"I'm gonna have to develop myself. I'm just going to do the best that I can do"
About this Quote
There is a sly kind of toughness in how Mike Epps frames ambition as maintenance, not mythology. "I'm gonna have to develop myself" lands like an aside, almost casual, but it carries the real comedian's math: nobody is coming to anoint you, and the next version of you is a job you clock into. The phrasing is telling. "Have to" isn't inspirational; it's obligation. Self-improvement here isn't a wellness slogan, it's rent.
Then he follows with the most disarming reset: "I'm just going to do the best that I can do". The double "do" matters. It's not poetic, it's practical, the language of someone who has learned that performance and survival share the same verbs. Epps isn't promising greatness; he's promising effort. That restraint reads as armor. In comedy, where confidence is part of the act and ego is often the engine, this is humility with boundaries: focus on controllables, ignore the noise, keep moving.
The subtext is also reputational. For a comedian who has navigated Hollywood opportunities, stand-up credibility, and the constant churn of public opinion, "develop myself" can mean tightening craft, choosing better rooms, dodging self-sabotage, or simply outgrowing the version of you audiences think they own. It's a quietly mature ethos for an industry that rewards the loudest self-mythology: progress as discipline, not destiny, delivered in plainspoken Midwestern cadence that makes hard truths sound like common sense.
Then he follows with the most disarming reset: "I'm just going to do the best that I can do". The double "do" matters. It's not poetic, it's practical, the language of someone who has learned that performance and survival share the same verbs. Epps isn't promising greatness; he's promising effort. That restraint reads as armor. In comedy, where confidence is part of the act and ego is often the engine, this is humility with boundaries: focus on controllables, ignore the noise, keep moving.
The subtext is also reputational. For a comedian who has navigated Hollywood opportunities, stand-up credibility, and the constant churn of public opinion, "develop myself" can mean tightening craft, choosing better rooms, dodging self-sabotage, or simply outgrowing the version of you audiences think they own. It's a quietly mature ethos for an industry that rewards the loudest self-mythology: progress as discipline, not destiny, delivered in plainspoken Midwestern cadence that makes hard truths sound like common sense.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Improvement |
|---|
More Quotes by Mike
Add to List







