The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
MrBeast: If You Want To Be Liked, Don't Help People! I Lost Tens Of Millions On Beast Games... But I'm Worth $1 Billion!
Thu, 20 Feb 2025
Inside the mind of MrBeast: from 0 to 363 million subscribers, broke to billions, and then millions lost, MrBeast reveals the reality of running YouTube’s biggest channel MrBeast is the world’s most successful YouTuber, media personality and businessman. He is also the host of Beast Games, the largest reality competition show where 1,000 people compete for the biggest cash prize in entertainment history: $10 million. In this conversation, MrBeast and Steven discuss topics such as, how MrBeast lost 10s of millions of dollars, why he has considered quitting YouTube, how the average person would be miserable in his head, and what it was really like for MrBeast growing up. 00:00 Intro 02:42 What Made MrBeast the Way He Is? 05:26 The Influence of MrBeast’s Parents 10:05 How Was MrBeast Doing at 10 Years Old? 10:24 Why Did MrBeast Want to Do YouTube? 15:05 Jimmy’s Illness 18:15 Is MrBeast Neurodivergent? 18:56 Core Components That Made MrBeast Successful 20:26 MrBeast’s Handbook 21:31 Extreme Ambition 24:16 Characteristics Needed to Be Successful 27:04 The Single Worst Trait in an Employee 28:48 Do You Get Frustrated When People Can't Match Your Obsession? 29:41 MrBeast’s Thoughts on Hiring 32:56 Dealing With Negativity 37:28 Has Negativity Ever Gotten to MrBeast? 43:33 Workaholism 47:04 How Is MrBeast Feeling Right Now? 47:36 Ads 48:45 MrBeast’s Mental Health 52:06 Is MrBeast Happy? 55:32 Has MrBeast Ever Wanted to Stop YouTube? 58:01 MrBeast’s Love Life 1:00:28 Will MrBeast Have Kids? 1:01:23 How Big Are MrBeast’s Businesses? 1:02:49 When Is Enough, Enough? 1:03:44 Does MrBeast Struggle With Focus? 1:04:29 MrBeast and Ethical Sourcing for Feastables 1:08:20 Why Does MrBeast Care So Much? 1:08:41 Would MrBeast Sell Feastables or His YouTube Channel? 1:11:14 MrBeast’s Advice and Focus on Details 1:13:28 Obsession With Details 1:17:17 Constantly Fighting to Raise Standards 1:18:26 Does MrBeast Worry About Views? 1:21:05 How Experimentation Helps MrBeast 1:22:37 Ads 1:24:36 Beast Games 1:28:34 Giving Away So Much Money 1:31:48 How Successful Was Beast Games? 1:32:55 Where Will MrBeast Be in 10 Years? 1:34:43 What Would MrBeast Say to His Younger Self? 1:35:45 What Would MrBeast Have Told His Mom When Younger? 1:39:50 The Guest’s Last Question Follow MrBeast: Instagram - https://bit.ly/3Qob9dx MrBeast YouTube - https://bit.ly/3D9YaZU Beast Philanthropy - https://bit.ly/3D6HJxt Beast Games - https://amzn.to/3EJJ26a Watch the episodes on Youtube - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACEpisodes My new book! 'The 33 Laws Of Business & Life' is out now - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACBook You can purchase the The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards: Second Edition, here: https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb Follow me: https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Vanta - https://vanta.com/steven PerfectTed - https://www.perfectted.com with code DIARY40 for 40% off WHOOP - https://JOIN.WHOOP.COM/CEO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What drives MrBeast to be so successful?
Oh, boy.
Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast. He is the biggest YouTuber on the planet. And he's building empires. I mean, is there anything this man can't do? Your business empire is much bigger than most people realize.
Yeah, I mean, I'm only 26 and we have the largest YouTube channel in the world. And Beast Games is going to shatter some pretty crazy records. And we do nine figures of festivals. But a lot of that stems from being a very confused child that's not fitting in, that feels like a... Plus, I really wanted to take care of my mom, because when I was 11, we literally went bankrupt and lost everything.
Luckily, it worked out. And it's because I'm really good at obsessing over one thing more than anyone else on the planet. Like, I lost tens of millions of dollars on these games. But it's about making season one as good as possible, and I just really love solving complex problems. Like, how many kids do you think are in child labor in West Africa, just on cocoa farms? That's 1.5 million.
And so, with Feastables, we were trying to get over a million kids out of child labor. But the ironic part is the more I help people, the more I get. Like, I've read over 5,000 messages telling me to kill myself. I mean, there's definitely times where I would cry, but if my mental health was a priority, I wouldn't be as successful as I am. This is the price you have to pay.
But when is enough enough?
Honestly,
I find it incredibly fascinating that when we look at the back end of Spotify and Apple and our audio channels, the majority of people that watch this podcast haven't yet hit the follow button or the subscribe button, wherever you're listening to this. I would like to make a deal with you.
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Chapter 2: How did MrBeast's childhood influence his career?
If you could do me a huge favor and hit that subscribe button, I will work tirelessly from now until forever to make the show better and better and better and better. I can't tell you how much it helps when you hit that subscribe button. The show gets bigger, which means we can expand the production, bring in all the guests you want to see and continue to do in this thing we love.
If you could do me that small favor and hit the follow button, wherever you're listening to this, that would mean the world to me. That is the only favor I will ever ask you. Thank you so much for your time. Back to this episode. Jimmy, we've really just only met and you are already, to me, a bit of a Rubik's Cube. Okay. In so many ways.
And I've been trying to piece the pieces together to understand the uniqueness of you because you're so unbelievably unique. We just drove over here in the car and hearing you speak about the way that you view life and speaking to you yesterday on the phone. I've interviewed hundreds and hundreds of people and I've never, ever met someone who has the perspective on life that you have.
You are truly unique. What do I need to understand about your earliest years to understand who you are? Oh, boy.
Yeah, my earliest years, I... I'm just stubborn, man. I just never give up. I mean, there was, there's no world where I ever would have quit. I just, I mean, if we're just jumping right into it, it's a great, no intro or anything, just boom. That's how you hold people. When I was 11, I just said, I'm going to be a YouTuber. I'm going to die trying. And I meant it.
And there was like, even if no one still watches my videos to this day, I would still be going. And so people hate it, but I'm just the most competitive, stubborn person you'll ever meet. And I just never give up. And where did that come from? I have no idea, to be honest. Honestly, it feels like it was just in my DNA, in my bloodstream. My mom hated it. Growing up, we'd always argue.
She has this thing where once Jimmy sets his mind to something, he just never stops. It would always piss her off because when it was YouTube, she wanted me to be studying or things like that. I really don't know. It's just always been how I am. I think a lot of people have these weird tendencies and they tend to try to unlearn them. I had phases in my life where I was like, am I too extreme?
People are very intimidated by me because I just am so obsessed with work and I'm so all in. Is this unhealthy? Should I try to be more like a normal human? Especially when I was a teenager. It's a lot easier... It's funny when when you're making lots of money, it's like admirable. It's respectable. It's like, look, those are traits we want.
But when you're not successful, you know, you're a lunatic when you have all these traits. And so back then, I'd occasionally be like, man, like, should I try to be more normal? But I just could never do it anytime I tried to. I mean, I've mentioned this before, but one of the like.
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Chapter 3: What challenges has MrBeast faced with his health?
Oh, it's even worse when you're filming because you got this huge multimillion dollar set and 200 people waiting on you. And, you know, sometimes you don't know if you're going to have a flare, but you just got to go fuck it and just down some caffeine and crank it out.
I got diagnosed with ADHD.
You did?
Yeah, I got diagnosed with ADHD and it made me think a lot about myself and the way that I am. I'm not the type of person to like embody the label or think it really means much. I am just who I am. Are you in any way neurodivergent?
I've been told, yeah, by a doctor I have ADHD. I mean, I'm not surprised because I just sit and obsess over things constantly. But I think I'm happy with however my brain is wired. I don't really care to change it. Like I said, I think one of my greatest superpowers is my obsession. And I think some people would view that as a weakness.
But if you just think about solving problems three times more than everyone else, you're bound to come up with different solutions.
That's one of the things you mentioned earlier. You like solving hard problems consistently. When you think back over the last 10 years of your life and the success you've had solving some of these hard problems, if you were to break it down into some core components that you've learned, one of them is obsession that you've said.
Yeah.
What are the others?
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Chapter 4: How does MrBeast deal with criticism and negativity?
Yeah, 1 a.m. The latest podcast he's ever done.
lightweight I always do my podcast at 1am my last podcast before this was like 4am like a couple weeks ago and then we're flying to San Fran to film with Steph then we're Steph Curry yeah Steph Curry then I think I'm going to Snake Island then the deadliest road and then I won't I'll basically I don't think I'll be home for another 16 days so I'm just traveling around filming for the next 16 days and then yeah I guess then I'll get home and then they'll make me
Fill my home.
How does everything else in your life fit into that in terms of, like, the gym? I know you've been working out a lot.
It's been brutal. It's gone to shit the last couple of months. It's really killing me, to be honest. It was, like, so much easier when you're... Bro, if you don't travel constantly, life is so easy when you just wake up in your own bed and, like...
Waking up in your own bed and working 15 hours in your office or whatever, so easy compared to all this fucking bullshit where I'm like, I don't know the time zone I'm in. I don't know what place I'm in. I don't know where I'm going in two days. Some days I'm going to bed at 10 a.m. Other days I'm going to bed at 5 p.m. It's a mess.
I used to put up with it and figure out how to do the training, but it's just... I don't know. I need to... Truthfully, whatever's a priority, you'll get done. I just need to make it a priority again. I really do miss it.
It's just this... The hard part is putting Beast Games in the mix, because I was already basically working whatever, every hour my eyes were awake, but then Beast Games is such a monster of a project, and I have to maintain the same
youtube upload schedule and then i do a lot on festivals now and then i have a couple other businesses so i i just honestly something had to give and sadly it was working out but it's fucking stupid so i need to like reprioritize my life where i can get i mean it just only needs to be 45 minutes five days a week it doesn't doesn't need to be hard but the bigger problem is i'm just not sleeping like i used to because we got so much going on and so when i hit it hard in the gym and then i don't get enough sleep then that causes pretty extreme fatigue the next day so it's like i gotta fix the sleep first before that but
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