A Bit of OptimismOn the path to fame, most rising stars abandon their morals.
Not Jimmy Darts. He’s done just the opposite.
Jimmy started his career as a YouTuber pulling ill-advised pranks. Two decades later, he and his 20 million fans now make the world a kinder place by donating life-changing money to unsuspecting strangers who are spontaneously kind, compassionate, or generous.
This is… A Bit of Optimism.
For more on Jimmy and his work, check out:
In a world that seems to be more selfish than selfless, a world that seems to be consumed with achieving fame just for the sake of being famous, it's nice to know that there are people like Jimmy Darts out there. Jimmy is twenty seven years old and has a social media following of nearly twenty million people, and his videos are not cheap stunts and weighs just to drive followers. He shows the value of giving of kindness. When someone shows him generosity and kindness with no expectation of anything in return, he gives them money to say thank you, and the results are nothing short of inspiring. This is a bit of optimism.
Becoming Internet famous.
It's like a thing now. I've read that you ask young people what do you want to be when you grow up, and like the number one answer is influence. As a result, I think fame should be a byproduct of having done something else. It shouldn't be the driver itself. But so many people who want to be famous, they're doing stunts and tricks and things just.
To gain followers. You're different.
You're out there trying to promote and demonstrate kindness and values. How did your internet journey start like, what did you start doing?
This?
Is this how you started?
So? No, Actually, ever since I was six years old, I was posting on YouTube, making video stuff. I was a wild kid. I just loved adrenaline and I just loved messing around, and so I did a lot of crazy, wild YouTube stunts. Like I didn't know people faked their videos back in the day. I thought it was all real. So I would go to the hood and ask for drugs, and if they had drugs, I'd say, you're under arrest. I'm undercover cop and get their reactions and them freaking out. Or I was in Australia and I fell asleep in the middle of the highway, backed up traffic for miles, all kinds of crazy stuff, almost got shot several times. It was just wild, long story short. And I'm eighteen years old, not really knowing my direction of life, kind of living wild. And I'm walking through my living room and my house and I hear this voice and it sounds like Michael Jackson but giving a speech, just like the most beautiful voice I ever heard. I'm like, who the heck is that voice on the TV? My mom goes, that's Billy Graham. She's like, he's a preacher and your dad got saved going to one of his events. And I said, okay, well interesting. So I go to my room a little bit embarrassed, like I don't want my mom to really know I'm interested in something like this. So I look up this guy, Billy Graham on YouTube and I click on this video and it's very intense, but also I felt so loved by it. It was like Heaven or Hell, choose a path? Do you want to live for yourself? You want to serve others? And all this And me as an eighteen year old kid, I had gone to church here and there, but everyone's just encouraging, encouraging. No one really kind of lays down, you know, just straight truth. I just felt like it was just so real, and so I got on my knees right there, repented, gave my life to Jesus, and started that journey for me.
Can you give an example of one of your favorite people you've given money to.
One of my favorite kind of videos I did was it was going to be the first person to give me a hug. I was gonna give him five hundred bucks. And so I was like Okay, it's a good idea. You know, it wasn't that crazy. But at the end of the day, it's not about a crazy idea. It's really finding the right person and being led to the right person. And so I'm driving around in my car. I'm walking around different places, and like six seven hours goes by, and I just felt no peace to go and ask anyone. And I always try to kind of do it with the Holy Spirit and just kind of go out there with Pops and I try to find someone to bless. And so I'm like, all right, I'm not going to do this video. I'm not going to force it. So I'm actually on my way home, the sun's setting, it's getting dark out. I'm like, what the heck? God, Like, I thought, you know, you wanted me to do this video, but there was no one that you led me to. And on the way home, i'm driving. Also, I see this guy on his bike and I just go, that's the guy. So I whip over my handa pull it over and get out, and I stopped on his bike. I say, hello, sir, excuse me, and he stops the bike his feet because the breaks don't even work on the bike, and he's covered in paint. He's an older gentleman, not too old, but he's like, you know, he's maybe sixty five years old or in his sixties. And I said, excuse me, sir, I just sorry, man, say to bother you. Man, I just missed my family, been having a long day and I just feel lonely. Man, Can I just have I just need an old fashioned hug? And sure enough, this guy's name is Jose Man. He just embraces me, he gives me a hug, and I said, Jose, I said, sir, I actually didn't need a hug really today, man, but because you were so kind, I was gonna help the first person that helped me, I want to give you five hundred dollars. And he just starts breaking down, crying in tears, and I'm like, what's going on? Like is it just the five under was? Surely something more is going on than that, you know, And he tells me that day at work, the boss had paid everyone but didn't pay him because he's from El Salvador and because he was not a non documented person, there's nothing he can really do legally. And so a lot of people when they're in the States take advantage of him and the reason he's here though, it is because he's trying to provide for his family in El Salvador, his wife and his kids and living there. The economy so bad he couldn't do it. And he actually worked for like eighteen years for this guy in Vegas at a hotel. He was working. The guy promised to give him this big lump sum of money because what he needed to go home was like forty thousand dollars for him to go home, take care of his family fully and just be able to take care of him there. And sure enough, he tells me, Yeah, and I worked like eighteen years, and on the eighteenth year when the deal was supposed to happen, he was supposed to pay me. I was doing maintenance everything in the hotels for him. He just didn't pay me a dime.
He was working for free for eighteen years.
Yeah, well he would get like super low pay and was promised like a big bonus at the end. He's actually like, I know where the guy lives, but I've chosen to forgive him, even though I just delayed going home another fifteen years. Like I chose to forgive the guy. So me and this guy Jose became great friends. One of the first things I did and I got on Brand New Teeth. There was like a surgeon in LA and it was bad, like his teeth probably would have killed him. They were that rotten, that up like from a work accident. And so we got in Brand New Teeth, took him to Disneyland, and I just started being his friend. We actually went on a little tour to like Utah, Nevada, Arizona. We were on Telemundo the news stations just sharing our story that man I met him doing a Findess video. Now we're best friends. Long story short, and I was able to raise through my amazing followers, like over fifty thousand dollars for this guy Jose.
Wow.
And he actually moved home in time for Christmas to be back with his wife and kids, who hadn't seen in over eighteen years. He sent me pictures there embracing at the airport and he's like, I'm going to be more than fine. It costs about ten thousand dollars to buy a house there. Now I can afford about five of them. And he had experience being a business owner in the past, so that was just an awesome full Circle O Redemption story.
That's amazing.
What have you learned about people? Have you changed your mind about the human condition, about the human beings you've interacted with. I mean, you've met some wonderful people, but you've all people who who weren't.
Yeah, to be honest with you, I you know when you say sometimes people aren't I think if someone isn't so wonderful in the way they treat you, it's mostly related to how they were raised, or someone did something to them, or some crazy things going on in their life, and that's why they're acting that way. So pretty easy, honestly to have compassion when you run into someone that's just being extremely rude to you, because you know a lot's going on in their life. That's the same with kind of everybody. And so one thing I've learned is that people are amazing. They just need love, and I love man. One of my most favorite videos was right when I kind of got started, I actually went to Starbucks and I asked people to buy me a Starbucks right people said no, no, no. Finally, there was this really wealthy guy sitting outside like Newpoor Beach, and I asked him to buy me a copee. He goes sure, and he was pretty reluctant, but he goes, all right, here you go a couple bucks or whatever. So I go back. I said, man, here's one hundred dollars gift card. I was just seeing first help me, and it was so cool seeing the look on his face. He was so shook because being the guy you know that's doing very well, people don't usually offer to buy you things are offered to help you. They're always asking and wanting stuff from you. And so one of my favorite things to do, not necessarily always on videos, but bless people, whether they're they're low income, middle income, or super wealthy, because I tell people this. I was just speaking at a conference and I said, you could go give some homeless guy on the street one hundred bucks. That could be great, but sometimes that money could be used for something bad. Or sometimes you could be in a coffee line by the guy behind you that's a billionaire a five dollars cup of coffee, and it might look like the dumbest thing in the world, but maybe that five dollars cup of coffee is the one thing that will unlock compassion in his heart. And he's never had someone give him something without asking or something, and now he's going to go out on his own and donate one hundred thousand dollars a month to helping people out.
But you don't give the money to the people who fail the virtue test. You talk about having empathy for them, and they've had a hard day and it's not their fault, and I can have compassion, but you don't give them the exactly.
I mean, you kind of gotta choose who you're gonna focus on and who you're gonna bless. Obviously, you know the way I live my life is that way. But as far as the content, the whole point is to encourage people to always be kind and you never know what could happen. And my favorite thing about these people that passed these kindness tests is that guy that gave me that hug, for example. You think that was the first time that guy did something kind to a stranger. I guarantee twenty thousand other acts no one's ever known, no one's ever seen. The spotlight was never on him, but now one moment it was captured and now he's back with his family. So that's really the beauty of it is these people, they don't really know what's coming, and they've been kind their whole life.
You know, Do you know about the biology of kindness, because there's biology behind this. No. So there's a chemical in our body that I know you've heard of called oxytocin. Yes, dopaminees responsible for the feeling we get when we start counting the likes in our videos. It's also responsible for the feeling we get when we win a game. Yes, you know, responsible for the feeling of it when we find our keys that we lost, like here they are like that feeling of elation. That's all dopamine. Oxytocin is all of the warm and fuzzies. It's all the unicorns and rainbows. It's the magical feeling you get when somebody gives you a hug. It's the magical feeling you get when somebody does something.
Kind for you.
And the thing that I love about oxytocin is you will get a shot of oxytocin when somebody does something nice for you without any expectation.
Of anything in return.
People do nice things with expectation of return, Like somebody does something nice for you, then they hold their hand out.
Now they want something like in.
The feeld it. Actually it actually breaks the feeling, you know. But if they do something nice for you without any expectation of anything in return, oxytocin flows through your body. You feel good. If you do something nice for somebody with no expectation of anything in return, and they're like, oh my god, thank you.
You get oxytocin.
So you feel good when you give to the people, they feel good when you give to them. But here's the magic of oxytocin. The more oxytocin you have in your body, the more generous you become. It's actually the human body's way of trying to get us to look after each other because it's biologically important that a social animal take care of the tribe. Otherwise, you know, we're all gonna die. But here's the best part about oxytosin, my favorite thing, which is if you witness an act of kindness and generosity, you get a shot of oxytocin, which means not only you becoming more generous from the things you do, and not only do the people who you give to become more generous, but the people who watch your channel, but the people who witness your acts of kindness and generosity become more generous and become more kind.
I mean, you've got.
Millions of followers. The more followers you get, the biological ripple effect is producing more generous people. And I think this is significant. I mean, how old are.
You, twenty seven? I'm getting up there.
You're getting up there. You're an old man now. But I've talked about this before.
The young generation today, I think, has more things to struggle about, more about than previous generations didn't have. You if I tripped over in the cafeteria when I was in school, everybody laughed at me and made fun of me, and it was done over. Maybe it would last a day, But now that's going to be recorded and posted online forever. When kids are mean to each other, they don't just make fun of you in the halls, They spread rumors on TikTok. And this is devastating to young people. It's devastating. I can't imagine having to go to school these days, with the way that technology is used to hurt people. In a world where all of the rewards like how many likes I get and being paid for how many likes I get, all the rewards promote selfishness, I think there's something quite delightful about putting yourself out there to tell your peers. The opposite is actually not only more beautiful, but I think it's supportive of mental fitness in a way that a lot of other things aren't. It actually is a healthy thing to do. By the way, that's another thing about oxytocin actually boosts your immune system.
Okay, yeah, you're so right. I heard something that apparently now we hear more bad news in one day, and people used to hear in their whole lifetime back in the twenties and stuff, you know what I mean. So it's just it's crazy the amount of news. But there is a lot of great use for it. There's a lot of awesome things. And that's kind of what I thought was when I came up with this idea to do this kindness test. I was walking and I felt like God said, I want you to make videos. I'm like, okay, I don't want to just make videos though, where I'm walking around going hey it's Jimmy, here you go. Here's ten grande, here's fifty grand ere. Like here I am, you know. I was like, that's been done so much before. It's like, what's the way to do it where like the focus isn't on me, And so I was like, man, what if I asked somebody for help and if they help me, then I reward them for being kind. And the coolest thing about it is, I don't know how people recognize me on the street because I'm like never hardly ever in my videos, like it's a hidden chest cam and it's this view of the person. And so that's what's so cool is if you read the comments, ninety some percent of them are about so awesome, Jose helped you or you know, Chelsea help you, whatever, because it's the focus on them, and that's what makes it so fun and awesome.
Where does the money that you give away come from.
It comes from a number of things. So it comes from a donation. So I raise money usually every day donations will come in. And we don't get enough money through donations, then I will use just my personal money or whatever. But yeah, we usually try to raise a certain amount of money and then give that amount of money away.
So and you make your money from whatever advertising is on the very social.
Media brand deals and then I have some online businesses also and really just use those things to kind of fund my bigger dreams and visions, and I want to see people's lives changed. Then I want to start going and speaking in high school, seeing students lives change schools. I want to find ways to get rid of bullying out of schools. Then I want to change cities and just keep growing that, you know, but really just find where death destruction case and just reverse that, like bring heaven to earth. Literally, this school I went to, there was this award you could win. It was called the Emerald Johnson Award. So to win this award, you basically have to be the most unselfished, the most like awesome kind, best leader of a person. You know. It's one of those awards like you can't win by stepping on toes because it's voted by the leaders and by people. And so I was thinking it'd be so cool to do something in schools where it was this grant and maybe it was like fifty thousand, one hundred thousand dollars for seniors. And the way you win the award is just by whoever's helping out the most people in the school, you know, so like meeting up with kids that are bullied or doing this or just super respectful for their teachers just an all around awesome person and have different levels too, like almost a most improved too. So that way, like some kid who was a bully and had straight d's, he could still win the thing, you know, Like, I don't know, man. All I know is if I was in school and there was like a fifty thousand dollars grant for college or whatever, a lot of kids would have been like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. You know.
Let me put on my cynical hat for just a moment. So it's all about money, right, which is getting money, giving money right, and that has value.
Don't get me wrong.
But true service is not about giving away money. True service is giving away non redeemable commodities like time and energy. The analogy I'll give you is, you know, let's say you're moving and a friend of your says, oh my god, you're moving. I'll give you five thousand dollars towards the moving van. So generous, so nice. And another one says, you know what, I'll come over to your house, I'll help you pack up boxes, I'll help you fill up the moving van, and then when you get to the new house, I'll help you unpack the boxes. A month later, both friends call and say I need a favor. On the exact same day. I guarantee you you feel a warmer connection to the friend who gave the non redeevable commodity of time and energy. Yeah, a friend who gave you money. It's fine and good to promote charity and to promote the giving of money, but what about simply giving service volunteerism, which is even more powerful.
Yes, I'm curious.
About the stories you've had from the people who follow your channel, who started to learn the joy of service themselves.
One of the most powerful things somebody ever told me was my friend. It was before I started all this, probably seven years ago. He said, Jimmy, you gotta be Santa Claus in private before you're Santa Claus in public. And I just took that so literal into heart. I literally A few months later, I moved to Texas. I bought a Santa Suit, and I would go around Austin, Texas the middle of August whatever at night in the Santa suit, hanging out with homes people, taking it with them, getting them burgers, taking them shopping, and it was just a blast. But it was so true that like what you do in private is so beautiful. And like you said, that ocosin thing to where people don't even know what you did, but you know what you did, and that alone is so powerful.
I want to give your parents some credit here. I mean, I know you give all the credit to Billy Graham, But tell me a happy childhood memory. What's something that stands out for your childhood, something specific that I can relive with you.
Yeah, my parents usually for every year for Christmas, they'd give us two hundred dollars, one hundred dollars to keep and one hundred dollars to give away and bless someone else. So from a really young age, you just learn to be comfortable with people, interact with people, kind of live outside of yourself, and it just becomes a natural thing as you get older, you know. And it was just great man. My dad owned a small like family restaurant up there, and so ever since I was six seven years old, I was washing dishes. Then I was a cook, then I was a hostess. And so just learning to interact with people and having to work as a young kid is just super important for when you get older. Yeah, my dad's just incredible. I've like never seen him have a bad day ever. It sounds like I'm joking, but he's the most optimistic, positive person ever. Like his restaurant burned to the ground and he will just be happy and like it's gonna work out. Don't worry about it, you know. So he's been a real inspiration. But definitely the way you raise your kids is so powerful.
I love the Christmas gift of two hundred dollars and you have to give one hundred dollars away.
Yeah, where does your dad find his optimism?
He just kind of like common sense on steroids. He just so thinks that if he just does things the right way and doesn't cut corners and has a good heart posture, he doesn't see how he could ever possibly go wrong in the long run, you know, like something short might happen or might be an issue.
Sure, sure was that.
Man. I can't control this. I can't control my competitors, I can't control this. All I know is what I can wake up and do every day, and it's truly amazing. We would go on vacation and the forecast would say all rain, but if we brought him with it would turn to all sun. He's the weirdest thing on the planet week off the year. He also doesn't feel like temperature, Like it could be one hundred and twenty degrees and he'll be like, yeah, it feels great, and it'd be like fifty below. Minnesota goes, yeah, it feels great, Like I don't know, man, He's just something else.
I love the infinite mindset of it all. The ability to experience the ups and downs of life has just points on a journey.
They're not the end.
And I think so often when something bad happens to us, we react as if it's as literally is, if it's the last thing that's going to happen to us, as if it's the end, you know. And over time I think we can all appreciate that we kept going or we learned a lesson. But the ability to contextualize bad things and be humble with good things, because there are only points on a longer journey, and that journey is good. It requires tremendous amounts of practice. It's really hard, yeah, And I have a lot of respect for your dad being able to do it in the moment. I think, you know, I struggle to do it in the moment. I think I think over the course of time, we can do it. But in the moment when all the emotions are flowing, when something bad happens and you can't get a break, when you just need a break, the ability to put that into context of a broader life and an intimite mindset very impressive.
I think. Really it comes back to just thankfulness and remembrance and write down some of these things, like fifteen things that drove you crazy that you thought were the end of the world, and then how almost everyone turned out to be not the end of the world. You know, when I look back in my life, just all the times that I felt like that, I can look back and not one of them like doesn't really make sense to me. They all kind of make sense. They all kind of got me to where I am today, and they're all a part of the journey. And so now it is much easier when something happens, I just go, Okay, it's just maybe a door closed. Something's going to happen. And my favorite verse is that God turns all things to good for those that love them, and so anytime something's not the good, the way I view it as, it's just not the end. Great things are awesome because they're fun and amazing and difficult things also are amazing because man, they just light your character up. They shape you, they mold you. The balance of both is so healthy in your life.
You know, it's worth underlining that it's not about whether it's good or bad.
It's not the end. Yeah. Do you have a vision for the future. I mean, you're sort of doing your thing.
Do you just live in the moment and sort of it'll go in whatever direction? Or do you have a vision of the life you want to live or the place you want to be in ten years, twenty years, thirty years.
Yeah, I definitely do. I I'm starting to work on some bigger things now, Like I'm working on a book, which I think will be super awesome. Just being able to connect with somebody sitting down reading, going to stories more detail. I think that I can have an amazing impact. I'm going to start speaking more. I just spoke at a conference a couple of days ago. Got another one next month, so that'll be fun to start speaking. I want to start speaking in high schools. And then we're working on a TV show, so so that will be cool, probably in the next year. So we're also creating a kindness challenge game that'll be out in a couple like a month and a half two months, where basically, I love what you said about the oxytocin and stuff because that encourages me to be like, man, people can watch videos and actually get inspired to do accept kindness. But the original idea for if I get ten million people that watch something and cry and then turn off their phone and go back to life, Like what really impact is that? Like, sure, that's cool, that's powerful, but I want ten million people to actually go out and do something. And so we kind of created a game where you scratch it off and it'll give you a kindness challenge to go do with your friends or family or whatever. And I just can't wait for that because let's say you know, a hundred people do it, well, it'll cause two hundred interact for them and for the person they help, and so working on stuff like that and then I really just want to keep impacting as long as my heart's alive and beaten.
It's a beautiful thing.
I'm glad you are no longer lying in the middle of freeways, and I'm glad that you're no longer going into drug dealers and pretending to.
Be a cop.
I'm very glad that you're out there showing us people out there who even if the chips are down for them, even if they're having a bad day, they still are able to dig down and deep inside themselves and find the energy to be kind to those around them. Because those stories, I think inspire us to be the same that no matter how down we are, we can still be kind to someone and imagine what the world would look like if everybody felt that way one hundred percent.
Yeah, it's more blessed to give than receive, and a lot of people have a hard time receiving. And that's what I tell people, Like I just bought this guy dinner the other night, and he's like, oh, man, I hate receiving and I hate when people buy HI stuff. I said, Man, listen to me. Let me tell you something. It's amazing to give, but it is the most humbling thing to actually receive. And it's actually false humility to deny a gift somebody else. And it's so true. And you can tell them that then they actually can open their heart more to receive it.
Jimmy, what a pleasure to meet you. I hope you continue doing what you're doing and being an example of what goodness looks like in a world that likes to take I wish you nothing but good fortune, and I hope that you give that fortune away. It really you can.
Open up my mind more and just really, man, you've just drilled so much the whole concept of spending time and how that's such a powerful way to be kind. So I'm going to try to illustrate that more through content, and I for people listening, I'm just so happy you shared that, and so keep rocking on, brother, and I love it. Man, you got a great heart.
Appreciate it. Thanks for joining me.
Yeah, thank you son.
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