Kevin Hart: Success of a True Performer
The Comedian used meaningful work, 10,000 hours and cultural legacy to become a success.
By: Tyson Hohenecker | Independent Filmmaking
60,000 people.That’s how many people are here to see me perform. I’m my home town of Philadelphia at my Eagles stadium the Lincoln Financial Field. People took time out of their day to see me perform and took took at least $78 out of their pocket to see me. So Kevin…let’s go make these people laugh. Kevin Hart was in disbelief of the people that were there to see him perform when he jumps up from underneath the stage before his show began.He prayed to his mom who raised him in a one bedroom apartment just a couple blocks from where he is the first comedian to ever headline and sell out an NFL stadium. (Lawrence, Forbes)
This event led to Kevin’s success around the world. Success that inspires and empowers many people today.That same year Hart co-starred with Dwyane Johnson inCentral Intelligence which made $35 million opening weekend.An amount he never thought about making. But quickly after, he also got introduced to family movies as he voiced Snowball in The Secret Life ofPets which gained $104 million dollars opening weekend at the US box office.His biggest movie to date was when he co-stared with Jack Black, Karren Gillen and once again Dwyane Johnson in Jumanji:Welcome to the Jungle.The biggest gain of his career at the box office with $404 million. Last year Hart’s comedy tour The Irresponsible Tour hit all new kinds of records. He was the first US comedian to get to the 1 million ticket mark in under six months. (Long, IQ Magazine)
His success in the box office has left people wanting to know more about the man behind the laugh. So, Kevin published his own book I Can’t Make This Up:Life Lessons.This book brings the reader through the up and down journey of his youth and the lessons he learned that got him to where he is today.
Author Malcom Gladwell states in his book Outliers:The Story of Success “If you work hard enough and assert yourself,and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires” (Pg.151). Hart’s meaningful work inspires so many to live your life the way you want,his 10,000 hours of work that he put in shows that commit is everything. Through redefining his cultural legacy, he shows his family and others that no matter what you can breakthrough stereotypes. Hart used Gladwell’s ideas of meaningful work, 10,000 hours and cultural legacy to become a comedy, movie star and an influential millionaire.
Hart has always had the power to make people laugh,A trait that he is known for. He knows that making people laugh can always help brighten somebody’s day and can even give people hope again.When asked about his reputation of being a hard worker in an interview with Multiplier Magazine Hart said “It’s a good reputation to have.It’s also about being professional and very loyal to the people who put me here,which would be my fans.I feel like I have a job to do, like I constantly have to reinvent myself.The more I up the ante for myself,the better it is in the long run.”Here Hart recognizes how his fans are responsible for making his hard work be seen. Because of his fans he can help make the world a better place by inspiring people through laughter.An example of how Hart’s fans are dedicated to supporting his work is when a book signing starts at 1pm,his fans are lining up at 4am to have a chance to meet Hart.Hart came to the Mall of America in Minneapolis,Minnesota to have a meet and greet to promote his book I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons. There were about a thousand people lined up ready to see someone they have admired.Gladwell author of Outliers: The Story of Success states that “Meaningful work is work that is autonomous.Work that is complex,that occupies your mind.And work where there is a relationship between effort and reward — for everything you put in, you get something out…”
For everything Hart puts in he gets out amazing fans that are inspired by him every day. He is able to interact with them both in person and through social media, he is always getting something out of the work he puts in. Hart was on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote his movie “Night School”. Fallon and Hart came up with the idea to go to a high school to promote the movie. However, they did that in a very unusually way.
Hart and Fallon actually attended a full day of high school in Queens, New York. Hart and Fallon got to interact with the students in their physical education class where Hart started making laps around Fallon and encouraged the students to stay active and to treat themselves right. Hart gets to have these opportunities of spreading joy to people’s faces while also teaching them life lessons and giving them memories that will last lifetime. Something that he gets out of it is being able to inspire people through his hard work. You also do not have to wait for Hart to come to your school because he shows his fitness while he posts videos on his social media inspiring people to get up and move and says powerful speeches to get you inspired. He wants to inspire people to be the healthiest versions of themselves.
As Gladwell explains putting in work, you will be able to get something out of it I see this when looking at the way Hart inspires his fans daily. The biggest effort Hart gives his fans is his time. The way he inspires people comes with a busy schedule, with balancing comedy tours, shooting movies and running his own production company. This takes time to do and it makes him have to be away from his family. He puts in his hard work because he is determined to give his fans what they deserve. He wants to inspire people through laughter. Ryan Robinson an Entrepreneur and Marketer states “If your work is something you love, it will give clarity, drive and happiness to all aspects of your life.” (Robinson, Buffer)
“I love the theory that there are 10,000 hours behind anybody who ever gets successful” Oprah Winfrey says when talking about Malcolm Gladwell’s idea that putting in 10,000 hours is the key to success. Putting in 10,000 hours is something that takes dedication and Kevin has that. He started from nothing and now he is a household name. His success wasn’t handed to him, he has to work hard. He needed to put in time and had to sacrifice a lot.
Hart started in a place where getting to the top was a hard uphill battle. A battle that has many obstacles. In order to make it to the top he needed to put in the time, around 10,000 hours. His success did not come easy, it took a lot of hard work. Hart success story is one that has a lot of hours put into it. He would not be where he is today if he did not put in the time or the hard work. When he started off he had a few bumps in the road with regards to his career. In the beginning he commuted from Philadelphia to New York every day. “Winfrey says that her biggest frustration with young people today is that “they think that success is supposed to happen” Instantly” (Mejia). Through all the trails he never gave up and is now one of the highest paid celebrities (Berger). He is in well-known movies including “Ride along”, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and “Night School”.
Hart started with nothing, he grew up being poor in Philadelphia. People thought that he was going to be screwed up and not be successful, little did they know he was going to be a household name. He was raised by a single mother, with a dad who was an alcoholic and addicted to drugs. Hart grew up in a one bedroom apartment as small as his tiny house he built. While being interviewed in his tiny house of 268 square feet he says “This is honestly probably along the same size…it definitely wasn’t this clever.” When growing up he slept in a bunk bed in the hallway. Small, broken, dark, cold and alone are these are the adjectives that best describe Hart’s Philadelphia lifestyle. He was raised by his mother who had a difficult relationship with his father.He was in and out of Hart’s life.Because of this experience Hart knew how to act respectfully, because of his mother and how his father showed him how not to act as a father.
“Don’t do what I do, what I would tell you to do if I wasn’t doing the stupid stuff I did”(Hart 3)
“Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social and demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them”(Outliers).
Sadly, cultural legacies are road blocks for being successful, luckily those road blocks weren’t big enough to stop Hart.Looking at his life you would not think that he would have a success story based on cultural legacies.Being born into a family with a father who is a drug addict, living in a poor community, and having a single mother, doesn’t make success easy to get to.Hart had so many battles he had to face just because of the family he was born into. Hart did not let the cultural legacies stop him from doing what he loved.He wanted a better life for him and his family, so that is what he did he worked hard and got a better life for his family.He created his own cultural legacies for the rest if his family, he started to create success for his family.Something Hart’s father told him was “Don’t do what I do, what I would tell you to do if I wasn’t doing the stupid stuff I did”(Hart 3).
No one would know the name Kevin Hart if he went down the path his father went down. He chose to work hard instead selling or doing drugs.While he made the choice not to be like his dad he also made the choice to break cultural legacies.Words from Hart’s mother Nancy “hard lessons are only hard to the weak who can’t survive them”(Hart 21).Hart had to learn many lessons growing up, and he survived all of them,and so does his mother.
Hart exemplifies Gladwell’s ideas of meaningful work, 10,000 hours and cultural legacy to become a comedy, movie star and an influential millionaire. His success story was not given to him and he did was not given any advantages but through it all he deiced to stand and be man, a man that did not let road blocks get in the way.He worked hard, he put in time, and he didn’t let anyone stop him.Because of all of the work he put in he has hit films including Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.He showed his 10,000 hours it took to make him who he is in his book I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons.A single mother who worked hard to give Hart and his brother the opportunity to go to school and have a life she was never able to give them.That determination that his mom had gave him the determination he needed to get where he is today.Seeing how his mom worked so hard helped him realize he needed to work hard in order to make it up the hill of success.He was an example to him. “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good.It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”(S: Outliers).
Hart would not be good at what he does is he did not have practice. He practiced by getting gigs at small comedy clubs which led to his success. Without that practice he would not be where he is today. He had to practice time and time again to not only make people laugh but to make people engage with something they can relate to.He had to practice how to touch people with emotion.If the jokes themselves have no real meaning behind them, then what’s the point to telling the joke. Hart never gave up, he worked hard in order to get where he is now. He also had to make many sacrifices in order to become as successful as he is today. The challenges of cultural legacy that Hart went through shaped who he is today. He redefined his family history, but working hard and not ending up on the streets, he proved that hard work really does pay off, and he has help inspire millions of people to be a better versions of themselves.
WORKS CITED
Minds, Brand. 8 Lessons for Business Success from Kevin Hart, Actor and Entrepreneur.
Medium, Multiplier Magazine, 19 Sept. 2018.
Berger, Sarah. How Kevin Hart Went from Sleeping in the Hallway of a One-Bedroom Apartment to Making Millions. CNBC, CNBC, 30 Oct. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/10/30/kevin-hart-went-from-sleeping-in-a-hallway-to-making-millions.html.
Mejia, Zameena. “Why Oprah Says She Loves Malcolm Gladwell’s Idea That Putting in 10,000 Hours Is Key to Success.” CNBC, CNBC, 9 July 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/07/09/oprah-winfrey-loves-the-malcolm-gladwell-10000-hours-rule.html.
Ball, Richard. “Outliers — Cultural Advantages…” Learn and Live and Learn, 20 Feb. 2013, learnandliveandlearn.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/outliers-cultural-advantages/.
Hart, Kevin, Strauss, Neil. I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons. Atria Books, 2018.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. Back Bay Books, Little, Brown and Company, 2011.
OWN. Don’t Call Kevin Hart An Overnight Success . Oprah Prime, YouTube, 24 Mar. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtcdr4e2fSg.
Joy, Bill. “The Dream of a Lifetime .” Noise Filter, Aug. 2005, noisefilter.blogspot.com/2005/07/surrogates-for-plasticity.html.
Netflix. Kevin Hart. YouTube, Netflix, 14 Oct. 2016,www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_5poc4E7nY.
Colakoglu, Fatih, director. Meaningful Work through Passion, Not Genius. YouTube, YouTube, 12 Oct. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9oUjNu9tV8.
Robinson, Ryan. “The 3 Things That Make Work Meaningful.” Open, 23 Aug. 2017, open.buffer.com/meaningful-work/.
Lawrence, Jesse. “Kevin Hart Tickets For First Stadium Show Generating NFL-Sized Prices On Secondary Market.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 25 Aug. 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/jesselawrence/2015/08/25/kevin-hart-tickets-for-first-stadium-show-generating-nfl-sized-prices-on-secondary-market/#2d8225b66239.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, director. Jimmy Fallon and Kevin Hart Go Back to High School . YouTube, YouTube, 20 Sept. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH5z5DcxNus.
Long, Molly. “Kevin Hart Breaks Multiple Touring Records.” IQ Magazine, 20 Aug. 2018, www.iq-mag.net/2018/06/kevin-hart-breaks-multiple-touring-records/#.XOMHEC3Mzs0.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tyson Hohenecker, a freshman at Bethel University from Plymouth, MN, seeks to be in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, CA. Hohenecker enjoys watching films, working at the Minnesota Timberwolves and being active in his friends and families lives.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
Gladwell taught me that any situation always has more than one way of thinking. Never look at something only one way because you will never look at a big picture. Success was shown to me through multiple viewpoints. Each person has their own version and definition of success. Nobody is wrong when it comes to success either. Everyone has their own approach to it.
I learned how to speak confidently in what I was learning and talking about. The people you are speaking in front of are there to support you and if they make fun of you or try to tear you down then know that they are just doing it to make themselves feel better and that they are just jealous of you. Be proud of what you wrote because you worked hard so rememberer that hard work and don’t get weak thinking of what others think.
Teamwork in this class helped me learn that collaborating with people who come from different ages and experiences is beneficial. It helped me mature my writing and gave me confidence.
Editing takes time. Do not rush yourself when you are editing a paper because it will do you more harm than good. Do not rely on spell check alone to perfect a paper because it doesn't catch everything. Read over it multiple times to yourself and go slow.
There are multiple ways to do research. I learned in this course that in the research process there are multiple tools and resources that can be used to aid in successful research. I have learned not to use every source because some of them can be unreliable.
Name dogs because detail is everything. You never have too much of detail in successful writing. Always be descriptive no matter what you are writing about. Detailed writing will always help you and will never hurt you.
Drop yourself in a moment when you write. While writing about my hero, I thought it was pretty good until I realized that I was telling his story through my eyes instead of his own. It is important to make sure that if you are writing about a moment in a person’s life, you drop the reader in a moment that is from the perspective of subject, rather than your own personal thoughts.
While watching the Won’t You Be My Neighbor documentary I learned that if you are doing something different than the world expect from you than keep doing it because that when you seem to get the most thrill.
I learned a lot from writing this success paper. Some key points I will take away are that there is never enough detail, always be specific about what point you are trying to get across and be confident in you subject material. I also learned about correctly using citations and how to correctly quote someone.
Doing notecards throughout my Outliers reading it helped me understand the book more and remember Gladwell’s messages and points. Writing notes down can help you remember certain viewpoints and can alway help you grasp more of the material.
(Editor’s note: This paper was written as a part of a GES160 Inquiry Seminar class at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn.)
