9 issues we realized from MrBeast’s Rolling Stone cowl story

Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, was the top-earning YouTuber final 12 months, engaging greater than 90 million subscribers with thumbnails optimized to perfection and tantalizing ideas like “I Spent 50 Hours Buried Alive.” Now, he is on the cowl of Rolling Stone.

The publication has introduced that its first-ever “Creators Concern” will hit stands at the moment, April 19, with a characteristic on TikTokker Bella Poarch, a highlight on Black creators, and a sweeping, 5000-word profile of the king of money himself. We have collected the very best bits under in a useful TL;DR.

1. He needs to show Greenville, North Carolina, into an leisure hub for creators

MrBeastLLC is establishing three content material and manufacturing hubs in his hometown to place the town as “a magnet for content material creators in digital media” à la Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.

2. “I want the cool Jimmy was the actual Jimmy”

In keeping with author EJ Dickson, Donaldson is fairly awkward in particular person. His greatest pal, Tyson, notes that Donaldson has “has a really arduous time socializing” and “explaining to folks what he needs and what he wants.” 

A former worker informed the New York Occasions in 2021 that Donaldson had fostered “a troublesome work surroundings” and informed Rolling Stone that on digicam, “‘He’s such a cool dude.’” however IRL, “you’d be like, ‘Rattling, I want the cool Jimmy was the actual Jimmy.’” To that Donaldson says. “I’ve actually labored with over a thousand folks. Two folks thought I used to be fairly demanding, which was completely effective,” he says. “We have now excessive requirements, nevertheless it’s not a poisonous work surroundings.”

3. He is sort of a Musketeer

Donaldson has portraits of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk (dressed as Napoleon Bonaparte) in his workplace. In the case of Musk, “I don’t assist or look as much as every thing he does or how he treats folks,” Donaldson says, “However I believe it’s inspiring that he’s weaning the world off of oil and rebuilding creativeness on the subject of house exploration and stuff like that.” 

He’s additionally been studying biographies of profitable males like Michael Jordan and not too long ago employed a life coach that informed him profitable males peak at 40.

4. He retains his enterprise within the household

His mom Sue, a former jail warden, is MrBeast LLC’s chief compliance officer and oversees the corporate’s and her son’s financials. His dad and mom cut up when Donaldson was younger, and he is not involved together with his father, however his stepfather, Tracy, may be very a lot within the image as an operations supervisor at MrBeast YouTube LLC.

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5. He is apolitical and agnostic however remains to be cagey about transphobic feedback he made in 2016

Donaldson is apolitical, he says, as a result of “it might be very foolish of me to alienate mainly half of America.” Although he attended Catholic college as a child, he now identifies as agnostic partially as a result of church’s views on matters like homosexuality. When requested about anti-gay slurs and jokes he tweeted and utilized in movies earlier than 2018, he explains that he grew up within the coronary heart of the Bible Belt and was taught that “homosexual individuals are the rationale God’s going to return and burn this Earth.” Now, “I [wish I could] return in time and be like, ‘Hey, cease.’”

However on the subject of his 2016 tackle what Dickson calls “a reasonably well-known transphobic joke on the time,” Donaldson says, “I used to be simply enjoying together with the meme like everybody else” and denies understanding the meme’s origins. He calls the video — by which he says “I used to be born a tank, however sadly it wasn’t one among our 52 genders. Is somebody simply sitting there and getting paid to consider genders?” — a “joke.” 

6. He is aggressive as hell and obsessive about work

MrBeast followers most likely already know that Donaldson studied YouTube virtually full-time on his approach to turning into the platform’s top-earning creator.

That singular focus does not depart room, or want, for a private life. “All my buddies revolve round work” he tells Rolling Stone. Donaldson appears extra fascinated with rising his model, sub rely, and enterprise endeavors like MrBeast Burgers. He is getting a bathe put in in his workplace so he does not need to go residence.

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“I need to be the largest YouTube channel ever,” he says. “Not even for my ego. I don’t know. I simply need it. It simply provides me one thing to try for, to get off the bed and grind for. But it surely’s additionally simply vainness.”

7. His battle with Crohn’s illness could have led him to YouTube dominance

Donaldson was sporty as a child, however a analysis of Crohn’s illness, an autoimmune dysfunction, led him to spend extra time indoors. In keeping with his mother, the change seemingly prompted his pivot to YouTube. He at present tries to handle flare-ups with medicine and by working with a personal chef.

8. Safety is tight at MrBeast HQ

With a lot cash flying round, oftentimes in giant bodily stacks, safety is essential to Donaldson’s enterprise and security. An condo break-in a couple of years in the past led to extra critical  measures. He now wanders round Greenville with a bodyguard and lives in a home in a gated neighborhood with bulletproof home windows and triple-steel-reinforced doorways.

9. It isn’t in regards to the cash… more often than not

Donaldson says he doesn’t “give a fuck about cash” or “chasing the following shiny object to the following shiny object.” It merely “permits us to get views so I make more cash and do larger stuff.” However Dickson notes that Donaldson does appear fascinated with how a lot a few of these shiny objects price, “stating that his custom-built, double-sided fridge… was 50 grand to put in.” He additionally thinks cash can treatment every thing “In case you have a trillion {dollars}, you don’t actually have any issues,” he tells Dickson.

Finally, Donaldson says that “I believe what I’ve accomplished speaks for itself.” CEO Darren Margolias of MrBeast Philanthropy, which oversees weekly meals drives and helped launch Donaldson’s viral #TeamTrees and #TeamSeas campaigns, says that “by championing numerous philanthropic causes, Donaldson needs to highschool a completely new era in the advantages of unconditional giving.”