Counting to 100,000 — The Evolution and Success of MrBeast
How Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson won the 2020 YouTuber of the Year Award.
On December 19, 2020, Jimmy Donaldson, a 22-year-old from Raleigh, North Carolina, opened up 300 burger restaurants across the United States. The official MrBeast Burgers is a delivery-only eatery, servicing customers via Grubhub, Doordash, and its own MrBeast Burgers phone app. But Jimmy didn’t start with the idea of burgers.
Donaldson started his YouTube carrier in 2011 at the age of 13, making gaming videos with titles such as “Scary Minecraft pigskin!” and “Black ops 2 Patch news!” He continued to produce videos for six years, never getting more than about a thousand views for his videos.
Jimmy’s tipping point (see Malcolm Gladwell) came in 2017 when he filmed himself counting to 100,000.
Note: this was a year after he filmed himself counting to 10,000, which he did for getting 50 retweets. Still, this was not the groundbreaking video for Jimmy. That would come a year later.
Today, Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson has a net worth of $30 million, not to mention the millions he’s given away on his channel and the $20 million his foundation raised to plant trees.
I can attribute Jimmy’s success to 5 words beginning with the letter P: perseverance, personality, pioneering, partnership, and philanthropy.
Perseverance — keep going despite the results
MrBeast Donaldson is Colonel Sanders or the Thomas Eddison of YouTube. In the beginning, he called himself MrBeast6000 and spent his time chasing Minecraft pigs, shooting CoD zombies, and guessing the income of YouTube celebrities.
His persistence paid off. He stuck to his gameplan for six years before seeing substantial growth on his channel. Today, Donaldson has nearly 50 million subscribers and is consistently trending on YouTube’s top 10.
Personality — don’t emulate; be your own
Jimmy has his own voice, which keeps viewers charmed and entertained. Although he has dedicated time to studying his more successful peers and teaching what he learned, he doesn’t spend his efforts emulating their style or personality. He acts like himself.
He’s engaged with his community, both local and online. And, probably most importantly, he doesn’t cram himself into a box. Which brings up…
Pioneering — try different things
The first subscribers to MrBeast6000 saw and expected videos of new game updates, mods, and features. But having your own voice doesn’t mean always saying the same thing. Beast experimented with numerous genre choices while still maintaining his unique personality.
His first veerings turned down the paths of admiring other YouTubers, opening basketball cards, and prepping for the SATs. He’s continued the trend of “anything goes” with recent topics of eating large pizza slices, filling homes with slime, and soaking people in giant bowls of cereal.
Partnerships — supporting others in the market
MrBeast isn’t a ferocious eat-or-be-eaten competitor. Instead of devouring the competition, he partners with them. He gives back to those that helped him find his success.
The largest display of Beast’s helping fellow YouTube stars is the case of PewDiePie, who Jimmy idolized during his six years of climbing fame. Not wanting his hero to slip out of the top subscriber slot, Jimmy paid for billboards, advertised via human banner at Super Bowl LIII, and repeated the 100,000 stunt, but instead of counting, said PewDiePie as many times.
For reference, PewDiePie has 108 million subscribers, to MrBeast’s 48.5 million (as of today’s writing).
Philanthropy — giving away to success
A large portion of MrBeast’s success relates to his charitable videos. Jimmy’s purposeful giving is what fuels his popularity and growth. The money he has given away is greater than his net worth.
Yes, a lot of money and items in Jimmy’s videos are from sponsored content, although a larger portion of donations is from Jimmy’s own channel and bank accounts.
Early philanthropic efforts included giving money and food to homeless people. This progressed to giving away cash, cars, houses, and even a $700k island. This brings us to the most recent video of opening a free restaurant that pays people to eat at it.
Summary — keep going, don’t quit, give back
Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson’s story reminds me of other triumphant stories, such as Nickolas Green, who slept in a tent overnight during a blizzard to celebrate having 70 subscribers. These people don’t stop if overnight success doesn’t find them. They keep going, in their own way, in their own time, until they find success.
Besides being true to their identity, which includes exploring who they are, they are willing to help people, both with more success and no success. They support everyone on the ladder, no matter if they are higher or lower on the rungs.
The goal is for everyone to keep climbing, for everyone to keep getting higher. We are individuals but can advance as a group.
Let’s keep going. Let’s help each other. You never know what success brings next. And, who knows, maybe someday I’ll be ordering burgers from your restaurant.
Connect with Ryan on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LifeisPresence.
