Give a F*ck about Mark Manson? This article is for you!

Mark Manson is an American blogger, self-help author, and influencer who has earned fame and fortune in a unique way: by not giving a f*ck. His irreverent and sometimes shocking writing style strikes a chord with his audience of 20- and 30-somethings looking for a different message in the self-help industry. From The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck to Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope, Mark’s accessible, foul-mouthed approach is equal parts triggering, entertaining, and inspiring. Also, he’s grown a massive following of both men and women.

Curious about Mark’s net worth and how he became the raging success he is today? Keep reading for the f*cking details about how a pickup artist blogger turned best-selling author made his millions. 

How Much Is Mark Manson Worth?

What is Mark Manson’s net worth? Different sources report different amounts, but Mark has not personally disclosed his income. Medium.com says that he makes over $2 million in revenue per year and has a net worth of approximately $7 million.

Mark’s primary sources of income include:

  • Book sales 
  • Public speaking events
  • Paid newsletter membership
  • YouTube advertising

Where Is Mark Manson From?

Manson was born in Austin, Texas, in 1984, and spent his formative years there until he moved to Boston, Massachusetts to study at Boston University. He now resides in New York City. 

Mark Manson’s Education

Mark graduated from Boston University in 2007 with a degree in international business. He graduated Magna Cum Laude. However, on his LinkedIn profile, he admits he spent most of the time drinking and playing poker. 

Who Is Mark Manson Married To?

Mark Manson’s wife is Fernanda Neute, whom he met while living abroad in Brazil. They married in 2016. In one of his blogs, Mark admits that he never thought of himself as someone who would get married. He thought he was only wired for fun, short-lived relationships until he found the right partner in Fernanda. Now, he claims he is a happily married man in a committed, life-long relationship. 

How Did Mark Manson Meet His Wife?

Mark met Fernanda in a nightclub in Brazil. Although he had previously built a career around being a pickup artist, he said he didn’t use a creative pick-up line to approach Fernanda. It was just, “Hi, I’m Mark.,” and a relationship began. They live together in New York City, and Mark dedicated his 2019 book, Everything Is F*cked, to her.  

How Did Mark Manson Start His Career?

After graduating from Boston University, Mark found himself aimless and recovering from a break-up. He soon landed his first professional job, but he described it as a “nightmarish cubicle abyss type job.” Mark quickly realized he needed to go in a different direction. He read Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss and decided to leave the job after only two months and focus on some new online business ideas with friends instead. 

Mark Manson’s First Blog

By 2008, Manson started a blog offering dating advice to men and earned a modest income writing and coaching. He had developed an interest in the pickup artist community while in college, and it seemed like a way to break into the world of digital money-making. Mark quickly climbed up the ranks within the community, and his blog took off.  

Mark spent the next seven years traveling around the world (to over 60 countries), delivering dating and relationship advice through his blog, and offering personal coaching services that he described as “wingman-for-hire.” He charged his clients $800 per day. 

Making the Shift to Self-Help

Eventually, Mark moved away from dating advice and into the personal development industry, starting a new self-help blog in 2010. According to BuzzFeedNews, he made the transition from asking, “How can I help people get better at dating?” to “Why are these guys having so many problems dating in the first place?”

Mark’s unique voice and counterintuitive approach led him to gain a large email following quickly. To take things to the next level, he decided to author a book to help his target market—men, who needed more guidance in relationships and life.  

What Was the Name of Mark Manson’s First Book?

Manson self-published his first book, Models: Attract Women Through Honesty, in 2011. Pan Macmillan Australia reissued the book in 2017. Mark explains in the book introduction that the book’s purpose was to “provide a model of what being an attractive man of integrity and maturity looks like in the 21st century.” 

From encouraging men to buy clothes that fit them and wear deodorant to teaching them how to connect with women, Models was Manson’s attempt to offer an “emotionally healthy, respectful book” to counter the toxic nature of the dating advice industry of that time. 

Mark now refers to the book as his “mic drop” moment and a turning point in his career. The financial success of Models enabled him to quit his coaching business. Within a year of publication, he made enough through Amazon sales alone to consider writing his full-time job. 

Mark Manson, Capitalist

Mark recently published a blog post in which he outlines a few ways he has changed his mind about important issues over the years. While he says he was never not a capitalist, he has become moreso as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was big business, not government, that rose to the challenges of supplying and immunizing us. He says:

Capitalism is the only system that leverages this inherent self-absorption of human nature in a way that benefits everyone. Sure, it still has its excesses and corruption, but so does every human system. To steal the Churchill maxim, “Capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all the others.

The Mark Manson Article That Changed Everything

After publishing Models, Manson relaunched himself with a fresh website in 2013: MarkManson.net. His new blog covered various topics related to personal development—from modern American culture and psychology to life choices and relationship advice. Today, he has more than 2 million monthly readers and half a million subscribers, making him one of the largest and most successful independent publishers in the world.

However, one article, in particular, catapulted him from being a popular blogger to a world-famous author. In 2015, he published a post on his website titled “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.” He used the F-word a lot and offered profound insight into how to improve one’s life by selectively choosing what you value and care about, rather than blindly striving to achieve an impossible standard of perfection.  

The article became the impetus for his next book of the same name, which became a worldwide bestselling book. 

Some of the other most popular articles from Mark include:

One of the most recent articles Mark published on his website is “How to Make Sense of the Chaos and Uncertainty.” In this article, he addresses the intense struggles Americans face in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, cultural divides, and a nation-wide racial revolt. 

In addition to publishing articles on his website, Mark’s writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, Forbes, Vice, CNN, and Vox.  

How Many Books Has Mark Manson Sold?

Wondering how many Mark Manson books are out there? Here is the list:

1.  Models: Attract Women Through Honesty (2011; reissued in 2017)

2.  The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (2016)

3. Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope (2019)

Mark also published an audiobook in March 2020 titled Love Is Not Enough. 

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is Manson’s top-selling book. To date, he has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. It reached #1 in fourteen different countries and is available in 50 languages.  

Is Mark Manson a Psychologist?

While Mark Manson is a self-proclaimed “psychology nerd,” he does not have a degree or formal training in psychology. However, on his website, he shares that while other kids were watching MTV and listening to the Backstreet Boys, he read Nietzsche, a German philosopher and cultural critic from the late 1800s. Mark started reading about philosophy and psychology when he was in his early teens. He also took several philosophy classes at Boston University and was an avid reader of self-help books.

Because psychology has always been a passion and hobby, when he started to write about them, he drew on his knowledge. 

Why Do People Love Mark Manson?

Mark Manson may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Some readers can’t quite get beyond the cursing. For others, his style and voice make self-help philosophies more accessible. Instead of the typical positive affirmations, mantras, and life-hacks, Manson focuses on accepting imperfections and learning from pain. Instead of sounding like Oprah or Brené Brown, he writes like a guy in a frat house. Many people who haven’t been able to relate to traditional self-help messages feel like Mark is on their level and appreciate his straightforward, tell-it-like-it-is approach. 

In “5 Ways to Build Resilience and Conquer Adversity,” Mark offered a curse-laden and humorous take on his experience with self-care apps. After forgetting to turn off the notifications for the new apps he purchased, Mark shared how he woke up to a steady stream of “banal platitudes and feel-good nonsense” on his phone, like “I’m proud of you for being you.” 

His response?

“How the f*ck can you be proud of me when you don’t even know me? Is this what people actually sign up for? A digital device licking their balls each morning with a bunch of narcissistic fluff?”

You either love Mark Manson or not. It’s that simple. 

“Who You Are Is Defined by What You Are Willing to Struggle For”

This is perhaps one of Mark Manson’s most quotable quotes from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. It explores how nothing worth getting comes without a price tag. Goals and ambitions don’t define a person. Instead, it’s taking action, the struggle to put ambition to work, that defines a human being.

Powerful Mark Manson Quotes about Life, Relationships, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Mark Manson is one of those authors who is full of quotes that inspire and motivate people to change their lives. He takes the best of the self-help industry and translates the philosophies into language that the average, overworked 30-year-old can relate to and understand. 

Below are some of Mark Manson’s best quotes:

  • “The pursuit of happiness is more about the pursuit than the happiness.”
  • “The desire for a more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.”
  • “To be happy, we need something to solve. Happiness is, therefore, a form of action.”
  • “Don’t just sit there. Do something. The answers will follow.” 
  • “Maturity is what happens when one learns to only give a fuck about what’s truly f*ckworthy.” 
  • “Challenge yourself to find the good and beautiful thing inside of everyone. It’s there. It’s your job to find it. Not their job to show you.”
  • “You can’t build a better mind without challenging your own beliefs and assumptions.”
  • “If you’re stuck on a problem, don’t sit there and think about it; just start working on it. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, the simple act of working on it will eventually cause the right ideas to show up in your head.”
  • “Happiness is like being cool; the harder you try, the less it’s going to happen. So stop trying. Start living.”
  • “Freedom itself demands discomfort.”

Mark Manson as an Influencer

Mark Manson has a commanding presence on social media, encompassing all the major platforms. He currently has more than 472K followers on Instagram, 190.9K followers on Twitter, and 530K on Facebook.

Here’s where you can find and follow him:

Mark also writes for Medium.com and publishes articles from time to time. You can check out his content here: https://medium.com/@MarkManson. As for Mark Manson movies, you can watch dozens of his videos—on topics ranging from finding your purpose to “what the f*ck is chemistry?”—on his website here.  

What’s Next for Mark Manson?

In 2018, actor Will Smith announced on social media that he was working with Mark Manson to write his first book, a memoir and self-help book, featuring personal stories from Smith’s life and self-help guidance. Medium.com reported the release date for the book is in 2021. 

What about more books? According to BuzzFeedNews, Manson thinks he may have one more self-help book in him on the topic of relationships and dating. He mentions that some of his female readers ask for their own version of his first book, Models, but Mark doesn’t think he’s up for that. He is not interested in repeating himself or writing about the same thing when he is 60 that he wrote about when he was 30. For now, Manson remains focused on articles for his website and other publications.

The Takeaway

Mark Manson’s story may seem like a picture-perfect journey to fame and fortune, but the truth is he had to work hard and go through several failures to achieve success. No overnight success story here! Mark worked as a writer perfecting his craft and approach for several years before being able to make a full-time income. He worked 10-16 hours each day, went broke several times, and even moved in with his mother at one point until his online businesses finally took off.

You may find that Mark’s story and life philosophies resonate with you, or you may find his approach too crude to even absorb. Either way, it’s safe to say that you would love to experience his success as an entrepreneur. 

The good news is you don’t have to be a best-selling author. You can carve out your success in a way that’s as true to you as Mark’s “no-f*cks-given” style is true to him. If you would like to learn more about creating the kind of life you want, you should check this out.