Well, I am not going to lie, he has done it again. For anyone who has ever read my other review of Kevin Hart’s book, this one is right up there. It has his incredible wit and style of humour weaved throughout the whole book, including the serious things. He certainly has his own way of telling a story, getting his message across and still managing to make you smile.
As usual with his books I listened to it on Audible. I do this as he reads the book himself and this just adds so much to the experience, not just in hearing his voice, but also the tangents that he goes off on, something you would not get if you were reading the book.
The book is essentially Kevin’s life, warts and all. I cannot imagine he left anything out, as the title says, he could not have made it up. The saying that comedy is built from suffering could not be more true than in this story. His life was brutal in so many ways. Everything from a childhood, that is hard to believe sometimes, all the way through to his first successes which looked like they had him on a road to stardom which ultimately took him so many more years to actually achieve.
He has a way of making even the most painful memories and experiences entertaining. I think the parts I enjoyed most about this book and that make it so damn relatable is his self-sabotage which he does time after time. All too often we read about how successful people make mistakes, but they learn from them, and these mistakes never happen again. Whereas all the people I know in my life and myself more than everyone, make the same mistakes over and over again, and it sometimes takes massive consequences for us to change.
The idea that we are all self-aware and can learn from a mistake and move on easily has never sat well with me, or perhaps that is because I have never been able to do this as easily as these books tell me others have. Well this is not the case with Kevin, he continues to make the same mistakes that sabotage his life, just like we all do. Yes, he does get past them, well most of them and seeing how hard this actually is makes this book far more real and useful in my eyes, as it teaches us, it is not simply a matter of learning, it is a practical guide as to how to push passed out failings, even when it can take years.
I think the other part I like about this book is how personal it is, it is not about business and career goals and achievements but highlights how our passed the way we s the world and they way we treat other people have a massive impact on our lives and success, again a topic not many are willing to touch on. He is open about his lack of ability with money, how partying has affected his life, his love life, his friends, his family, literally everything and how he feels he may have failed people in his life, most of all himself, I think we all feel like this so to know there can be enormous success at the end of this is great for anyone to read.
Overall this book will make you laugh out loud, it will give you great respect for the comedy industry, but most importantly it will give you a journey you can relate to no matter how much success you have had or are trying to have. It is as entertaining as much as it is insightful, so even if you are not looking to learn and just want a good read that you will want to keep reading whenever you can, this book has it. I loved it and I will most likely listen to it again in a year or so as I have no doubt there is more to learn from a second run at it.