Kevin Hart, the arena’s highest-paid comic in 2024, says a key to luck is finding out to embody rejection and failure. In an interview with Fortune, the entertainer and entrepreneur mirrored at the instances the place he was once instructed “no” in his profession, and the way he used that as a device to develop.
Kevin Hart is aware of a factor or two about luck. He has over 177 million followers on Instagram. His leisure corporate, Hartbeat, was once valued at $650 million final 12 months. And in line with Forbes, Kevin Hart made $81 million in 2024, making him the arena’s highest-paid comic—in addition to the third-highest paid entertainer, pulling in additional than Hollywood icons like Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
In an interview with Fortune, Hart stated a key explanation why in the back of his luck is his skill to be told from his screw ups—and to “embody” rejection.
In spite of Hart’s many hits on the field place of work—motion pictures the place he is a number one actor have grossed over $1.08 billion international; that quantity exceeds $3.6 billion in case you come with his supporting roles—his street to luck was once marked via a number of notable rejections.
“I will be able to’t slender it down to 1,” Hart instructed Fortune. “No longer entering comedy golf equipment early on in my profession. No longer getting selected for comedy gala’s early on in my profession. No longer getting film roles that I assumed had been best roles for me. No longer getting SNL after I concept SNL was once the most important and easiest factor for me.”
“There are such a lot of issues that, if they might have came about, my profession should not have formed up into what it’s these days,” he added.
He is not by myself. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon was once rejected two times via the company prior to main it to greater than $50 billion in earnings. The Scrub Daddy sponge was once to begin with snubbed prior to changing into an enormous luck. And astronaut Mike Massimino was once became down via NASA 3 times prior to making it to area.
Turning rejection into luck
Hart stated it may be tricky to peer the large image in the ones moments the place you might be instructed “no,” however down the road, “you later uncover the ones moments had been one of the vital right for you, that made you’re employed more difficult,” Hart stated.
The 45-year-old Philadelphia local stated it’s critical to consider rejection may also be an “asset”—a device to inspire you, but in addition to drive you to evolve.
“With out it, you should not have anything else to be told from or anything else to regulate to,” he stated. “If issues had been simple, it will be silly. It is meant to be onerous. You might be meant to take into account that the cause of onerous paintings and striking 100% right into a craft is as a result of what you wish to have to get out from it.”
Hart stated no longer getting the whole lot you wish to have will make you wish to have the ones issues much more.
“As an individual that has skilled rejection on such a lot of ranges, I embody it,” he stated. “To nowadays, the whole lot does not move the best way I would like. However simply because one roadmap did not paintings, it doesn’t suggest you’ll’t create some other. And that is the reason the place I to find essentially the most pleasure within the industry that I am working in these days.”
Learn extra from Fortune’s interview with Kevin Hart:
Kevin Hart says there’s something nonetheless value splurging on on this unsure financial system, without reference to source of revenue stage
Kevin Hart explains why recipients of his $10,000 grants will even obtain AI coaching: ‘The teach is coming speedy—both you’re on it, or get out of the best way’
This tale was once firstly featured on Fortune.com
