MrBeast Just Revealed He Lives in a Studio at His Office. It’s an Important Lesson in the Meaning of Success
As YouTube’s top earner, MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, reportedly rakes in around $700 million a year. In some ways, he’s lavish with this wealth, giving away millions in viral charity giveaways and occasionally being spotted flying in super-luxe first class. But in at least one important area of life, it turns out Donaldson chooses not to splash out.
Appearing on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast recently, Donaldson explains that he actually lives in cramped, sparse living quarters attached to his office, and offers a tour of the tiny space (check out the video starting around minute 22 to see for yourself).
A happy step off the hedonic treadmill….
There is a pure human-interest angle to this video, of course. Who doesn’t like sneaking a peek at where celebrities live? As Architectural Digest’s YouTube channel proves, almost everyone is curious about the homes of high-profile people. But is there another important lesson here for entrepreneurs who aim for MrBeast levels of success?
The YouTuber has spoken about his relatively frugal arrangements in the past, explaining that his decision to live modestly is driven by a desire to fight endless materialism, as well as an awareness that social media stardom might prove fleeting.
“I think one of the traps of modern humans is just living a materialistic life and just chasing s**t non-stop. For what? Why does it matter? We just chase bigger and bigger boxes to live in, faster and faster cars. Why? Why not just skip all that and do fun s**t?” he said, adding:
“[…] If you have a $10 million mansion and five Lamborghinis and all this s**t then you have to like worry, like, ‘Oh s**t, if things fall apart I can’t afford my lifestyle.’ I don’t give a f**k, I live in a dorm room. My s**t could fall apart tomorrow and my lifestyle doesn’t change. So there’s also a lot of peace of mind with that, because I don’t have to maintain anything.”
Viewed this way, his spartan living quarters make sense. Science (and Einstein) certainly agree that people often get stuck on a “hedonic treadmill,” constantly adjusting to the luxuries they already have and endlessly craving more. Getting off this treadmill can be a solid move to greater well-being.
…or a sad case of workaholism?
So one lesson from MrBeast’s unimpressive home is the wise insight that there is no final material marker of success. You can make hundreds of millions a year and still crave more. Each person has to set the goal posts for themselves or risk lifelong dissatisfaction.
But there are also slightly darker undercurrents to Donaldson’s tour of his modest homebase. “Sometimes when my girlfriend’s in town, I’ll go to a house. But, it’s much easier to stay here because I don’t have to drive as much,” Donaldson tells podcast host Howie Mandel, noting he only needs to walk a few steps to go to work.
Lots of people, myself included, love to work from home for just this reason, but it’s a stretch to call Donaldson’s bland space a home (Architectural Digest-worthy it definitely is not). It’s hard not to wonder how many of those hours he saves avoiding traffic are actually spent on anything other than work.
Like Elon Musk showing off his tiny prefab house near the SpaceX offices, MrBeast’s home tour gives off strong whiffs of sad workaholism. Assuming Musk is being honest about where he lays his head most nights, how does a man with 11 children conduct anything like a satisfying private life in 400 square feet? Similarly, how much living (outside work) could Donaldson possibly do in that little white box?
The answer might be a lot. Perhaps he’s jetting off on so many spectacular adventures a permanent home is a waste. The dude is 25, after all; interior decorating is far from many people’s minds at that age. Or maybe he’s got a Musk-like drive that makes enjoying anything but work a challenge. As both Musk himself (and his ex-wife) have observed, most people actually would not want the kind of “success” Musk has.
“My mind is a storm,” Musk has said. “I don’t think most people would want to be me. They may think they’d want to be me but they don’t know, they don’t understand.”
Choose your own definition of success
Looking at how MrBeast lives, I wonder how many entrepreneurs would actually like to live like him. The answer to that is an open question (though surveys are clear that a shocking number of kids dream of YouTube stardom). But there is one clear lesson from MrBeast’s home tour: Success is not at all self-defining. For one person, it’s a mansion or an early retirement. For another, it’s a studio apartment and a life that revolves almost entirely around work.
Before you idolize anyone else’s success, consider the tradeoffs they’re making to attain it. And then have a hard think about whether that kind of success would actually suit you.
