MrBeast’s Come Up Story Summarized in 6 Minutes

Uh, dude, right before this I was watching— you saw MrBeast went on Joe Rogan. I don't know if you caught the episode at all.

I didn't. I just a couple of the clips where they said like, what do you do with your money? And he's like, not much. He goes, I used to have a roommate up until recently and we each split our place for $700, but I got a fancier place. Because someone broke into my house, so I needed like some security, but it's still like pretty normal of a house.

Yeah, I didn't see that. So I've only seen one clip and it was basically the clip of like, how did you make it on YouTube? And it's a great clip, right? Like it's a—

what's he say?

So he goes, so he's 23 now and he goes, I started doing this when I was 11. And Joe's like, what? 11? He's like, yeah. He's like, I came home and I— he's like, I started doing this when I was 11. And he's like, I sucked obviously at the beginning. He's like, so he's like, he's like, look at me now. I don't look cool now. Like imagine me at like 12. Like I was like, like, you know, pimply, you know, pimply face, scrawny, awkward, mumbly kind of guy. And like, here I am trying to like make videos. And he's like, back then also YouTube really, there wasn't a thing like YouTubers wasn't like a thing 12, 13 years ago, you know? So it's like, he's like, yeah, I just was doing it 'cause I liked it. He goes, I hated school. He goes, I never, he's like, in high school, I just never even brought a book home. Like, he's like, I remember doing zero studying. My parents got so mad at me. He's like, and then like when I turned 18, um, he's like, he's like, basically, so his, his went, it went in 3 phases. He goes, from 11 to 13, I was trying to make videos, but I was like super embarrassed because they were so bad. And Joe's like, do, are they, do they still exist? He goes, no, I deleted my channel when I turned 13. Cause like I got like, I don't know, like bullied in school a little bit. I felt embarrassed. So I deleted all those videos, but I like started fresh, uh, again at 13 and like Whatever, kept going. He's like, so then from 13 to like 17 or 18, I was just trying to make like videos all the time because my first video randomly got like 20,000 views. He's like, that was the best thing that ever happened to me. I got like this instant hit and I was hooked. And then like, it didn't happen again for a while, but like that first one, which was about like, he like hacked some video game. Like, here's how to beat this level in a video game or whatever. He's like, some obscure game and it just like people wanted to know how to do that hack. So that's how I got popular right away. Um, or he's like, that's how that video got popular. And then I got, I wanted to chase that, that, that feeling again. So he's like, I wasn't making any money. He's like, finally I got to the point where I was making a dollar a day. And he's like, yes. And he's like, so I saved up for like a few months and I bought a microphone. And I was like, yeah, like now I sound good. Like, here we go. And he's like, I just kept doing that. I kept like making a couple bucks, saving it, and then like buy a camera or buy like, you know, like a better computer so I could like edit the videos or screen record or whatever. And so he just kept doing that for like 6 years. He's like, my whole goal was that by the time I graduate from high school, can I like just make enough money doing this? Because I don't want to do anything else.

What was his number?

So it did not happen. He's like, by the time I— he's like, by the time I graduated high school, I was making like $400 a month or something like that. And he's like, you know, it's $300, $400. He's like, so my mom gave me this ultimatum. She's like, you know, you're moving out or you're like going to community college. Like, you're not going to do this video thing. And so he's like, ah, fuck, okay. He's like, I didn't want to go to community college. He's like, it's like the worst thing in the world. Just sitting there listening to this lecture. Like, it's not what I wanted to do. He's like, so I started skipping. He's like, every day I would just go to my car and instead of going to community college, I would just edit videos in my car. He's like, I do that all day and I come home and my mom thought I went to school. He's like, and he's like, that created a clock because now she was going to find out. Like, by the end of the semester, I had zeros as my grades. Like, she was gonna know that I did not go to community college. So I had to like, I bought myself like one semester more of time. He's like, and in that time I pulled it off. Like I got to the point where I could like self-sustain. I just moved out and then I could like do this like full-time moving on my own. He's like, and so that's kind of like the progression of how I did it.

And I was like, how awesome is that?

How awesome is that? Exactly. Like a bet on yourself story where burn the bridge behind you, right? So, so, you know, you, you, Uh, we say burn the bridges. I don't know why we say that. It's burn the boats. Uh, like if you wanna take the island, you gotta burn the boats. And so he burned the boats when he, when he did that and, uh, and knew what he wanted to do, right? 'Cause like school's great, but school's not for everybody. If you, if you kind of know what you want to do, um, you're much better off, I think, competing in the free market on that thing than like competing for your teacher's like love and affection, you know, with writing the essay they want to grade as an A+, right? Like, writing the thing they want you to write about in the format they want you to write in a way that will get them to give you the grade, right? Like, that's like, that's like not a real market. Whereas you make videos on YouTube, you're competing in like a real market. Or you want to be an athlete.

Yeah. It's just that most people think that they're like going to do something for life and they aren't willing to, or they don't actually want to. I think, I think the rarity here is not, is someone 18 and capable? It's, do they actually love what they're saying they love enough that they're willing to dedicate 10 or 20 years to it, right?

Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Are you actually— do you actually have a thing you love? Most people do not. I remember my sister when she was going to college, my dad was like, all right, well, like, what do you want to major in? She's like, I don't know. He's like, well, what's your favorite subject? Like, what do you love to study? She's like, lunch. Like, you know, I just— I'm not— I don't have anything against any of them, but like, do any of them make me happy? Not really. So what now? What? And like, I think that's how most people's careers go. It's like, all right, well, I don't hate it, but I don't love it. But now what? What am I supposed to pick? Yeah.

So I think that's the rarity here is that he actually, that he liked something enough. Um, but anyway, that's a good story. I'll have to go and watch this podcast.