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MrBeast has built a YouTube empire on stunts \u2014 living in a cave<\/a>, marooning himself on an island<\/a>\u2014 pushing each idea further than the last. At 27, MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, boasts a record-setting 476 million subscribers<\/a> and a work ethic to match.<\/p>\n Following last week\u2019s release of a docuseries<\/a> titled \u201cHow MrBeast Works 18 Hours Per Day,\u201d Donaldson, the world\u2019s top YouTuber by subscribers<\/a>, weighed in on his lack of work-life balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI live to work and 100% do not have a healthy work life balance,\u201d Donaldson wrote in a post on X<\/a> this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a miracle if a day was less than 15 hours for me,\u201d Donaldson said in the docuseries, noting that he plans his schedule \u201cdown to the minute.\u201d<\/p>\n Donaldson had very little time to spare last summer, while filming the second season of his Amazon Prime competition show \u201cBeast Games.\u201d Still, he never slowed down on his main gig \u2014\u00a0churning out massive, high-budget YouTube videos that routinely top 100 million views.\u00a0<\/p>\n The YouTube star drilled down on the smallest details, like video thumbnails. To get them just right, he hired a body double to test out concepts so he could swoop in for the perfect shot and move straight to his next project.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEverything has to be perfect because I don\u2019t have much time,\u201d he said in the docuseries.\u00a0<\/p>\n Donaldson\u2019s pace reflects a bigger ambition. He is not just cranking out videos anymore \u2014 he is trying to turn his company, Beast Industries, into a full-blown entertainment giant to rival Disney<\/a> one day.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beast Industries is in growth mode. The company\u2019s CEO, Silicon Valley veteran Jeff Housenbold, said this week in a LinkedIn post<\/a> that he plans to boost headcount by 50%, hiring new employees in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Greenville, North Carolina headquarters where Donaldson grew up. The new roles span marketing, engineering and consumer products.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beast Industries currently employs 450 people, more than 300 of whom create videos, according to Bloomberg<\/a>. Donaldson owns a little over half of the $5 billion company, per Business Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n There were over 60 open positions<\/a> on the Beast Industries website at the time of writing. One job posting for a senior recruiter<\/a> based in New York advertised a total compensation package between $130,000 and $160,000, plus equity. The job listings prioritize years of work experience over formal education. Most roles do not require college degrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even though his business is valued at $5 billion, Donaldson claims that value has not turned into cash in his own pocket.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI have negative money right now. I\u2019m borrowing money. That\u2019s how little money I have,\u201d Donaldson told The Wall Street Journal<\/a> earlier this year. \u201cI\u2019m just so busy working, I don\u2019t really think about my personal bank account. I\u2019m just laser-focused on making the greatest videos as possible, and building the business as big as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Donaldson\u2019s net worth is $2.6 billion<\/a>, according to a Fortune estimate from earlier this year.<\/p>\n Donaldson isn\u2019t the only leader who has an extreme work schedule. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who leads the most valuable company in the world, told The Joe Rogan Experience<\/a>\u00a0podcast in December that he works seven days a week, \u201cevery moment\u201d he is awake, in a \u201cstate of anxiety\u201d over Nvidia potentially going bankrupt. He starts his day at 4 a.m. and works on holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. <\/p>\n \u201cTo live on fumes at all times,\u201d Huang told the podcast. \u201cThe feeling, no different from the feeling I had this morning when I woke up: \u2018You\u2019re going to be out of business soon.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a similarly intense work schedule. At a conference\u00a0in November 2022, Musk shared that he once lived in Tesla\u2019s factories in Fremont and Nevada for three years. He claimed he slept on the floor of the factories, which was \u201cuncomfortable,\u201d but the point was to show his employees that he was dedicated to the company\u2019s success.<\/p>\n Musk also said on a 2024 episode of the podcast In Good Company that he would work \u201cevery waking hour\u201d for years at a time to get a business off the ground. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done many, many stretches of 100-hour weeks, where roughly six hours per day is sleeping,\u201d Musk said on the podcast. \u201cI would not recommend that. That\u2019s for emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n Other leaders, however, emphasize the importance of work-life balance. One such CEO is Karri Saarinen, who leads the $1.25 billion project management startup Linear<\/a>. Saarinen told Entrepreneur last year that he asks employees to work the standard 40 hours a week and offers five weeks of paid time off per year. He says companies that adopt grueling work schedules risk burning out staff in search of speed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are rushing too much and launching things that don\u2019t quite work,\u201d he told Entrepreneur. \u201cIn our company, we always try to err on the side of quality, not quantity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n MrBeast has built a YouTube empire on stunts \u2014 living in a cave<\/a>, marooning himself on an island<\/a>\u2014 pushing each idea further than the last. At 27, MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, boasts a record-setting 476 million subscribers<\/a> and a work ethic to match.<\/p>\n Following last week\u2019s release of a docuseries<\/a> titled \u201cHow MrBeast Works 18 Hours Per Day,\u201d Donaldson, the world\u2019s top YouTuber by subscribers<\/a>, weighed in on his lack of work-life balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI live to work and 100% do not have a healthy work life balance,\u201d Donaldson wrote in a post on X<\/a> this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nMrBeast\u2019s broader goal<\/h2>\n
Other leaders speak out about work-life balance<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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