What do winners have in common? Is it hard work, persistence, or just plain old luck? Some might say it’s an insatiable hunger, an obsession to succeed despite setbacks. Tom Brady knows a thing or two about overcoming rejection. After all, he was projected to be a late-round pick or go undrafted in the 2000 NFL Draft, and six quarterbacks were picked before him. Now, he recognizes a similar quality in MrBeast that has helped make the latter the biggest YouTuber in the world.
Tom Brady Praises MrBeast’s Attitude
Just like Brady, MrBeast didn’t have it all when he started making videos. In fact, succeeding on social media is a lot like making it as a professional athlete. It takes tremendous work and the humility to keep going despite the negativity that comes with the internet.
Recently, the former New England Patriots quarterback, along with his son Benny, met MrBeast, and the 48-year-old instantly recognized why James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson became as successful as he is today.
According to Brady, MrBeast said, “You have to accept that your first 500 videos are going to suck, but you just have to keep making them, trying your best of course, and incrementally changing and improving things as you go.”
Perhaps that’s why the former New England quarterback said, “There are many contributing factors [to greatness], but one stands above them all in my mind at the moment: persistence.”
Impressed by MrBeast’s response, Brady went on to say, “That’s a completely alien concept in today’s culture of short attention spans and instant virality. So much of productivity, personal development, and hustle culture is about hacking the process to avoid failure and rejection. Too many people want the growth without the learning. They don’t want to do things that suck. They don’t want to do the work that creates improvement; they want to be good right away.”
MrBeast’s attitude deeply resonated with Brady. In an era of instant gratification, the humility to persist in the face of adversity is something the California native could strongly identify with. After all, he was the backup quarterback on his 0-8 freshman high school team, seventh on the depth chart at Michigan, and fourth on the depth chart in New England. But that didn’t discourage the three-time NFL MVP. If anything, it only made his fire burn brighter.
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Drawing parallels between MrBeast’s journey and his own, Brady said, “If a play didn’t work in a game, we never said, ‘Chalk one up in the win column for the defense on that one.’ We went back to the drawing board and, like MrBeast with his videos, incrementally changed and improved the play until it became unstoppable (if we nailed the execution). We never stopped trying to get better.”
The humility to acknowledge where there is room for improvement is a lesson Brady has not forgotten, despite accomplishing everything during his playing career. Despite his stature, he chose to pursue a career in broadcasting and struggled during his first year in the booth. But the lead color commentator for FOX Sports persisted despite the scrutiny, showing major improvement in his second season.
Reflecting on his journey, Brady candidly said, “My first broadcasts, like my first starts, were never going to be great. I didn’t know enough. I hadn’t put in my 10,000 hours, as Malcolm Gladwell would say, and as a result, I hadn’t failed enough yet to learn everything I needed to know.”
Now, Brady is considered one of the best in the business, proving that rejection is nothing more than a minor obstacle on the path to greatness. And it’s a quality he also sees in MrBeast, who is arguably the world’s biggest YouTuber with a staggering 485 million subscribers.
