My First Million: MrBeast: 'I Obsess Every Second of Every Day Until I Have a Mental Breakdown' - With Hasan Minhaj

Hubspot Podcast Network Hubspot Podcast Network 8/25/22 - 31m - PDF Transcript

All right.

Quick break to tell you about another podcast that we're interested in right now.

HubSpot just launched a Shark Tank rewatch podcast called Another Bite.

Every week, the hosts relive the latest and greatest pitches from Shark Tank, from Squatty

Potty to the Mench on a Bench to Ring Doorbell.

And they break down why these pitches were winners or losers.

And each company's go-to-market strategy, branding, pricing, valuation, everything.

Basically all the things you want to know about how to survive the tank and scale your

company on your own.

If you want to give it a listen, you can find another bite on whatever podcast app you listen

to, like Apple or Spotify or whatever you're using right now.

All right.

Back to the show.

The way I like to work is like, I like to go basically wake up, obsess over something,

go to bed, wake up, obsess, go to bed, like every second of the day until I just have

a mental breakdown and burnout.

I just go as hard as I can every ounce of my entire body until I just crash.

And somehow that's sustainable.

We just did an episode with MrBeast, who is one of the biggest YouTubers in the world,

and Huson Minhaj, one of the biggest comedians in the world.

That's right.

We had MrBeast, Huson Minhaj join us on my first million live in the flesh.

How did this happen?

So basically, Sean told me three weeks ago, he goes, I'm going to rent a house and I'm

going to create this thing called Camp MFM.

I didn't actually think he was going to do it, but he rented out this amazing house in

North Carolina.

He invited like 20 people.

He just sent him a DM on Twitter, rented the house.

It was kind of like, if I make it, will they come?

Well, they actually did.

We were just sitting here doing our own thing, doing our own interview, and they came in

during our interview and joined us and it kind of turned out to be the best thing we've

ever done.

They crashed the interview.

They told stories.

MrBeast talked about what motivates him, who he looks up to, how obsessed he is with YouTube.

He made fun of us.

They told us about their inspirations, how their business works, how much he's done

and how much he spends per video, $1.5 million per video.

It was pretty crazy.

I actually think he talked about a few things that I've never heard him talk about.

It was awesome.

Yeah, it was a big deal.

It was awesome.

So check it out.

I think you're going to dig it.

We also got a live audience here.

Why?

What is this?

Yeah.

This is the power of Sean.

So here's what's interesting.

We got me and Sam.

We got Hussin Minhaj, who's a famous comedian, Netflix special.

We haven't announced yet, but yeah, sure.

Breaking news.

We got Jimmy, aka MrBeast, the craziest crossover you guys just met tonight.

We met like an hour ago.

Yeah.

All right.

Give me a first impressions.

What do you think of MrBeast?

He's a cool guy.

Yeah.

He seemed really cool.

What did you think coming in?

I just knew he's the voice of YouTube.

He's the voice of a generation.

Did he surprise you or how you thought he would be?

I feel like his like curiosity, enthusiasm, all that stuff is really cool.

Yeah.

I listened to him on Rogan.

He was really, he's really fascinating.

And what about you?

What was your first impression?

I mean, kind of the same thing.

Like, it was, I mean, you're just easy to talk to, which I think was very nice.

Like we were talking for like an hour, Sean, Sean just turned this into Indian matchmaking

so fast.

What did you think?

What did you do?

Hold hands.

Hold hands.

Just hold.

He's got a ring on his finger.

He's taken.

Yeah.

He's taken.

Dude, you said, so he said something really interesting to me earlier.

We were just, you and I were shooting the shit.

And I think you said Elon Musk is like the pinnacle of entrepreneurship.

And I was like, well, what's going to be your SpaceX or what's going to be your like

big rocket thing?

And you said, well, Elon had Zip2 when he was around my age.

So Zip2 was like his peer sharing service that he sold and made like 20 or $30 million.

And then he took that and he did PayPal and then whatever else he did.

And you said something like, you know, I think I can build a hundred billion dollar company,

but if I'm being modest, I'll build a couple at least billion dollar companies.

And then you go, but I don't really care about the money.

I just love winning.

I just want to win.

And I was like, yes, I'm about this.

I like that.

Money is cool, but, you know, I live in my studio.

I don't have like a mansion.

I don't drive a Lamborghini.

So it's like, I like money because it can, I can hire more people and grow my business,

but not so I can like increase my lifestyle or whatever.

So that's why I prefer to say I love winning because it kind of encapsulates it a little

bit more.

We went to his office today or we went to his studio and he's like, took us on tour.

Cool.

This is where we blow shit up.

This boardroom.

This is my office.

This is where we go in and it's basically like, imagine like kind of like a gaming chair,

computer, that's standard next to it.

I guess like two other objects in the room.

Just take any guess.

A Nalgene water bottle and a bench press directly next to the desk.

And then the walls were just like a Steve Jobs quote, an Elon quote, a Steve Jobs quote.

There's like a timeline like at this age, Steve Jobs was here at this age.

Holy shit.

You're motivated by that shit.

I had a bit.

Also, some of those Elon quotes aren't even real.

I love to just put fake Elon quotes.

So if people read it to see if they're like, oh, that's inspiring or just completely made

up.

Well, they're not that insightful.

One was just the one right in front of your desk goes, works super hard.

Elon Musk.

That's one of the real ones.

But I have my assistant like trying to find the dumbest things Elon's ever publicly said

so I can put mixed with all the real quotes just to see if people believe him or not.

Were you good at school?

No, horrible.

Really?

God awful.

Yeah.

My entire high school career never brought my book back home or anything.

I would just like throw it under like the bleachers and then the morning I'd just grab

it.

Your first video is what you were like 12, right?

Yeah.

Oh, actually, I started making when I was 11.

Yeah.

Wow.

Is your first video still left?

No, because I got embarrassed because people had played in class.

So I deleted my channel and then I made a new one when I was 13, a little while.

But the 13 year old videos are still.

Yeah.

13 or so.

Wow.

One that's dope.

That's like a message to myself in five years.

Calling a shot.

Do you know what he's talking about?

So the greatest thing I ever did in my life is when I was studying for a history test,

like back in a long time ago, when I had like 8,000 subscribers, I was like, screw this.

I just closed my book.

I threw it on the floor and I just recorded a video.

I schedule uploaded a video for six months and I go, hi me in six months.

I think I'll have a hundred thousand subscribers, whatever.

Or no, a 10,000 subscribers.

I was like, and then I hit stop recording.

They hit record.

Hi me in a year and I schedule up video year out.

I was like, you better have a hundred thousand.

And I was like, hi me in five years, bro.

If you don't have a million subscribers, you're a fucking idiot.

And I just would talk to me, but I filmed it when I had 8,000 subscribers a long time

ago and then I did hi me in 10 years, blah, blah.

So 10 years hasn't come out yet, but hi me in five years came out.

My prediction was I'd have a million subscribers.

So it goes live on the channel like two years ago and I had like 40 million subscribers

and that went public.

And I completely forgot even did that.

And I just, I was like, oh, shit.

I opened up YouTube and I saw it and everyone thought it was, I thought it was one of the

coolest things I ever did.

Wow.

And you're like a little kid in it.

Wow.

And like three more years, hi me in 10 years goes up.

And I'm like, I remember what's in it.

I'm just like, I hope by now you should be out of college and you should be doing YouTube

full time.

Like there's just no words you're not after 10 years.

Like you're probably making a little bit of money.

I just hope you are.

Like I hope you didn't.

And how much were you at the time?

Like I was at 8k subs, like making 10 bucks a month.

And so when that goes up, I think that's going to be crazy.

And when we were talking today, you like you talk with a lot of certainty about like where

you're going, what you're doing.

Like if everybody's got this knob that's like doubt, your knobs set to zero on doubt.

I don't know.

Is that accurate?

Yeah.

The thing is, I don't know.

We've probably spent like 20, 30 times longer thinking of ideas than other people.

We've probably filmed like 10 times more than other people.

We've probably spent a hundred times for a video more than other people.

So it's like, we put in the effort, but I don't know how to say where it's not arrogant.

I just believe in what we're doing, you know what I mean?

Back then, like how much do you think you believe when you recorded that video that

that was actually going to happen?

Oh, no.

I mean, those were just different times.

Like I was like, you know, you're the real Bumfuck nowhere, North Carolina.

So it's like everyone, you know, constantly wanted to remind me you're not going to be

a YouTuber.

Girl, I'll be realistic.

I think it's amazing that you never left North Carolina.

You're still in Bumfuck, North Carolina.

That's crazy.

What are you talking about?

You're trying to make it not Bumfuck anymore, but it's a work in progress.

Do you still wrap it really hard?

I mean, I just I got a lot.

Some of these people over here, I just got a lot of people and it's too much to move.

What was, what was your metric instead of subscribers and like views when you're younger?

with business, it's like revenue or employees.

You guys are both business,

but you're also like a more creative thing.

So what was yours?

Yeah, when I was coming up,

it was probably, can you do a set on late night?

Can you do like a Conan set?

Yeah, could you be on,

I'll be a cast member of SNL.

Like those were the metrics.

Those like legacy media comedy institutions.

I'll be in a movie.

I want to be in a sitcom.

I want to be in a TV show.

And what it feel like when you started actually

like the Daily Show and then selling out?

Yeah, that felt like a real like check mark.

Like, wow, you've turned the corner.

Didn't you tell me that like right before that happened,

you were living in a basement?

I was living in an attic, bro.

Yeah, yeah.

Attics are actually above sea level,

but basements are below sometimes, you know?

So yeah, I was living like a kind of not a great situation.

I'm amazed at your confidence, bro.

The level of the level of confidence you have.

Cause I still think maybe a downside of comedies,

you have to have like a very high level of self-deprecation

and self-awareness to be like, do you know what I mean?

Well, you told me something

cause I was like trying to be funny.

You sent me these like I messaged things

that are like just gold.

You just send me these voice notes.

And one of the things you had said.

He was trying to write up,

he was like trying to do kind of like a comedy monologue.

Yeah, YouTube video, it's up there.

17,000 views, no big deal.

So, but you gave me a little hit.

You go,

I love ego on this man.

Bro, you started in 8K.

I'm at 17K, I'm at least gonna be on.

But he says something you go,

comedy is low status game.

You start low status.

And you told me, is that a trade secret?

Yeah, yeah, you know, it's like,

there's high status and low status.

Generally, if you're low status,

they're gonna empathize with you.

You know what I mean?

So, like what's an example?

Like you get on stage.

You being like, I got 17,000 views in front of a guy

who gets like 50 million views.

But we're gonna empathize more with you

than we are with Mr. Beast in that scenario.

Because you're like, oh man, you know,

and if you're like funny about it,

and to be confident about that,

if you kind of own it,

people are like, oh, like I...

Even just now we did like an awkward ice breakers

of the group.

And I was thinking about this

because my prompt was say your name

and say one thing and nobody in the room knows about you.

Which was basically like, you can't be like,

oh, I'm Mr. Beast, I make a bunch of YouTube videos.

It's like, you can't use your claim to fame.

You gotta use something else.

And everybody was saying something interesting.

And then I think Sully was the first one who was just like,

I played one game of Little League Baseball in my life

because I shit my pants

and they wouldn't let me come back.

Oh, that was really great.

Yeah, that's low status.

By the way, 100,000 people are gonna listen to that one.

But he did a low status one

where everybody else was saying a fun fact,

like a cool fact about them.

He went low and somebody else was like,

you know, I remarried my ex-wife,

which makes me either the biggest idiot in the world

or I guess the biggest idiot in the world.

You're still remembering that one, right?

Because he's like, hey, group,

share something no one on the planet knows.

No one.

And then five minutes later,

all right podcast, here's what they said.

Yeah, I mean, shitting your pants at Little League.

Pretty low status.

And then yeah, being like, all right,

I double backed and married my ex-wife again.

Like, yeah.

Like no one knows this.

Jimmy, were you confident as a kid?

In the career?

Yeah, just as a kid.

No, I fucking got off the acne when I was younger.

What are you not confident about?

So you're confident in your work

and your ability to hit certain goals,

whether revenue target.

Yeah, actually it leads me to, honestly,

I'm still trying to get confident speaking in front

of large groups of people,

which made me want to ask you a question

because we're talking about stand up.

So let's see, if I dedicated my life

to trying to be a stand up comic,

how long do you think it'd take for me to get good at it?

I mean, everybody says it takes you 10 years to get good,

but I just think it all depends on

your natural capacity and inclination for it.

Like there's some people I've seen

when they're open micers, they're amazing.

You know, they just have great stage presence,

they have great stories, they're amazing on stage.

So those people like that, comics that I met

where I'm like, the first time I saw them,

they were amazing.

Gerard Carmichael was like that.

He was incredible, he was just incredible.

He was so confident.

We would do open mics and he would just,

everybody was turning left

and he was just turning right.

Like just his vulnerability, his stage presence.

People would do their set.

It'd be like a Conan showcase.

And everyone would do their polished material.

You're like, hey, what's up, I'm Hussain.

And you know, dating's hard.

He would just get up and he would just off the dome,

like do a brand new set that night.

And you could tell, you could tell.

You're like, oh, this is kind of crazy.

So how long do you think it would take him to get good?

I don't, I mean, it's, that's like,

the question he just asked is like,

how long would it take me to be as good

as Ariana Grande at singing?

You're like, how would I even?

They're like, it's not, it's not a hack.

Or if you asked, if you asked like a MMA fighter,

like how long would it take me to get as good as you?

Like, it's a, oh, thank you.

See, that's the, you put them in low status.

You offered the two waters to me.

Now I feel weird.

No, I gotta put them on the side.

No, I gotta put them on the side, no, no, no, no.

No dude, low status.

I spent my whole life trying to be high status.

You guys, no, no, no.

You guys all got the water, now I'm parched.

Now I'm parched, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have to give Mr. Beast his water, you know what I mean?

Jimmy, what do you, what do you, you legacy media hack?

I just gotta pour the water for him in the air.

It's the fuck out of here.

Is your company ran like a normal company at all?

Well, and the reason I was asking was because

my employees sometimes would complain

that I'd be like too aggressive, changing things too much.

But you seem more aggressive than I am.

Yeah.

And for a certain type of person, they like that.

But for you to achieve your goals,

you're going to have to have a lot of people

and then every once in a while process

and every once in a while infrastructure

and every once in a while planning.

Are you a perfectionist?

Well, of course, yeah.

I just like to make the greatest YouTube videos possible

and that's literally all I want.

So, yeah, I mean, if it's not the greatest video,

I just won't upload it.

It's after you scrap a few videos, we kind of, everyone,

you know, just kind of starts to figure it out.

Does it scare you that you can't stop?

Do you ever feel like, damn, I'm like,

I'm just throwing all these coals on the embers

of the algorithm?

I like to use better analogy.

It's like a treadmill, we're on like 12,

like 12 speed and I've been going out a couple of years.

No, it doesn't scare me, but so like I was telling him,

the way I like to work is like, I like to go,

basically wake up, obsess over something, go to bed,

wake up, obsess, go to bed, like every second of the day

until I just have a mental breakdown and burnout

and then I like take a day off or maybe a day and a half off

and I like to go right back to it.

So I don't like work certain days.

I just go as hard as I can every ounce of my entire body

until I just crash.

And somehow that's sustainable.

What time do you sleep?

Right now, usually around 3 a.m.

Wow, and then you get up at like,

whenever they tell me what to do, I don't think.

Well, I'm just shocked at like the numbers,

so like some big numbers for revenue

for your other businesses.

And you have to have infrastructure for that.

So that's why I was wondering,

I was like, because you are like this.

Oh, gotcha.

On the stereotype, you're like this crazy creative person

who's just organized and that's perfect,

but to sell that much of candy and or of burgers,

like you gotta be.

Yeah, so those are all separate entities.

So for our snack brand,

we hired Jim who helped build RX bar

and we built the team around him.

So that's a whole independent company

that doesn't even work out of our studio.

And same thing with Peaceburg.

So that's the beauty.

I like to just find people who are just the best

and they got damn well at their job

and then just empower them and give them money.

So how many people work at the studio?

In the studio, like 60,

because we don't have enough space to fit everyone.

So that's why we're trying to build more

of a building things just take forever.

Do you people like working for you, you think?

No, the reason I'm asking is like,

these like creative types, I'm like curious about.

Because it's not like a normal company

where it's like, we are all trying to achieve this.

It's like, no, we're trying to make me big.

I've been on both sides of it

where I'm on John Stewart's show,

I'm on Trevor Noah's show.

So I'm like, I'm facilitating somebody else's show.

And then I've been on the other side of it

where it's like, no, it's my special,

it's my show, it's my movie or whatever.

So there's also certain projects where I'd be like,

I'd love to learn from you.

So there's been shows and movies that I've done

like the morning show, like I've never done

a sexy one hour drama.

I wanna learn from Reese Witherspoon.

I wanna learn from Jennifer Aniston.

I wanna learn from the show creators.

Like, how do you do that?

How do you shoot that?

What's that lens?

What are you doing that?

Is that a 50, is that a 75?

How did you do that tracking shot?

Why did you do that tracking shot?

Let me see the script.

Let me see the future script.

There's all these things where I'm like,

I just wanna absorb.

I just wanna see how you do the whole thing.

You know what I mean?

And that's an additive, like positive value for me.

Because most people don't have that access to that.

Yeah, I mean, the sample is Tariq gotta meet his idol today.

Oh man.

Bro, Tariq, Tariq, you gotta set the bar.

Yeah, we had told them that you were coming today

to the thing and like the look of disappointment

when they saw I was the only brown guy there.

They're like, that ain't hustles.

They're like, yo, hustles change, bro.

I was like, yo, hustles change, bro.

And I tried to be funny on top of it

and they were like, what the fuck?

The camera really does that, Ted Bowman, bro.

Oh, don't do that, bro, don't do that, don't do that.

Dude, when we were at your office,

so you have like a big Elon, Steve Jobs,

you admire these guys.

That's why you like the how to take over the world podcast

because you like learning from them.

What's a story that you heard that like stuck with you?

That you remembered, you referenced it,

like kind of changed the way you were thinking.

From those two in particular,

I think the biggest thing is that Steve

became a billionaire from Pixar, you know, not even Apple.

And so like the fact that he could go to this,

not even hardware company,

more creative storytelling company and just kick ass

and create films like Toy Story and all these other bangers

and just build that company up to whatever it was.

Like then Disney buy for seven billion.

And meanwhile Apple is just falling to the ground

and about to go out of business

and they, you know, buy them back with next

and all of a sudden rebounds.

And it just shows like the power that one individual had,

even though both companies had, I don't know about Pixar,

but Apple had thousands of employees

and Pixar probably had at least hundreds.

And despite all of that, you know,

one man can make that much of a difference.

Like the power of having good vision

and just not relenting is invaluable.

Do you think your biggest strength

is probably your curiosity?

You're down to do anything.

Well, so I think what you have to do

is you have to always be learning, right?

So like with our ideas, right?

Cause we like to do original ideas

that no one's ever done before.

Thing is like, if there was a hypothetical fruit in Japan

that if you eat it,

makes it where you can jump 30 feet taller, right?

If that exists in this world right now,

you didn't know it existed.

So you couldn't come up with something around that.

That's very hyper specific.

But there's like a million things like that in the world

that like, if you don't know about it

or you're not in taking the inspiration,

you can't really come up with something.

Like if I were to try to get in the standup,

like that's how I would try to do something different.

I should try to intake a bunch of different information

and see what spawns in my head.

So I try to always be learning.

Would the Mr. Beast version of standup

be like, I'm going to do the longest set ever.

I'm going to do the longest comedy set ever.

Would it have to be,

would that be the Mr. Beast like twist on it?

I would have to find something different.

Cause obviously the whatever is currently out there,

because I have a bunch of people on my team who are standups

like it's been done a bunch of times.

So we'd have to figure out something different,

which I would love to one day just cause it seems fun.

Cause it's true talks to me about all the time.

But in general,

you got to always just be intaking inspiration

from different places,

whether it be different podcasts,

books or different knowledge.

I have people that I've paid that just teach me things,

just whatever, like things that I think I don't know.

What do you mean by that?

Like they'll just find things that they don't think

I'm aware of or show me cool things and be like,

I don't think you know this is a thing.

Here, read about it.

And so that way I'm always like taking.

What's an example and how many of these people do you have?

This is awesome.

Right now just like two or three.

Jimmy, they call those people, those are teachers.

Yeah.

He's like, they'll sit me down for about an hour at a time.

And what's wild is they'll focus on a subject.

And it's like, what's going on right now?

I never thought about that.

A couple hundred grand.

This is where we keep them around.

This is where we keep them around.

No, but it's like different topics.

So yeah.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Like the last one was like about just like crazy online

things where they'll upload a file to Reddit

and then like insights and encrypted codes takes you

to a website, which takes you to a book.

And like these little like, puzzles and like seeing

if that inspired me.

I don't know.

It's just random things like that.

So in point, I'm trying to always expand my knowledge.

Well, in my head with new things that control inspiration.

I was given him props earlier where I said so much

of people who kind of rev the algorithm

are usually being divisive.

They're saying something that's going to make you mad.

Right.

Like I have a joke where I make fun of MDs and DOs

and DOs get really mad.

And you know, it's like, that's like a niche physician's joke,

but people get upset.

But what I was saying was so cool about what you do is

I think really what you've tapped into is joy

and spectacle and wonder, which is like a counter to that.

And it's very rare to see that really take off

on the internet.

So what made you feel like I'm going to do that

versus do videos that might agitate people per se?

Yeah.

Well, I do think in general, it is a little bit easier

just to piss people off and get attention.

For sure.

It's a lot harder to do, go and get attention.

So that's why I think a lot of people don't.

But for me, there's a world where I make videos

and I don't help people.

And there's one where I make videos and I do help people.

The one where I do help people is just a little bit more fun.

So that's why I do it.

I don't, you know, PR wise, I should have a better answer,

but that's kind of the truth.

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What creators do you guys look up to?

Oh, I'm curious to see what you said.

What creators do I look up to?

YouTubers, podcasters, comedians.

Podcasters.

I was gonna say creators.

Yeah.

It could be anybody.

Anybody.

I think one of the first people that really inspired me,

I think was probably Steven Spielberg.

Really?

Yeah, I mean, he's one of the greatest storytellers ever.

What was the first movie that you saw where you're like,

oh my God, I was blown away?

For me, it was Jurassic Park as a kid.

I only watched YouTube grown up.

I've seen movies, please.

Yeah.

I get made fun of all the time.

What was the last movie that you watched?

Well, I watched the Spider-Man 3.1

because, but I never saw the early ones.

Really?

Yeah.

Like you have no time for movies?

No, it's not that time, I just, I don't know.

I need to, like I need to go back and watch Star Wars

and Harry Potter and all that stuff

to get brought up on culture.

But I was just like,

And so you didn't see Squid Game?

You just did the Squid Game remake?

Squid Game, I watched it.

Yeah.

The movie did it.

I wouldn't count that as a movie.

Like I watched a ton of anime.

But yeah, movies, weirdly enough, like growing up,

I didn't listen to music or watch movies.

So I was like so out of culture.

Wow.

There's just part of why I was an introvert.

There's just kind of a Gregor quote

where they're like, you know, he was on BBC or something.

It's like, oh, it's a bigger appearance,

not just niche UFC thing.

Yeah.

And they're like, what do you think about this team

or this game?

He's like, you know, the, yeah, that one you said,

they're great.

It was like Arsenal or something.

Yeah, he's like, Arsenal and they're like,

you don't know anything about Arsenal, right?

He's like, I don't watch, I don't follow the news.

I don't watch sports.

I don't do anything.

He goes, I have lost my mind to the game.

He goes, I am obsessed with my game.

I have lost my mind to it.

I don't have time for anything else.

I don't want to know about anything else.

I just want to know about this game when we were hanging out.

I feel like you had that vibe where you were like,

I decided I was going to be a YouTuber

and I was going to make great videos.

And it didn't matter if I died,

the most famous YouTuber of all time

or 90 years old with a thousand subscribers,

I was going to make great YouTube videos.

Like that's, that's what I decided I was going to do.

And that's all I do.

Wake up and I do that thing.

What was that first YouTube video that you saw

that like kind of filled you with that wonder

where you're like, wow.

Well, this guy actually got hacked like very long time ago.

This like called duty YouTuber and they like leaked his earnings

and he had made like a hundred thousand dollars a year

the last few years.

And I remember being like 10 and be like, what the fuck?

They make that kind of, they make money doing this.

And I was just so mind blown that they actually made money.

They make more than my mom.

Yeah.

It was right there when I was like, okay, I'm doing this.

Like I just don't care.

I'm being a YouTuber or I'm going to fucking die trying.

I just don't care.

And that like the second I saw that was actually possible,

that's when I was like, that's it.

And it's funny also talking about like obsession

and stuff like this.

Cause it's funny how it changes, right?

When you're like, and maybe it's different now,

but when I was younger,

like no one wanted to be a YouTuber,

but it's funny cause back then people are like, get alive,

stop being a fucking nerd.

Like you're too obsessive, you're weirdo.

And then now it's like, oh bro, he was so obsessive.

He's, it's so great.

Right.

It's seen as a positive quality.

And it's so funny, like looking back on our life,

going from a fucking loser nerd who's too obsessive

and won't go anywhere to like, damn, that's really inspiring.

And it's like, damn, it was very hurtful back then,

but I'm glad it's inspiring now.

And so it's funny to see how it changes,

but I like to bring that up because if there are

younger people or parents who have kids

who are obsessive like this,

how would you deal with that?

Cause you have kids, I have kids.

If they go, I want to be a Twitch streamer.

I want to be a video gamer.

You're like, let's go.

I had the same realization.

I was like, oh, so wait a minute.

We spend the first 18 years of our life trying to fit in.

That's how I felt in school.

I was trying to fit in all the time.

What do people do that's cool?

How do I do that thing?

Right.

And then once I was like in the adult world, it's like,

oh shit, now we spend our whole life trying to stand out.

Like, what was all that other shit?

Why was I so focused on fitting in

if the rest of your life you're trying to stand out?

And I just realized like, oh shit,

standing out has been the game the whole time.

And the way you stand out is not by trying to figure it out.

Just like whatever you're obsessed with,

just let that ride.

Cause you'll go on a path that nobody else is going to copy

and then you'll, you know, you'll land in a good spot.

So if my kid, like my daughter's two right now,

if she was into gaming or she was trying to be a creator

or all that stuff, I would be all in on it.

Cause I know even if that's not your end game,

following your obsession is like the thing to do in life.

You know, that will always work out.

But, you know, if you like actually go down that path,

what most people do is they hedge.

They like this thing,

but then they see this path that's more proven or shiny

or they don't know if it's going to work.

So they only have try, right?

And then it's like, that hedge is actually what gets you.

It's not that this career path was that hard.

It's that hedging is like, you know.

What was your major in college?

Biology.

The ultimate hedge.

The ultimate hedge.

That was different.

I just didn't know.

Well, what I think is actually you could be doing

the like YouTube, TikTok.

I feel like you can look at his videos and be like,

all right, I get it.

I get why people like this.

I get why this pops.

Probably pretty tempting to be like,

could I go get 50 million views, a hundred million views?

That seems nice.

No.

To do what he's done, what he's done,

you said you spent X number of dollars every video.

Oh yeah.

I don't know.

It started off.

You can say, yeah, our average views around $1.5 million.

I mean, that's the size of the scale.

Go look at his archive, right?

It's like, he took a plastic knife

and tried to cut a plastic table

and it took him 48 hours to do that.

That's a $1.50 video, right?

That's not a 1.5 million.

That's 1.5.

Down into 100,000, zero dollars.

It's a different thing.

It's a different thing.

So that's like a different type of skill set and muscle.

So the types of videos he's producing,

stand up is different.

If a musician was here, if a DJ was here,

it's not all the same just cause it's on YouTube.

So we all do different types of media.

This is a different type of media.

Are you tempted to like, you know, dabble?

You have to talk about this, right?

I mean...

The only, the thing that I would be reticent of is,

what if I have to put this thing out

and I don't believe in it

or I'm just doing it just to do it?

That's the, that would be the problem.

But I have to put up a new video every Tuesday.

That's the...

Just delete the video.

I know.

What do you do if you...

Sometimes we don't upload for two months.

You just only upload when it's a great video.

That's all that matters.

I think it's dumb when people stick to like a schedule

and they're like, oh, the video's not great,

but I upload every Tuesday.

It's like, who cares?

What are you guys trying to figure out right now?

Cause I think if you watch a lot of interviews with people,

it's like, it's all buttoned up.

It's all figured out.

They're already successful.

It's all working.

And then the person who's watching these videos,

simply somebody who doesn't have it all figured out.

And they're just sort of like, ah, that's different.

Like that would be nice to have it all figured out.

But the reality is nobody's got it all figured out, right?

Like we were in your office, the whiteboard's full

because you're thinking of new, like where are we going?

What's not figured out?

We got to figure it out.

So what's on both of y'all's plate of like, what are you still

trying to figure out in your game?

I'll let you take it first.

Yeah, Sean, what are you trying to figure out?

Yeah, what are you trying to figure out?

Yeah, come on Sean.

I'm trying to figure out, I'll tell you,

I'll try to figure out if I want to go all in

on content creating.

Wow.

Like I basically built, businesses,

I have the most fun doing this,

but I don't know if I had the most fun

just cause it's a hobby and like, you know,

I only get the good, I don't put all the work in.

If you love it, then go on the line.

I mean, it's not going to be less.

Do you love it?

I love doing it the way we're doing it now.

If I was like him, obsessed every hour of every day,

trying to be like, how are we going to grow this channel?

I might not love it as much.

Did you like doing the Twitter thing?

For a period of time.

It got old.

Yeah, it got old.

It was fun to chase a number.

Can we get to a hundred thousand in like a few months?

Yeah, it was fun to chase a number,

but that didn't, that didn't last.

Yeah, I got sick of it too.

That didn't last.

So that gives me a word,

but that's the thing I'm trying to figure out.

It's like, should I go all in on content creating

or should I stay with creating businesses?

What do I want to be when I grow up?

That's the question.

I'm asking myself that exact same question too.

Cause sometimes like when you're,

when you're creating business first,

I'm going to go to content.

I'm like, oh man, am I just going to talk about doing it

all the time or am I just going to fucking do it?

Yeah.

So I, I know exactly what you mean.

Yeah.

I feel exactly the same way.

What about you?

Right, right now I'm trying to stay loose

for this game tomorrow.

That's what I'm trying to do.

I'm not trying to get tight, man.

I'm 36 bro pushing 37.

Like he's a young boy.

Like he might run us off the court.

Yeah.

He was like, let's get a court tonight.

Yeah.

I got six games in me and I'm done.

I'm like, dude, my L four is hurting.

Like my hamstrings are kind of tight from this flight.

We got to his studio and he was like,

he's got a hoop there.

Yeah.

He's like, oh, we got, we got six.

Let's play a game.

He's wearing his like easy slides.

I was like, bro, I need 15 minutes of stretching.

And then like, you know,

I need like proper medical attention.

If we're going to try to do something here.

Do you guys want to go ball?

Yeah.

If there was an indoor court, we would do it.

Yeah.

I played, I played 10 21 with Jimmy right now.

Yeah.

Amazing.

We'll play 21 or horse.

Yeah.

We'll wrap up with this with your, with your answer.

Okay.

Oh, what was the question?

Let's not figure it out.

What are you trying to figure out?

Oh, God, everything.

So I'm just going to say a funny joke to change the topic.

All right, sure.

Fastball.

How to not stream our legs tomorrow.

There you go.

There you go.

I feel like I can rule the world.

I know I could be what I want to.

I put my all in it like the days off on the road.

Let's travel never looking back.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.

Episode 352: Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) sit down with YouTube sensation MrBeast, and award-winning comedian Hasan Minhaj to talk about obsession, how to win, finding your creativity, measuring success, how to run a company... and more.
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Links:
* MrBeast
* Hasan Minhaj
* Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
* Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
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Show Notes:
(02:45) - What Hassan and MrBeast think of each other
(03:25) - How do you measure success?
(12:15) - How do you run your company?
(19:20) - Doing good while getting attention
(22:25) - Fitting in vs standing out
(25:55) - What are you trying to figure out?
-----
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
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Additional episodes you might enjoy:
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• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
* #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More