Skip to main content

From homeless to $100m! Steve Harvey opens up about overcoming homelessness


Comedian, actor, talk show host and best selling author, Steve Harvey has had some ups and downs and now the comedian is opening up about being homeless at the beginning of his career. His rags-to-riches tale is one of integrity, ingenuity and success.

For an interview with People, Harvey revealed that while he's now amassed an empire estimated to be worth $100 million, he was once homeless and living out of his Ford Tempo. The Family Feud hosts says that there were moments when he wasn't sure how he'd make it through.

"It kills me when I hear very successful people say, 'I always knew I would get here,' " he says. "I didn't. I always hoped I would get somewhere, but this is above and beyond. My imagination didn't even go this big."

"Everybody has a moment when they turn back, when you say to yourself, 'This is too much,' I had it on several occasions."

And, when Harvey realized that he'd hit his lowest point he still found a way to get through it.

"I sat down and started crying, but a voice said, 'If you keep going, I'm going to take you places you've never been.' It was like God said, 'Don't quit, you're almost there.'"

And he got there! His bestselling 2009 bookAct Like a Lady, Think Like a Man has been adapted into a blockbuster film and a sequel. He now hosts a syndicated radio show as well as the game show Family Feud and a hit daytime talk show, The Steve Harvey Show and most recently he hosted NBC's hit variety series Little Big Shots.

But when he first quit his job to take a chance at being a comedian, he found himself separated from his wife, on his own and living on as little as $50 a week.

"That was an ugly period, just very painful," he says of becoming homeless in the late '80s. Everybody has a moment when they turn back, when you say to yourself, 'This is too much,' " Harvey says. "I had it on several occasions."

Success shortly followed, with Harvey landing a high-profile gig performing on Showtime at the Apollo in 1993, and eventually, a sitcom, and a spot on Cedric the Entertainer and the late Bernie Mac's Original Kings of Comedy tour.

Even now, though, with a happy marriage and family life, as well as his status as a television mainstay, Harvey says he can't slow down.

"I'm running from homelessness," he shares. "I can't ever be in that position again. If my show gets canceled, I've got three more. I don't have any free time, but I have 12 jobs."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

5 BEST WAYS TO START SUCCESSFUL POULTRY FARM IN NIGERIA.

Poultry farming can be seen as the process of keeping and raising different kinds of birds such as ducks, chickens, turkey, geese, etc, for the main purpose of selling them when they're grown or for their eggs or meat.  Poultry farm have become a crucial part of Nigeria's economy both in food production and otherwise.  Poultry farming is one of the lucrative agricultural business in Nigeria today both for the meat and the eggs. Poultry farming doesn't require a lot of money to start except you want to start it big. But just in a one room and with few chickens, you can start a poultry farm. How do you start a poultry farm? Nowadays, in Nigeria and outside Nigeria, there is a high demand for the products of a poultry farm, for example, egg is considered a high standard commodity both in rural and urban areas. Nigeria boost as the highest egg producing country in Africa followed by South Africa.  Before you start a poultry farm, you should be prepared with all its equipments...

UNIBEN STUDENT PROTEST.........

UNIBEN students protest the death of classmate allegedly knocked down by military van ‎ On Sunday morning July 19th, Rita Awele (pictured above) was tragically hit & killed (allegedly) by a military patrol van along the Lagos-Benin Expressway. The 18 year old 200 level Philosophy student was either going to or returning from church when she was knocked down and killed. The driver didn't even stop. Another person who was knocked down by the van is still in hospital Students of the school this morning blocked vehicular movement on the Lagos-Benin road, protesting her death. They are asking for speed bumps or flyovers to be mounted in front of the school gate. "The school is located along Lagos-Benin expressway and this is a major problem for students staying off campus trying to get into the school as cars, buses, trucks and trailers are always on high speed plying that route. A pedestrian bridge was there before but it was taken down during the reconstruction of ...

HOW TO BUILD YOUR POLITICAL EMPIRE

Politics have become a gold mine in Nigeria today. Once you're into any political office, be it a commissioner or a local government chairman, you should be seeing enough money to keep you very comfortable.  Be that as ut may, political career takes time to build and more especially, the right connection and network of people.  Starting your political career in Nigeria will require you to have passion and be interested in all the political activities in you community. Nowadays, not only the big boys do politics, ladies and women have also taken the stage in political offices. So don't worry about your gender, the political offices is for both gender. But you will have to earn it by struggle. In this article, I will widen your knowledge on how you can become a successful politician in Nigeria and also make you wards successful through the same field. Start Early To play the game of politics, you will need the experience you've gotten from secondary schools to university. Vye...