Successful Failure: How I Learned You Can't Excel Without Some Ls

New York Times bestselling author and viral stand-up star Kevin Fredericks (aka KevOnStage) turns his most cringe-worthy moments into comedy gold, sharing how the most embarrassing failures of his life put him on the path to success.

As a kid, Kevin Fredericks noticed something useful: If he made people laugh, the grown-ups would let him stay up late. In church plays, his commitment to the role of Goliath led to a busted lip, and the audience couldn't get enough. He dreamed of becoming a performer, of finding that first big break that would launch him into the bright lights of pop culture fame. But as he soon found, the road to the life we want is longer, weirder, more embarrassing, and more hilarious than we think.

In Successful Failure, the NAACP Image Award-winning comedian recounts hilarious stories and sincere insight from his adventures (and misadventures) trying to make it in life. From performing under an alias to avoid getting fired from his suit-and-tie day job, to the night when he broke a chair onstage and quit stand-up for six months, to pooping his pants on a bus next to his future wife, to the time he started a clothing line called “Dreams Don’t Die” (they sure do if the merch doesn’t sell), Kev reminds readers that while we might not be The Rock, Warren Buffett, or Kevin Hart, we’re all out here trying, and that’s okay.

Laugh-out-loud in one moment and perceptive in the next, Successful Failure is a wild ride from one of America’s funniest comics and a sendup of our ideals around hustle culture and success.