MrBeast has a 'clone' who allows him to 'be in multiple places at once'
Ali Condon
Featured Image Credit: Frank Micelotta/Picturegroup/Shutterstock/mrbeast/Instagram
MrBeast is pretty much the most successful guy on YouTube, with a reported net worth of over $100 million, more followers than any other creator on the platform, and plans to become the next CEO of YouTube.
But he didn't get there all by himself.
The sheer scale of MrBeast's business has grown to unbelievable levels in recent years, so it's not a surprise that he eventually needed to hire a team to help him out.
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But the YouTube star doesn't trust anyone's judgements as much as he trusts his own - so he had to make some 'clones'.
To make sure his team are making exactly the same decisions he would make, and think exactly how he would think, MrBeast - real name Jimmy Donaldson - hired people who shared his vision and then put them through rigorous training or, as he calls it, 'cloning'.
In an interview with Lex Fridman, MrBeast explained: "I have a lot of people in the company who are able to think like me and basically make decisions like I would make.
"One example is Tyler [Conklin]. Basically for four or five years we just spent an absurd amount of time together and worked on every single video together... and the same thing with my CEO James, he lived with me for a couple of years.
"I'm a big fan of finding people who are just super obsessed and all in that really just want to be great, and then just dumping everything I have in them."
Trusting someone to be CEO of a company you created is pretty major, so it makes sense that MrBeast wanted to make sure James was right for the job - but the process was pretty intense.
He explains: "For two years, [James] lived with me and we probably talked, on average of those two years, seven hours a day... like really, just training his brain to think like me.
"That way, he could just do things without my input, without me having to constantly watch over him or give him advice.
"So for the first six months, he didn't do anything. He just studied me and studied everything I cared about and how I spoke.
"For the next six months he started taking on some responsibilities and now he can just run the company and I don't ever really have to check in on him.
"Like, most of the decisions he makes are exactly what I would do.
"I call that cloning, I don't know that other people would."
He added: "It just makes it where I don't have to be so involved in everything because I just have these people I know will think like I will. So I can kind of almost be in multiple places at once, per se.
"I still approve every idea before we film. All the creative, I approve it, but I don't have to be in the weeds and nuances and do all this minor stuff."