Name: MrBeast Shares How He Built a $5B Business Creating YouTube Videos
Uploaded: 2026-01-03T03:00:00Z
Duration: 12 min 14 s
Description: YouTube creator MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) sits down for The Job Interview with WSJ. Magazine to discuss what inspired him to become a YouTuber, how he knew his fiancée was the one and why he thinks Logan Paul called him a robot.

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YouTube creator MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) sits down for The Job Interview with WSJ. Magazine to discuss what inspired him to become a YouTuber, how he knew his fiancée was the one and why he thinks Logan Paul called him a robot. Photo: Marc Levy

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260103/78f429d9-dc5c-41d6-b5e0-7107e07f2b84/4/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

YouTube creator MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) sits down for The Job Interview with WSJ. Magazine to discuss what inspired him to become a YouTuber, how he knew his fiancée was the one and why he thinks Logan Paul called him a robot.

MrBeast Shares How He Built a $5B Business Creating YouTube Videos

It's funny talking about my personal finances because no one ever believes anything I say because they're like, you're a billionaire. I'm like, that's net worth. I actually, I don't, I have negative money right now. I'm borrowing money. That's how little money I have. All right.

Interviewer: MrBeast, may I call you Jimmy?

Of course.

Interviewer: You started creating at 13 and built the world's largest YouTube channel and you turned that into a multi-billion dollar value company. Where does the name MrBeast come from?

I wish I had a better story for how I came up with the name MrBeast, but there's a thing called an Xbox Live Gamertag. I just hit random generate name and it gave me MrBeast6000. And then eventually I just dropped the 6000. That's how I got the name.

Interviewer: On that note, who or what inspired you to start MrBeast6000 back in 2012?

Back then, we just didn't have much. My parents lost everything in 2008 and went bankrupt. And so there's this YouTube channel that I promise not a single person watching this would recognize named WoodysGamertag and he was just playing Call of Duty. He was uploading it and he mentioned that he made $100,000 in a year off of it. I was like, wow, I could make YouTube videos and be able to take care of my mom and like, you know, provide for her. This guy's making multiples of my mom's yearly salary off of YouTube videos. What? That's when I was just like, okay, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna be a YouTuber and die trying. Like, once it clicked in my head, it was an actual job. I was like, this is what I want.

Interviewer: What's something that people might not expect about the process behind your videos?

Oh, boy. Well, the thing is, every video we do is different, right? One video, I spend seven days in an abandoned city. The next video, it's comparing the world's cheapest hotel room towards the most expensive hotel room in the world. At the end of the day, we just have some of the greatest people in the world here and some of the smartest and most creative people. And, you know, a lot of it is I lean on them. Like, I don't come up with every idea anymore.

Interviewer: I heard earlier that you start with the thumbnail and the title of the video.

Yeah.

Interviewer: If you could give this video that we're making right now a thumbnail and title, what would they be?

You got to be careful because you're gonna use what I say. What would get the most clicks would probably be something like "MrBeast Shares His Hidden Secrets to YouTube," or maybe just "MrBeast Opens Up About Things He's Never Before." Something like that where it's a little vague, where it creates that, like, whoa, what is this? I need to hear what he says. And then the intro, though, you really have to reaffirm whatever the title is because your title and thumbnail sets expectations for what people click on. And if the expectations aren't matched, then people are gonna click off and then YouTube will stop promoting it.

Interviewer: Your Squid Game in Real Life video is one of the most viewed non-music videos on YouTube.

Oh, that's cool, I didn't know that.

Interviewer: What was the hardest part of pulling it off?

Well, the hardest part of pulling it off is we did in 30 days. I think it was a $4 million video, like $4 million on a single YouTube video with those monster of sets, was just unheard of. So that was, like, the first time anyone had really poured that much money and that much time and that much effort into a single video. It was pretty scary.

Interviewer: Something else that sounds scary is spending seven days buried alive.

Mm-hmm.

Interviewer: What was the scariest moment for you during that shoot?

Oh, that's easy. The scariest moment was definitely when, I mean, don't ask why, but the coffin's, like, kind of like this, obviously. I turned around in the coffin and I kind of got stuck like this. So this is the coffin stuck here. And I almost started panicking. But then after, like, six or seven seconds, I was able to get out and get unstuck. But I was like, oh, my gosh, if I'm stuck like this, I'm gonna lose my mind.

Interviewer: How do psychological challenges like that one and the solitary confinement challenge compare to the physical stunts you've pulled off?

That's a great question, look at you. I don't usually talk about this kind of stuff, but I've been inadvertently honing my mental toughness for a very long time, because, I mean, even seven years ago when I counted to 100,000 on a YouTube video, that was horrible. That was 40 hours of counting, I didn't want to do it. That was miserable. But I've done so many really, really miserable, hard things. Being buried alive multiple times. Seven days in solitary confinement. Seven days on a deserted island. Seven days here, seven days there. It's like a muscle, you just kind of train yourself to get used to not being afraid. When you get that feeling of, this sucks, quit, quit, don't do this, this isn't fun. You build a tolerance of, like, it is what it is. I always enjoy when I finish those projects because I'm like, I did that. I did the thing that no one thought I could do that I didn't think I could do, and that's kind of the fun part is it's, like, seven days of suffering, but then afterwards you get a cool story and you get that satisfaction of, like, you push yourself and you hone the muscle of mental toughness, you know?

Interviewer: Is there anything you wouldn't do for a challenge?

Cut my pinky off. I would not cut my pinky off for a challenge.

Interviewer: OK, good to know. That's where you draw the line.

Yeah, yeah. No, I would not disfigure my body for a challenge.

Interviewer: Which challenge has been the most difficult to pull off, logistically speaking?

Beast Games was definitely the hardest to pull off. I mean, Beast Games, oh my gosh, such a monster of a show. And season one of Beast Games, we broke, I mean, so many world records that the stack of world records come up to here. And it's just the biggest sets in history, the most contestants in history, with the largest cash prize in history, we built a literal city in a field that the contestants would live in between filming. And when it came to executing, I mean, there were days where we'd have over 2,000 people on set. Oh my gosh, it felt like I was, the governor of a city.

Interviewer: It seems like you're always doing a challenge. You had one last night, you have one tonight.

Yeah, I'm filming a challenge right after this.

Interviewer: Do you ever get burnt out?

Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, I was taking a power nap right before this interview. Can I take a five minute power nap real quick?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Most months I'm probably shooting 25 days a month. It's a never-ending sprint, and you're really only as good as the last piece of content you put out, so you can never let off the gas. No rational human would do this. You would only do this if you're madly in love with what you're creating and what you're doing, which I why it's funny when people ask me, do you even enjoy it? I'm like, if I didn't enjoy it, do you think I would have given up all of my 20s to create content? You know what I mean?

Interviewer: As part of this job interview, we checked your references, and Logan Paul said he thinks you might be a robot.

Logan Paul thinks I might be a robot.

Interviewer: Yeah, why do you think he said that?

I don't know. People recently have been calling me AI. I'm not really sure why I keep getting called AI so much. I'm real. Tell me to do something.

Interviewer: Put your hand on your nose.

All right, look. See, then every comment's gonna be like, wow, the AI model learned how to touch his nose. I don't know, I think it's just like an ongoing joke, and it is what it is.

Interviewer: You said you keep less than $1 million for yourself despite being a paper billionaire. Why do you choose to operate that way?

It's funny, talking about my personal finances, because no one ever believes anything I say. So, I mean, because they're like, you're a billionaire. I'm like, that's net worth. I have negative money right now, I'm borrowing money. That's how little money I have. Technically, everyone watching this video has more money than me in their bank account if you subtract the equity value of my company, which doesn't buy me McDonald's in the morning or whatever. But yeah, why do I choose to keep it that way? It's not, I don't know. I just don't really think of it. I wake up, I just work, and I don't know. I'm just so busy working. I don't really think about my personal bank account, if that makes sense. I'm just laser-focused on, you know, making the greatest videos possible and building the business as big as possible.

Interviewer: What has been your biggest personal splurge?

One time, my fiancée, she was studying in the UK, and I really wanted to see her. I don't live near a major airport, so all my, I have to drive two hours to an airport to then take a layover to take a layover to get to places, because their airport's so small. One time, I was like, screw it. I'm just gonna rent a private jet and fly to her, because I really want to see her. But if I don't rent a PJ, I literally just can't make it work, because a PJ flight's eight hours, whereas, commercial, it'd be, like, 19. There and back, it's, like, so much wasted time. And that was probably, like, $150,000. I felt so bad, but I was like, I don't know. I just really want to see my fiancée. Or, at the time, my girlfriend.

Interviewer: Some people argue who you marry is your most important career choice.

Oh, gosh.

Interviewer: How did you know your fiancée was the one?

She just obviously makes me a better person. And, you know, my whole life has been centered around creating content and growing my company. And she's one of the first people I've ever met that makes me a better businessman, pushes me. She has a constant thirst for knowledge, and she's always learning. You know, I think for some people that that might be boring, but to me, that's one of the hottest things she could do. I really think she would be a fantastic mom. And that, obviously, is the big thing, too, is one day I want to have kids. And just from an objective standpoint, the success of my kids and the happiness of my kids are gonna be infinitely higher because I have her as a partner. In every way, I have nothing but positive things to say. I mean, that's why I'm marrying her.

Interviewer: You said that you were secretly testing her the first time you met. What kind of questions did this test entail?

Well, yeah, I mentioned that on a podcast that I had certain things I was looking for in a girlfriend. And people clown on me online because they're like, oh, he was giving women tests to take. It wasn't like a test, but it's just more I know what an ideal partner for me would be. I'm not dating to date. When I date, it's obviously to marry, clearly. I already proposed. So it's not me specifically ask her. It's more like just reading her personality and who she is as a person to see if she actually checks those boxes. And I went on, I don't know, what was it? I think I went on 38 different dates before I met Thea. And she was the first one that actually, like, checked all those boxes. And that's when I was like, OK, this is, I'm gonna pursue her. That's why I went so hard after her. So I was like, no, no, no, it took 38 dates to find someone. I'm not giving up that easy.

Interviewer: How quickly did you know that she checked all the boxes?

Oh, literally within an hour of talking to her because, you know, she told me she was an author. You can just kind of tell, even just from her vocabulary and the way she spoke, it was like very educated. And I could talk for hours on Thea. This is gonna turn into a Thea video. You just move on.

Interviewer: We had to go through your socials.

Me and Ronaldo.

Interviewer: Yes. He taught you his celebration move when you guys played soccer together.

Yes.

Interviewer: Have you used it since?

Have I siuu'd since? No. I've not siuu'd since I hung out with Ronaldo.

Interviewer: Disappointing Ronaldo.

No, I'm saving it for Ronaldo. Siuus are just, those are for Ronaldo.

Interviewer: Okay. You took your fiancée on a one dollar date.

Doesn't she look so cute?

Interviewer: She really does.

Yeah, isn't she adorable, look at that.

Interviewer: She looks so cute. Which one actually impressed her more?

So we did a dollar date. I think it was a $10,000, $50,000, $100,000, $250,000. I think her favorite was the $10,000 date with Gordon Ramsay. Like, we love sushi, we love food. That was really fun.

Interviewer: You said you met The Rock and lost $100,000. How did that happen?

I don't remember. This is like three years ago. I think it was a red carpet event. And I just DM'd him. And I was like, yo, if I pull up, can I play you in Rock, Paper, Scissors? Loser gives $100,000 to charity. And I think he just was like, sure. And then I pulled up and we played Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Interviewer: Want to do a quick round?

Sure. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. I beat her.

Interviewer: Yeah, you beat me. You've grown Beast Industries into a company that's been valued at $5 billion. What's been the hardest lesson in scaling a business?

Ignorance is brutal, man. I really started scaling up when I was 19, 20. I had no idea what I was doing. You know, I was hiring a lot of local people here who had never worked in production, which is why I'm very grateful for my current CEO, Jeff. Jeff Housenbold, he worked at, I mean, I don't even know, probably a dozen plus companies he's been CEO at. It's no longer like a guessing game. Jeff's like, oh, this is what you do. And it's like, oh, okay. I wouldn't have came to that conclusion. It's great.

Interviewer: What do you want your legacy to be?

The problem with that question is I'm 27 and I feel like I have a lot more to give. Like, I'm gonna be working my ass off until I die. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, I haven't done anything compared to what I will do, in my opinion. So I hope it's mostly just like, he did things that were a net positive for the world. And what that ends up being, who knows?

Interviewer: Is this what you thought success would look like at 13?

There's no world when I was 13 I ever would have imagined that YouTube channels could get this size. I mean, back then, the thought of a YouTube channel one day hitting 100 million subscribers would have been unfathomable. You would have been laughed out of a room if you're like, yo, I think one day someone might hit 100 million subscribers because the numbers are so big it wouldn't have even made sense. I did this thing when I was a kid where I filmed videos and scheduled uploaded them in the future. So I scheduled uploaded a video one year in the future and try to guess how many subs I have five years, 10 years. Hi me in 10 years, I tried to guess my subscriber count and I said, I hope when this goes live, I have a million subscribers. I have obviously 430 million, so it's 430 times below what I ended up being. But yeah, this is way more success than I ever could have imagined.

Interviewer: So 13 year old you is gonna be very proud.

Oh yeah, 100% proud.

Cultural icons explain how they started out and then climbed their way to the top.