. Mm-hmm.

    20. I was an energy source of good to bring people closer together through all things that I've done. So it all connects and I'm okay. I'm okay with, if it stopped, it stopped. What I'm, what I'm not okay with is while I have the bandwidth of good health, fucking great mind, strong, fucking, like, mind concept and I can, I can go, I can do it. I can get there. I'm not okay with wasting that time. I'm not okay with wasting my time of good and I can do, and I'm strong enough to connect at a very high level.My star is bright, which allows me to go and get into these spaces. If I wait for this to dim out when I try to get into these spaces, what if I can't?

    21. Is there always a fear because of where you came from that the star-

    22. Absolutely.

    23. ... star might dim?

    24. Absolutely. Like, you, you can't be unrealistic. Nothing is going to last forever. Nothing. I don't give a fuck who you are, I don't... It's not true. You can recreate and you can figure out ways to find success again and again but the one thing that you were winning in, you're not gonna win in it forever. Right? Like, I love talking about my guy, man, Hov and Rubin, Michael Rubin. Like, two great friends but two good examples of recreation, amplification, and step repeat. Right? Successful rapper. Albums. Some albums Hov will never make again. Some will... You don't look at 'em all like they are all the best. Some you think are better than others. But the fight to be the thing that you were when it was at your highest is a driving factor to get you but then as a talent you, you let go of that because you become comfortable in knowing that, "I'm never gonna create that again." That was my lightning in the bottle moment. "I'm never gonna create this again, but I can have fun doing what I'm doing and I can create a variation or versions of this that still display my talent and that I'm doing it at a high level." Man, you know what? This right here, it could cap out, but boy oh boy did I find fucking momentum in the other movies. Or in Hov's case, as the example I was using, he then found momentum in, well, this thing, the Roc-A-Fella thing. Him, Dame, created this thing and then the artists underneath the thing and the progression of the artists underneath that brand has started to go pow, pow. Kanye, pow. State Property, Beanie Sigel, pow, pow, pow. Rihanna, all these people, pow. Now this thing was so dope that we were able to create other people. That's more energy. So now I don't need to fucking... I don't need to rap. I'm looking at the product of a valuable asset that we created that's premium enough to display the talent that comes from underneath us. A strong fucking talent and we do amazing things. Now my business, because of this business, well, this business becomes great too. Ace of Spades and D'USSÉ and all... Oh, shit, the value, the exit, the return. He keeps finding more energy in these other things.

    25. Mm-hmm.

    26. Oh, shit, 40/40 Club. More assets, more brand, likeness, partnership, ownership. But the backdrop to it all is the artists.

    27. Just give me 15 seconds to explain how you can build a viable business online. The people I see winning in life don't have a perfect plan. They just take the first step and then the next and then they keep going. They stay obsessed and they stay consistent. On Stan Store, a platform I co-own and one of our sponsors, is the best first step to help turn your knowledge into income. It only takes a couple of minutes to launch your business and start selling digital products, coaching, memberships or communities online without any tech headaches or endless setup. Thousands of entrepreneurs, creators and risk-takers use Stan to take control of their future, because Stan is for entrepreneurs, for those willing to put in the work and bet on themselves. If you're ready to start building, join us. Launch your business today with a free 14-day trial at stephenbartlett.stan.store. Have you ever heard about this before, this thing I'm holding in my hands now? This is called Ketone IQ. Their website is ketone.com. You've heard me on this podcast talking about the fact that I stay much of the year in a ketogenic state, which is a highly restricted diet. And the reason I do that is plenty fold. One of them is I spend hours and hours talking to people for a living, so I wanna make sure my brain is firing in an optimal way. And the other reason that I do the ketogenic diet is because I just feel better. So when I discovered this, which is what they call an exogenous ketone product where you can drink it and it increases your blood's ketone levels, I was blown away. I contacted them, I met them, I invested extremely heavily into their company and I've become a co-owner of the company accordingly and they sponsor this show now. So if you wanna try this out for yourself, I recommend you try it, just visit ketone.com/stephen and you'll get 30% off your first subscription order. You'll also get a free gift with your second shipment. That's ketone.com/stephen. Your show is called, your new...

22. 1:18:05 – 1:19:29

    Kevin Hart Show: Acting My Age

    1. KHKevin Hart1:18:05

       Well, it's not new necessarily, I actually saw it in, in London. Me and my girlfriend were, we were near the front row when you came and did, um, Acting, Acting My Age-

    2. Mm-hmm.

    3. ... in London. The show was absolutely hilarious.

    4. Thank you.

    5. Um, we were dying of laughter. And it's coming to Netflix Monday the 24th of November, so if you're listening now you've gotta go and watch it. But the title of the show-

    6. Mm-hmm.

    7. ... Acting My Age.

    8. Mm-hmm.

    9. What does it... What do you mean Acting My Age? And why now?

    10. Um, yeah, you gotta grow up. I think it's like one of the, one of the toughest things in life is just realizing like what grow up actually means. Right? And like you can, you can be an adult but still not embrace what being an adult actually is. And when it's time to grow up, you start sacrificing the, the shit that the younger version of you with less responsibilities thrived and flourished off of and in.... you realize that a lot of that shit gets thrown on the back burner and is no longer important because you're fucking getting older and some shit just isn't-

    11. (laughs)

    12. ... isn't the same, right? Like, I just made a decision (laughs) to let go of a

23. 1:19:29 – 1:20:54

    The Men's Crisis

    1. KHKevin Hart1:19:29

       certain version of life and embrace my age and all the fun that comes with it.

    2. What about being a man? It's-

    3. Yeah.

    4. It's confusing. I think it's more confusing than ever for many to be a man and we often talk about this masculinity crisis-

    5. Mm-hmm.

    6. ... where men have less men, f- male friends than ever before.

    7. Mm-hmm.

    8. Um, the stats are pretty shocking on this. The suicida- suicidation is, uh, uh, 300% to 400% higher in men.

    9. It's true.

    10. There's a college degree gap. For every two men who earn a bachelor's degree, and the women three, uh, in the US, three women do. There's a workforce dropout rate which is pretty s- terrifying. Millions of prime-age men between the age of 24 and 50 are no longer in the labor force, representing an almost 10% drop. Um, being a man is tough-

    11. Mm.

    12. ... these days-

    13. Mm-hmm.

    14. ... for a bunch of different reasons.

    15. You got a, uh, a plethora.

    16. A plethora-

    17. Plethora, yes.

    18. ... of resources. Yeah. It's r- it's not e- it's not straightforward.

    19. Yes. Polluted waters-

    20. Yeah.

    21. ... is what I call it. Extremely polluted waters. Uh-

    22. Wh- what advice have you got for, for young men on, in terms of, like, what it takes to be a, a good man?

    23. You know, I think the definition of a, of a good man is so foggy today.

    24. Mm-hmm.

    25. Right? And I'm a firm believer that change comes within time, so I'll start by saying that. And I understand that, you know, nothing should stay the same. E- everything should evolve

24. 1:20:54 – 1:26:19

    What Does It Take to Be a Good Man?

    1. KHKevin Hart1:20:55

       when it's evolving. The conversation of a, of a man and what makes a man a man is weird. It's, it's like-

    2. Yeah.

    3. ... it's not evolving, right? And, you know, I was raised on a foundation of a leader or leadership and I think, you know, rest in peace to my dad, as fucked up of a road that my dad had, my dad's, like, later years were driven from accountability. I'm aware of what I didn't do, I'm aware of the mistakes that I made, and I'm aware of what I shoulda did much better. I can't change those things, but I would love to try to be the best grandfather or grandparent that I can be. Kevin, I love you and I love your brother, but I can't go back. I can only say I'm sorry and I wish I could. You don't have to. Like, the grandkids are your focus and if you can be the dopest example of a grandpop to them, then that's the win for me at this point. But his accountability in that moment is what I remember the most about my father and love the most, because leadership, or lack thereof, put me in a position to say, "I don't wanna do that. I wanna do this." And not because my dad is, like, the worst but, fuck, man, if he didn't do these things wrong, back to tying shit in, I wouldn't know how to do 'em right.

    4. Mm-hmm.

    5. So now, I got two boys and I wanna make sure that my example of man to my, to my sons is leadership, responsibility, it's accountability.

    6. Emotions?

    7. You know, I'm not against emotions, but, but I am also, I am a student of everybody has problems. Nobody... There's not a shortage of problems. So, the weight of the world that you feel is the heaviest for you may not come close to what the weight of the world is for you. And I think in sharing your emotions and having an, uh, an opportunity to voice or offload them, extremely important, but you also are in a world where, you know, weakness can, at some point in time, be taken advantage of, right? Uh, you are in the world of, like, prey and, and, and, and sharks, as I presented earlier, and it's, it doesn't mean that your emotions don't matter, because they do. It means that you also have to be smart and aware, right? And what are you ultimately trying your best to become? And what are you ultimately trying to be the best example for yourself first, and then others for? I don't mind being weak, but I talk to my kids. I talk to them and I voice, "Your dad deals with struggles that you'll never know about because I don't want you to have to feel the burden of them. It's my job to try my best to make life easier for you so that you can go on to do way more than I ever have. It's my job to give you the opportunities to learn shit that I never knew that I could learn at this stage, but I'm gonna make sure that I communicate with you differently than I was communicated with. I'm not gonna let you fuck off or take advantage of the things that you have as resources at your fingertips. I'm not gonna let you tell me the things that you think you should do because you feel, when I know right now at this stage in your life what's best for you." That's my format of parenting and it doesn't mean that it's the same for others. But for the man that I am, I know the type of man that I want my kids to be based off of what my outcome was and is. And I think that if I correctly position them to simply understand, in your older age, you make whatever decisions you want. I'm your father, I'm gonna love you regardless.I want to know that I did my job for what I was supposed to control. And I want to know that our conversations and our dialogue was always straight up and straightforward enough to where you were comfortable to talk to me, and you were comfortable in feeling like your father has your best interests. That's the... For me, that's my makeup. And in a time today, my makeup doesn't have to fit yours, and I'm okay with that, and I'm okay with yours being whatever it is for you. But I think we're in a time today where society wants to fight with one another about... it's- it's just too much of like, "Well, if you don't see it my way, then you're dumb."

    8. Yeah.

    9. And, and that's, I think that's why the conversation has gotten so inconsistent and polluted. That's my personal opinion, and my side of information attached to it. So hopefully, you know, your viewers can hear that and understand that, and know it's okay with not being okay with my choice.

    10. Mm-hmm.

    11. It's okay. (laughs)

    12. Kevin, we have a closing tradition where the last

25. 1:26:19 – 1:27:56

    What’s the Best Advice You Got as an Adult?

    1. KHKevin Hart1:26:19

       guest leaves a question for the next, not knowing who they're leaving it for. The question left for you is, what is the advice you got as an adult that had the most significant impact on your life?

    2. I'ma go to best, the best piece of advice came from Chris Rock, where Chris Rock told me early in my comedy career, he says, his exact word is, "You don't just wanna make niggas laugh. The world is so much bigger than your block or your neighborhood." He said, "Get out the country. Get out the country and figure out a way to make the world laugh, and comedy will be so much better." At that point, I was very, like, specific in my material. "50 area, you know, we got these... (laughs) The, the drug store is crazy. You ever had a guy in a drug store on your block?" And it's like, well, everybody doesn't relate or can't relate. How do you broaden it? How do you, how do you open it up so that you're never changing your material or who you are? Everywhere you go in the world, people can laugh, and you never have to adjust. Get out the country. Get bigger in the way you're thinking about your craft.

    3. I mean, you've done that across the board and across industries now. You've been willing to be the person, the outsider in lots of rooms.

    4. Mm-hmm.

    5. That seems to be really central to your success, and what Chris, Chris Rock said to you there was get out into the unfamiliar, go put yourself in an unfamiliar place, and when I look at your career and the empire that you've been able to build across business and investing, it's exactly that. It's you were willing to be in unfamiliar

26. 1:27:56 – 1:30:19

    One More Thing About What's Happening with Men

    1. KHKevin Hart1:27:56

       territories for some reason.

    2. Yeah. Yeah. You know what you just made me think about too? And, and I, I wanna backtrack before we leave. One thing that's, like, kinda crazy just when you were talking about the conversation of man, like, it's a weird thing that's happening where you do have men that are opening up more and talking more about, like, the struggles-

    3. Mm-hmm.

    4. ... of a man, but then those things are, like, being used against them in the conversation of man. Like, when you get to talking about, like, the things that you're dealing with and the emotion and stuff, like, of-

Episode duration: 1:36:33