10 Hidden Gems from Mr. Beast's Leaked Handbook
Treasure appears where you least expect it.
I struck Internet gold.
Out of all the places on Earth, I didn't expect it to turn up here.
Turns out the best spot to find management advice is not from Harvard, not Wharton, not McKinsey, and not Google.
It’s from a Youtuber.
Mr Beast’s leaked internal company handbook is one of the best examples I've ever read on operating with high agency & building a winning culture.
It’s also incredibly well written, and super fun to read.
Quick side note: I feel like the word "leaked" is such a growth hack. Anytime something gets "leaked" it becomes 100x more exciting to read.
Everyone should take 20 minutes and go read the full document, but if you're in a rush - here are my top 10 highlights.
Highlights
1 - On what matters
Sorry in advance for all the run on sentences and grammar issues, I’m a youtuber not an author haha.
The handbook starts with such an innocent but brilliant sentence.
He probably didn’t even realize this, but he’s instantly shown his ability to ruthlessly prioritize what matters (the content) over what seems like it should matter but doesn't (the grammar).
2 - On mission
What is your goal here? Your goal here is to make the best YOUTUBE videos possible. That’s the number one goal of this production company. It’s not to make the best produced videos. Not to make the funniest videos. Not to make the best looking videos. Not the highest quality videos.. It’s to make the best YOUTUBE videos possible. Everything we want will come if we strive for that. Sounds obvious but after 6 months in the weeds a lot of people tend to forget what we are actually trying to achieve here
Extreme clarity.
It cuts through beautifully. Like a knife through butter.
What is the goal of our content? To excite me. The goal of our content is to excite me. That may sound weird to some of you, especially if you’re new but to me it’s what’s most important. If I'm not excited to get in front of that camera and film the video, it’s just simply not going to happen. I’m not fake and I will be authentic, that’s partly why the channel does so well. And if i’m not excited by the video, we’re fucked.
Imagine being an employee of this company and reading this on your first day.
Instantly, the goalpost is visible.
Now, everything you do in your day-to-day needs to build towards that goal. And if it's not in service of the goal, you can stop doing it.
3 - On high agency and extreme ownership
NO DOES NOT MEAN NO When dealing with people outside MrBeast Productions never take a No at face value. If we need a store to buy everything inside of and you call the local Dollar tree and the person that answers says “No, you can’t film here”. That literally doesn’t mean shit. Talk to other employees and see if any are fans or if any have kids that are fans, try talking to their boss, their bosses boss, have me dm them on twitter and try their social team, etc. If after all avenues are exhausted you are left with a no, that doesn’t mean don’t try the other dollar trees because the manager of those could be huge fans and willing to bend the rules. Basically what I’m trying to convey is what we call “pushing thru no”. Don’t just stop because one person told you no, stop when all conceivable options are exhausted. This is one of many tools that when combined dramatically improve your probability of success when producing here.
This section is SO good that I had to include multiple snippets. If had to only pick one take-away, this would be it.
Now let’s say Tyler and you agree it will be done in 5 days. YOU DON’T GET TO SET A REMINDER FOR 5 DAYS AND NOT TALK TO HIM FOR 5 DAYS! Every single day you must check in on Tyler and make sure he is still on track to hit the target date. I want less excuses in this company. Take ownership and don’t give your project a chance to fail. Dumping your bottleneck on someone and then just walking away until it’s done is lazy and it gives room for error and I want you to have a mindset that God himself couldn’t stop you from making this video on time. Check. In. Daily. Leave. No. Room. For. Error.
Let's read this again.
I want you to have a mindset that God himself couldn’t stop you from making this video on time
Goosebumps.
4 - On how to build
Idc how traditional media does things. Pardon the bluntness but this is not Hollywood and I do not want to be Hollywood. And if that sentence is a turn off to you then you’re probably at the wrong job. I genuinely mean that. Youtube is the future and I believe with every fiber of my body it’s going to keep growing year over year and in 5 years Youtube will be bigger than anyone will have ever imagined and I want this channel to be at the top. Which is why I say we are not Hollywood. 99% of movies or tv shows would flop on Youtube. On top of that they'd be wildly unprofitable, have no flexibility, and long lead times that can’t adapt to trends. We arn’t here to make a small movie once or twice a year, I want to make one a week lol. Which is why you need to be nimble and produce content OUR way, not the way you were taught before. If you want the highest probability of success I beg you to learn why we do what we do at a deep level before you try to “fix” anything. We’ve done countless videos and invested hundreds of thousands of hours collectively building how we do things. I know it’s not perfect but we have a reason for how we do most stuff and it’s probably a decent one.
So many of the struggles in bigger, "more established" companies can be pointed back to this one thing.
New hires, usually management, trying to impose their style of working on the company without understanding why things are the way they are.
Have you ever heard of Chesterton's fence? It's a principle that points to the same issue.
Don't remove a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place.
5 - On judging performance
The amount of hours you work is irrelevant. Before you get mad, recall the story about James solving a problem in 30 minutes a team of 5 couldn’t in a week. In that example does it really matter how many hours they worked? Obviously we want grinders that put in the hours and love you guys to death that do. But at the end of the day you will be judged on results, not hours. We are a results based company. Get shit done and move the goalpost!
I love it.
Employees are judged on output, not input.
6 - On maintaining a high bar for talent
I only want “A Players” As I type this I realize it may not be the wisest to categorize everyone into 3 buckets but this is how I believe we should look at everyone a part of the production team. You’re either an A-Player, B-Player, or C-Player. There is only room in this company for A-Players. A-Players are obsessive, learn from mistakes, coachable, intelligent, don’t make excuses, believe in Youtube, see the value of this company, and are the best in the goddamn world at their job. B-Players are new people that need to be trained into A-Players, and C-Players are just average employees. They don’t suck but they arn’t exceptional at what they do. They just exist, do whatever, and get a paycheck. They aren’t obsessive 5 and learning. C-Players are poisonous and should be transitioned to a different company IMMEDIATELY. (It’s okay we give everyone severance, they’ll be fine).
You might not agree with his stance here (I'm not sure I do), but the honesty in his writing is so refreshing. Sharp, clear opinions.
7 - On being obsessed & always improving
I’m willing to count to one hundred thousand, bury myself alive, or walk a marathon in the world’s largest pairs of shoes if I must. This channel is my baby and I've given up my life for it. I’m so emotionally connected to it that it’s sad lol. But this is the one thing I will never compromise on, I have 0 issues throwing away a multi million dollar video if I don’t think it’s up to my 26 standards and is good for the audience. We must always be improving and innovating. The camera angles need to always get better, the pacing, the story, the jokes, the color, the lighting, the music, the props, the people, our framing, our ideas, literally everything must always be improving and innovating. Because that is what excites me. That’s literally what I live for, to see these videos get better and better and ultimately make the viewers happy.
This is intense.
It's clear that Mr. Beast is obsessed with Youtube, and every fibre of his body is pushing towards building the biggest Youtube channel in the world.
That kind of obsession & ambition is contagious, and it can push people around him to achieve things they wouldn't have dreamed of doing otherwise.
8 - On company values
Never do anything that could make us look bad from a pr perspective. Work with intensity. I’d rather you be honest with each other then nice to each other. Push outwards, not inwards. We pivot a lot, be ready to have everything flipped on its head at a moment's notice lol.
Most company values are vague, generic, single-word descriptors like "Integrity" and "Discipline". Or wose, they're cringe-worthy phrases like "Work hard, play hard".
What I find most annoying about them is that they are "non statements" - aka, the opposite of the value is something no one would want. No company will tell you not to be disciplined, or operate without integrity.
There's no stakes, and no cost.
That's not true above. Look at a few of these values - the cost is immediately clear:
- I'd rather you be honest (value) with each other than be nice (cost) to each other
- We pivot a lot (value), so be ready to have everything flipped (cost) on its head at a moment's notice.
9 - On prioritization
Critical components are the things that are essential to your video. If I want to put 100 people on an island and give it away to one of them, then securing an island is a critical component. It doesn’t matter how well planned the challenges on the island are, how good the weather is, etc. Without that island there is no video. Critical Components can come from literally anywhere and once something you’re working on is labeled as such, you treat it like your baby. WITHOUT WHAT YOU’RE WORKING ON WE DO NOT HAVE A VIDEO! Protect it at all costs, check in on it 10x a day, obsess over it, make a backup, if it requires shipping pay someone to pick it up and drive it, don’t trust standard shipping, and speak up the second anything goes wrong. The literal second. Never coin flip a Critical Component (that means you’re coinfliping the video aka a million plus dollars) and always bring in me or James earlier rather than later.
This seems obvious, but far too often - I find myself working on the wrong things.
I know what's most important, but I spend hours working on smaller, easier, more comfortable tasks to "feel like I'm making progress".
This frame helps break that habit.
10 - On career growth
We need more leaders in the company. We need hard working, obsessive, coachable, intelligent, grinders that can step up and take some of these leadership spots over the next 2 years. Every single department has an opportunity for you to grow in and you’re in luck because we don’t do yearly reviews. We do whenever the fuck you want reviews. If you want to become a production manager, tell james your intention and ask him why you suck and how you can become better. Seriously. He will give you a list of things that you need to improve to become what we need and if you actually listen and master those things, we will give you a shot at the role. (only problem is most people think they are better than they really are and don’t take seriously when we give them things to improve and then wonder why they never move up). This isn’t a bureaucratic corporate company. You don’t have to do something for 5 years to get a promotion, I hate the word promotion. The more responsibility, risk you help us navigate, and overall bullshit you deal with, the more you make. And if you want more of that we will gladly help train you to receive it haha. There is infinite room for you to grow here. This isn’t a stepping stone, this is your final destination. We will win and we are going to build something amazing. I see a world where this company is worth billions and one day 10s of billions. And those of you that help build this will be rewarded. I want nothing more then for you to go all in, obsessive all day everyday, and become so god dam valuable this company can’t operate without you. And in return for becoming so valuable I hope to give you incredible experiences, a fun place to work, and of course, more money then you could ever dream of making at any other company.
I love the honesty here.
There's infinite room for growth, and as much work as you're willing to take. Compensation is uncapped, and the more you take on - the more you'll benefit.
His obsession from earlier is also visible here. He's absolutely convinced in both Youtube & his channel, and his conviction is inspiring.
This isn’t a stepping stone, this is your final destination. We will win and we are going to build something amazing.
Unreal.
As I said earlier, this document is gold.
It's a masterclass in leadership, management, prioritization, and operating with extreme ownership. It's also refreshingly honest, and just overall a great piece of content.
I'll wrap up by quoting Mr Beast himself:
"Now read this all over again because I guarantee you didn’t retain enough.".