Recently Mr. Beast was on an episode of Diary of a CEO where he discussed his business ventures and success. For those who live under a rock, Mr. Beast is the most subscribed YouTuber on the planet and owns several different companies. He’s only 26 – but has an estimated net worth of 1 billion dollars.
Here are some thoughts I liked from the episode:
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- The number one successful trait needed is the ability to be coachable. Leave your ego at the door and be a sponge for learning everything possible.
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- Tip for Employers: When interviewing job candidates, assess how likely they are to stay at your company for 10+ years. There is no point investing six months of training into an employee if they just plan on leaving soon anyway. MrBeast mentioned how he spent six hours a day for over a year on training one employee to oversee a major division of his company. This employee later went on to train an entire department of employees. It’s far better to teach a man to fish than to just give him a fish. Leaders must be willing to train and delegate responsibility to their employees. This gives the leader more time to focus on their core competency.
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- Great people naturally want to work with other great people. In business, C players are not the problem – but rather B players. C players are obviously trash and often get fired from management. But B players are good enough to not be fired, but not great enough to innovate and change the world. Be willing to say no to B players and only tolerate A players.
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- Get mentors that have already accomplished where you want to go. There is a big difference between a cheerleader and a seasoned veteran who can operationalize success.
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- Hate is relative. The bigger you get, the bigger the target on your back. Let’s pretend a YouTube video gets 100 million views and 2% of the viewers absolutely hate you. That’s 2 million people who are leaving hate comments and trashing your video. But it’s important to keep things in perspective – 98% of your audience liked your audience (that’s incredible). You need to shift validation from outside sources to your own personal barometer. The question shifts from “What do people think?” to “Do I believe I produced the best possible video?”
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- What MrBeast thinks often: “The way you feel right now is exactly why most people never do what you do.” He then adds “You wanted to have success and change the world. This is the price you have to pay. You should see this as a good thing. You’re lucky it’s hard.”
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- Constant activity shifting is not ideal. Try to do one thing for an extended amount of time. Organize your schedule to have these blocked periods of focused time.
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- I’m fascinated by how MrBeast views money. He has a net worth of one billion dollars, but has less than one million dollars in his bank account. He reinvests everything into the business and is focused on making the best YouTube videos. Money is fuel to grow a business.
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- MrBeast quoted Mark Zuckerberg saying “Why would I take a billion for Facebook? I would just use the money to start another social media site.” He referenced this quote because he was emphasizing how he would never sell Feastables or his YouTube channel. Most people want to work hard enough to stop working. They see going on vacation or chilling on Netflix as the ultimate goal. But working is the goal.
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- I don’t care if you mess up. But you need to articulately state what went wrong and how you won’t repeat the mistake.
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- The key to innovation is the concept of the purple cow. If you’re driving and see a normal cow – you don’t give a crap and carry on with your day. But if you see a purple cow, you’ll remember that moment for the rest of your life and tell all your friends about that encounter. MrBeast attributes the success of his YouTube channel to all of his videos being “purple cows.” His content is so unique that it naturally compels people to share it.
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- “Purple cow” problems are incredibly complex because there’s no playbook for solving them. But cracking the code yields returns that are 100x the effort. MrBeast instills this mindset in his team, saying, “I don’t take no for an answer. If someone tells me no, I just find someone else who will say yes. Unless a problem is physically impossible, there’s always a way.”