August 29, 2022

MrBeast: ‘I Obsess Every Second of Every Day Until I Have a Mental Breakdown’ – With Hasan Minhaj | My First Million Podcast with Sam Parr and Shaan Puri

Check out My First MIllion’s Episode Page & Show Notes

MrBeast wants to “win” in business more than he wants to “make money” in business
- He only wants to make money so that he can reinvest and grow his business
“I just want to make the greatest YouTube videos possible. That’s literally all I want.” – MrBeast
MrBeast on how he likes to work: “Wake up, obsess over something, go to bed. Wake up, obsess, go to bed. Like every second of the day until I have a mental breakdown and burn out and then I take a day off or maybe a day and a half and then go right back to it.”
“I like to find people who are the best in the goddamn world at their job and then empower them and give them money.” – MrBeast
Constantly consume a diverse set of information to spark creativity
- MrBeast pays three people to discover obscure things and then teach him about those topics
Prior to his success, MrBeast’s obsession with YouTube was perceived as a negative quality, but now his obsession is celebrated
MrBeast spends about $1.5 million to create each video

Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast (@MrBeast), is one of the most popular YouTubers in the world with over 100 million subscribers on the platform. He is known for pioneering the genre of expensive stunt videos done at epic proportions.
Hasan Minhaj (@hasanminhaj) is a comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, and actor. His Netflix show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj won two Peabody Awards and two Webby Awards.
In this conversation, MrBeast and Hasan Minhaj field questions from Sam Parr and Shaan Puri related to content creation, business, creativity, entrepreneurship, and more. Additionally, MrBeast shares some trade secrets on how to create a massive following on the internet.
Check out these Podcast Notes from MrBeast’s appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience
Hosts: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (@TheSamParr)

MrBeast wants to “win” in business more than he wants to “make money” in business; he only wants to make money so that he can reinvest and grow his business
- People just think you want to buy expensive stuff if you talk about money
He scheduled “Hi Me In [X] Years” videos to release where he talked to his future self and described goals that he would like to have accomplished by the time the scheduled video came out
- He started doing this when he was making $10/month with 8,000 subscribers
- His “Hi Me in 10 Years” video is yet to published, but he remembers it describing his hope that he’d be making YouTube videos full-time
He tries to spend 20-30x times longer thinking of ideas than other people, film 10x more than others, and spend 100x for a video more than other people

MrBeast’s employee said the best part about working with him are the experiences
- Examples: traveling, stunts, etc.
The worst part is not knowing what’s next, in terms of routine
“I just want to make the greatest YouTube videos possible. That’s literally all I want.” – MrBeast
MrBeast on how he likes to work: “Wake up, obsess over something, go to bed. Wake up, obsess, go to bed. Like every second of the day until I have a mental breakdown and burn out and then I take a day off or maybe a day and a half and then go right back to it.”
“I don’t work certain days. I just go as hard as I can in every ounce of my entire body until I just crash.” – MrBeast
“I like to find people who are the best in the goddamn world at their job and then empower them and give them money.” – MrBeast

Steve Jobs became a billionaire from Pixar while his other company, Apple, was failing
- This revealed to MrBeast the power that one individual had
“The power of having good vision and not relenting is invaluable.” – MrBeast
He recommends the constant intake of information to spark creativity, whether that is podcasts, books, etc.
MrBeast pays three people to tell him about obscure things that he probably doesn’t know about
- Hasan makes a good point: these people are called “teachers” (this comment got a good laugh from the group)

He tries to always expand his knowledge-well to increase his probability of sparking inspiration and insights
He has a bunch of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs quotes hung up in his production studio, some of which are not actually Elon Musk or Steve Jobs quotes, but satirical

Hasan believes that MrBeast has tapped into the human emotions of joy, spectacle, and wonder, which is rare to see on the internet
“It’s easier to piss people off and get attention; it’s a lot harder to do good and get attention.“ – MrBeast on the unfortunate incentive structure of the internet

At the age of ten, MrBeast decided he was YouTube-or-die when he found out a popular YouTuber was making $100K per year on videos
His obsession with YouTube was perceived as a negative quality while growing up, but now his obsession is celebrated
MrBeast spends about $1.5 million to create each video

Elon Musk is the pinnacle of entrepreneurship
MrBeast never brought his backpack home in high school and admits that he was not a good student
He deleted his first video at 11 because his classmates made fun of him
Some comics just have the it-factor from the very beginning
- Hasan mentions Jerrod Carmichael as one of these comedians
MrBeast typically goes to sleep around 3 am and wakes up when he needs to
Podcasts mentioned: How to Take Over the World by Ben Wilson