A Bit of Optimism - Rewarding Kindness with Jimmy Darts

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

On 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:https://www.jimmydarts.com/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2BoMmoR5HSmz5-oS8_1ENwwww.instagram.com/jimmydarts 

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 27 years old and has a social media following of nearly 20 million people. And his videos are not cheap stunts and ways 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 the number one answer is

influencer. 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? What did you start doing? Is this how you started? 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 love messing around. I did a lot of crazy, wild YouTube stunts. 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 of 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, I'm 18 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. It sounds like Michael Jackson, but given a speech. It's

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.

You want to live for yourself. You want to serve others and all this. And me as an 18 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 going to give him 500 bucks. And so I was like, okay, it's a good idea. 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 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 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. All of a sudden, I see this guy on his bike and I just go,

that's the guy. So I whip over my Honda, pull it over, get out. And I stopped him on his bike. I say, hello, sir, excuse me. And he stops the bike with his feet because the brakes don't even work on the bike. And he's covered in paint. He's an older gentleman not not too old but he's like you know he's maybe 65 years old or in his 60s and i said excuse me sir i'm just sorry man it's safe to bother you man i'm just miss my family been having a long day and i just feel lonely man could 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 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 going to help the first person that helped me.

I want to give you $500. And he just starts breaking down, crying in tears. And I'm like, what's going on? Like, is it just the $500? 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 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 them. And the reason he's here though, is because he's trying to provide for his family in El Salvador, his wife and his kids, and living there, the economy's so bad, he couldn't do it. And he actually worked for like 18 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 $40,000 for him to go home, take care of his family fully, and just be like able to take care of them there. And sure enough, he tells me, yeah, I worked like 18 years. And on the 18th 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 18 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 15 years, like I chose to forgive the guy. So me and this guy, Jose became great friends. One of the first things I did, I got him brand new teeth. There was a, like a surgeon in LA and it was bad. Like his teeth probably would have killed them. They were that rotten, that up like from a work accident. And so we got him brand new teeth, took him to Disneyland. And I just started being his friend. We actually went on a little tour to Utah, Nevada, Arizona. We were on Telemundo, the news stations, just sharing our story that, man, I met him doing a kindness video. Now we're best friends. Long story short, I was able to raise through my amazing followers, like over $50,000 for this guy, Jose. And he actually moved home in time for Christmas to be back with his wife

and kids who he hadn't seen in over 18 years. He sent me pictures they're embracing at the airport and he's like, I'm going to be more than fine. It costs about $10,000 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 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 also met people who weren't. Yeah, to be honest with you, 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 drink. People said, no, no, no. to Starbucks and I asked people to buy me a Starbucks drink. People said, no, no, no.

Finally, there was this really wealthy guy sitting outside. It's like Newport beach. And I asked him to buy me a coffee. He goes, sure. And he was pretty reluctant, but he goes, all right, here you go. A couple of bucks or whatever. So I go back. I said, man, here's a hundred dollar gift card. I was just seeing first person help me. And it was so cool seeing the look on his face. He was so shook because being a guy, you know, that's doing very well, people don't usually offer to buy you things or offer 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 a 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, buy the guy behind you. That's a billionaire, $5 cup of coffee. And it might look like the dumbest thing in the world, but maybe that $5 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 for something. And now he's going to go out on his own and donate $100,000 a month to helping people out.

But you don't give the money to the people who've failed 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 money. Exactly. I mean, you kind of got to choose

who you're going to focus on and who you're going to 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 pass 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? No, of course not. I guarantee 20,000 other acts. No one's ever known. No one's ever seen the spotlight. It 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. 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. Dopamine is responsible for the feeling we get when we start counting the likes on our videos. It's also responsible for the feeling we get when we win a game. Yes.

You know, it's also responsible for the feeling 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.

Yeah. People do nice things with expectation of return. Like somebody does something nice for you, and they hold their hand out. Now they want something like in the field, 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. Yeah. If you do something nice for somebody with no expectation of anything returned, 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 yeah but here's the best part about oxytocin 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 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, the biological ripple effect is producing more

generous people. And I think this is significant. I mean, how old are you? 27. So 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 and worry about than previous generations didn't have. 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. Oh, by the way, that's another thing about oxytocin, it actually boosts your immune system. thing to do. Oh, by the way, that's another thing about oxytocin actually boosts your immune system. Oh, baby. Yeah, you're so right. I heard something that apparently now we hear more bad news in one day than people used to hear in their whole lifetime back in the 20s 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 10 grand. Here's 50 grand here. Like here I am. You know, I was like, that's been done so much before. I was like, what's a way to do it where like the focus isn't on me. And so I was like, man, what if I ask 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. Cause 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, 90 some percent of them are about so awesome. Jose helped you or, you know, Chelsea helped 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 if 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. And you make your money from whatever advertising is on the various social media? Yeah, I do 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, decay is, and just reverse that. Like bring heaven to earth,

literally. The 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 unselfish, 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 $50,000 or $100,000 for seniors. And the way you win the award is just by whoever's helping out the most people in the school. 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 has straight D's,

he can 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 $50,000 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. is crazy. 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, let's say you're moving and a friend of yours says, oh my God, you're moving. I'll give you $5,000 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-redeemable commodity of time and energy than the 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 got to 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 homeless people, kicking 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 oxytocin 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 from your childhood? Something specific that I can relive with you. Yeah. My parents, usually for every year for Christmas, they'd give us $200, $100 to keep and $100 to give away and bless someone else. 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. And it was just great, man. My dad owned a small family restaurant up there. And so

ever since I was six, seven years old, I was washing dishes. Then I was a cook and 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. 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. His restaurant burned to the ground and he will just be happy and like, it's going to work out. Don't worry about it. So he's been a real inspiration, but definitely the way you raise your kids is so powerful. I love the Christmas gift of $200 and you have to give $100 away. Yeah. Where does your dad find his optimism?

He's just kind of like common sense on steroids. He just so thinks that if he just does things the right ways and doesn't cut corners and has a good heart posture, he doesn't see how it could ever possibly go wrong in the long run. You know, like something short might happen or might be an issue. Sure, sure. But he knows 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. He also doesn't feel like temperature. It could be 120 degrees and

he'll be like, yeah, it feels great. And it'd be like 50 below Minnesota. He goes, yeah, it feels great. 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 as 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 as if it's the last thing that's going to happen to us, as if it's the end. And over time, I think we can all appreciate that we kept going and we learned a lesson. But the ability to contextualize bad things and be humble with good things because they are only points on a longer journey, and that journey is good, 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 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 intimate mindset, very impressive. an intimate mindset. Very impressive. I think really it comes back to just thankfulness and remembrance and write down some of these things like 15 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 at 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 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 gonna happen. And my favorite verse is that God turns all things to good

for those that love him. And so anytime something's not the good, the way I view it is 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. 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 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? Yeah, I definitely do. 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 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 that will be cool probably in the next year or 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 acts of kindness. But the original idea for if I get 10 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 10 million people to actually go out and do something. And so we kind of created this 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 200 interactions 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. That'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 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. 100%. 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. He's like, oh man, I hate receiving and I hate when people buy him 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 from somebody else. And it's so true. When you can tell them that, then they actually can open their heart more to receiving. 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.

You've really even opened 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 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. Yep. Thank you, son. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please subscribe wherever you like to listen to podcasts. And if you'd like to learn more about the topic you just heard,

please check out the Optimism Library at simonsenik.com, where you can get access to more than 35 undemanded classes about leadership, culture, purpose, and more. Until then, take care of yourself. Take care of each other.