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Book excerpt: "I Can't Make This Up" by Kevin Hart

/ CBS News

Actor and comedian Kevin Hart, whose wildly successful standup tours and appearances in such films as "Ride Along, "The Wedding Ringer" and "Think Like a Man" led to his being named to Time Magazine's 2015 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, has written a self-help book -- no joke! 

In his new memoir, "I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons" (published by Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster), Hart discusses overcoming the challenges of his youth in Philadelphia, his family difficulties, and his climb to the top of the comedy world.  

In the excerpt below, Hart offers eight keys to capturing success when it's within your grasp.

  • Don't miss Tracy Smith's profile of Kevin Hart on "Sunday Morning" May 28!
            

       
Life is like a pack of cards. There are fifty-two cards in a deck, but only four of them are aces. The goal of life is to make your way through a crowded deck where the odds are stacked against you and draw an ace.

Atrias

Looking back over the decades covered in this book, I've picked out eight qualities that put me in a position to draw aces. These characteristics don't work alone. Like a recipe, they only create success when combined together in just the right amounts.

1. Persistence: More than anything, my willingness to be persistent is responsible for the success I've had. My mindset is: It's okay to fail, but it's not okay to quit. Struggle, rejection, failure, and doubt break most people. Your goal is to learn from these challenges without letting them diminish your motivation. The secret to accomplishing this is simple: Let yourself be driven by your will to succeed rather than your fear of not succeeding.

2. Patience: The companion to persistence is patience. It drives away the anger, disappointment, and resentment when success doesn't happen overnight. Patience is understanding that your moment will come at the right time, and your job is to get ready for that moment. Because if it comes when you're not prepared, then it vanishes just as quickly. Know that your patience will always be tested, and if you can pass that test, you will be tested again and again, until the rare few left standing reap the rewards.

3. Class: It's easy to get bitten by what I call "the false-reality bug" and start looking down on other people. Class, to me, is having a high level of humility and likability -- and knowing that all human beings are equal and worthy of respect, understanding, and consideration. Even if someone has done something that seems harmful to you, you still have the option of handling it in a classy way by responding logically instead of emotionally. Class is an investment that will pay off your whole life, because the people you interact with can become your greatest allies or your greatest foes. There are no positive consequences to showing up anywhere with an attitude.

4. Commitment: Whenever I do a performance, a film, or any type of production, I sign a contract. That contract spells out in specific words an obligation that I'm under. It includes being in a specific place at a specific time on specific dates for a specific number of hours. In other areas of life, the details may not be written out on paper, but if there's a commitment, there's a contract. If you have a child, that's a contract. Your friendships and relationships -- those are contracts. Your career, your projects, your goals, your dreams -- all contracts. The most important contract of all is your word to others and to yourself. If you do not honor your contractual obligations, then other parties won't honor theirs either, and you won't get the results you want. Though you always have the option of renegotiating your contracts, you don't have the option of breaking them unless they're a danger to you or others.

5. Learning: The key to learning is to shut your mouth. Observe, listen, evaluate, and then choose. Every experience you have is a gift created to teach you a lesson. If you learn and implement that lesson in your life, then you get to receive the next gift. If you don't learn from it, then that same lesson will keep coming back to you, over and over, until you die standing in the exact same spot where you started, blaming others for something you should have done yourself long ago. In this world, there is nothing but life lessons. Pay attention to them and the world will open itself up to you.

6. Passion-Centered Competitiveness: This is the engine that drives all of these qualities. Having a passion -- something you love that gives your life meaning and focus -- is just the beginning. (If you haven't found your passion yet, don't overthink it. Just start doing something you enjoy.) The key that turns passion into directed action, though, is competition. It can be competition with yourself, with others, or even with history. After I found my passion, I saw how much others before me had accomplished and I competed to get to that level. When I got there, I saw how many talented people were trying to get to my position, so I began competing to stay ahead of them. The important thing to realize is that you're not competing against anyone, you're competing with them. There are four aces in every deck, and there are an infinite number of decks.

7. Positivity: What you put out is what you get back. If you want to achieve positive goals and experience positive relationships, then put out positivity. If someone else is putting out negativity, then maneuver around them like you would a puddle on the ground. If you respond with negativity, you will only get dragged into the mud. It is a talent to stay positive and avoid negativity in the face of a sometimes cruel, unfair, and indifferent world. Cultivate that talent. It's the secret to living a happy life.

8. Discomfort: This last quality is specifically for the high achievers. If you want to get far in life, then never get too comfortable. Don't stop, don't rest, don't be satisfied. As soon as you get comfortable, you're pressing a brake and halting your forward motion. It will be hard to accelerate again afterward. This may seem like advice that goes against almost every self-help book ever published, but it is work that gives our lives meaning. That's not an original idea; that's in the Bible. "One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys." When you look back on your life, it should mean something. You should be able to say: "Wow, I made an impact on the world when I was there." And you don't create change by being comfortable.

Behold these truths that I have given you. Go forth, prosper, and don't blame me if any of this advice doesn't work. Blame yourself for following the advice of a guy who tells jokes for a living. Surely there's someone wiser you could have chosen to listen to, like a professor or a philosopher or the Dalai Lama or the wisest person of them all -- the person reading this book. 

       
From "I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons" by Kevin Hart, published by Atrias, a division of Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS. Copyright (c) 2017 by Kevin Hart. All rights reserved. 

       
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