One super insightful money lesson from the world’s ‘richest’ YouTuber

A couple of nights ago, my wife asked me what I would want as a gift if someone were shopping for me.

I am notoriously hard to buy for because I honestly don’t really care for physical possessions.

They mostly just clutter up my space.

Was there anything I would want that I would never buy for myself?

I honestly didn’t have an answer.

I was like, “I don’t know? Google shares?”

She rolled her eyes.

After bouncing a bunch of ideas off me and me repeatedly responding that “I really don’t want or need anything,” we settled on a travel gift card.

Travel is really the only “pleasure” purchase I have any desire to make.

At the end of the day, the dopamine high you get from acquiring a unit of “stuff” is fleeting and ultimately super unfulfilling.

Just ask the most famous YouTuber in the world.

Learning that money isn’t everything

I’m obsessed with learning about the highest performers in their fields, people who find what they love and obsess about getting better until nobody can touch them.

For basketball, it’s Michael Jordan. For Football, Tom Brady.

I just watched the Arnold Schwarzenegger doc on Netflix (HIGHLY recommended) … he’s that type of person.

Well, for YouTube, it’s MrBeast.

If you don’t know who MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) is, try asking your kids.

And before you scoff at me talking about a YouTube personality, consider his inspiring road to success.

After obsessing over every little detail of video content creation and working for more than a decade to build his entertainment/stunt channel, he regularly pulls in hundreds of millions of views.

“I just had the blessing of finding what I loved at a young age. To get to this level, it takes a decade,” he explained on an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast.

“Most people don’t find what they love until their 20s, so they would be where I am in their 30s. I just lucked out and found it when I was really young.”

Not content with just being a YouTuber, he also uses his fame to do an insane amount of philanthropy work as well.

He’s also the “richest” YouTuber on the planet … or at least he would be had he not realized that buying expensive things and hoarding money doesn’t actually make you happy.

Almost all the money he makes, he puts back into his channel so he can do things like … drive an actual train into a giant pit.

‘A dumb way to go about life’

Now that might not sound like the smartest undertaking in the world to everyone, but MrBeast is surprisingly deep and insightful when it comes to money and achieving success.

He told Joe Rogan:

“Why do I need money?

“I think living your life chasing a nicer and nicer car and a bigger and bigger box to live in is kind of like, a dumb way to go about life.

“Funnily enough, I lived in a super below-average home that I kind of learned why famous people don’t live in below-average homes because someone broke in and stole everything I owned.

“So I had to get a little nicer house for security reasons, but before I was robbed, my place was a little duplex, $700 a month, you get a roommate it’s $360 to split. And just drive a normal car.”

“Also, it is a little hypocritical because I run a non-profit and we do a lot of stuff helping people, so if I lived in a $10 million mansion while I’m feeding people and trying to help people … in my eyes, it’s a little hypocritical as well.”

This is from a guy who can literally make millions from a single video on YouTube.

Lesson learned

He came by the knowledge honestly.

He was 23 at the time of the Joe Rogan interview, and he admitted that he did go through a phase of “balling out” when he first started bringing in real money from YouTube.

It didn’t last.

He told Rogan:

“I did have a phase where I did ball out a little bit and then I realized, yeah, this doesn’t make me happy.

“I bought an i8 and I bought some designer clothes and stuff like that — ironically, all of which was stolen when my house was broken into, so it’s kind of perfect.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know if I really care about this stuff anymore’ and then someone just stole all my expensive s**t so I was like, ‘Perfect, reset’.

“I really try not to (spend crazy money). I think it’s just a bad way to go about life.

“In every area, I feel like it’s just better if I live below my means.”

Learn from Jimmy

A lot of people chase side hustles but get it backward.

They think about the money before ever considering the process.

The thing is, MrBeast would be making YouTube videos even if it hadn’t already made him a millionaire.

As he explained in the podcast, he didn’t really have a life early on. He didn’t have a lot of friends, he didn’t go out very much.

All he did was study YouTube and work on making his videos better. And he wanted it that way. He adored the process.

Eventually, the money took care of itself.

Learn these money lessons from MrBeast and you’ll never find yourself bored again two weeks after buying your dream car or new designed bag:

• Find what you love doing as a side project and pick up little wins every day
• Accept that the process is the reward
• Know that “balling out” is superficial and unlikely to actually make you happy
• Live below your means
• Be charitable

At the end of the day, a $1,000 shirt is going to fix whatever it is inside you that you actually need to fulfill.

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