FORT MYERS, Fla. — Jabari Brown never imagined that his childhood dream of becoming a pilot would lead him to compete against 99 other aviators from around the world for millions of dollars and a private jet.
Watch Fort Myers Community Correspondent Miyoshi Price's report:
The 20-year-old, who graduated from Dunbar High School, known online as "Captain Treezy," recently won more than $2 million on a MrBeast YouTube challenge after enduring 36 grueling hours of competition in Saudi Arabia.
"Going into the challenge, I was thinking 200 grand, 500 grand was the max, but I was literally thinking and doing research on what I can do with 200 grand," Brown said. "I had no idea it was going to be millions of dollars."
Brown's journey to the competition began with his social media presence as a pilot instructor.
Through his online ground school called Integrity Aviation, he had built a following of 70,000 to 80,000 across all platforms before MrBeast's casting team discovered him.
"They were casting 100 people, and they literally were going and just typing in 'pilot' on Instagram and things of that nature," Brown said. "They just gave me a phone call."
The Fort Myers native almost didn't participate after receiving what he believed was a fraudulent contract request for his Social Security number just days before filming.
"I almost did not do it because I'm like, 'How do I explain this to somebody that, yeah, bro, I got my identity stolen because I thought I was gonna be in a YouTube video?'" Brown said. "My grandma's not gonna accept that."
From Dunbar to the skies
Brown's path to aviation began in the Dunbar community, where he attended Orangewood Elementary, Paul Lawrence Dunbar Middle School, and graduated from Dunbar High School in 2023.
His former track coach, Madette Smith, who runs the Olympia Track Club at Dunbar High School, said she always knew Brown was destined for greatness.
"Jabari was always a serious person. He was one of those type of people that I knew was going to do something special," Smith said. "I'm surprised it wasn't $20 million because I knew he was going to be a rich guy."
Brown credits his competitive track-and-field background with helping him endure the physical and mental demands of the MrBeast competition.
"A lot of my competitive nature of being a track and field athlete came from knowing this is temporary. This pain is temporary. Mind over matter," Brown said. "That stuff they instilled in me when I was in middle school came to my benefit when I was doing those challenges."
The ultimate test
The competition's final challenge required the last three contestants to keep their hands on a Beechcraft 400 XP jet for as long as possible. After 36 hours without sleep, Brown faced a crucial decision when producers introduced a briefcase game of chance.
"In my mind, I had it that we all were gonna lose the jet and we were just gonna get 10 grand," Brown said. "So when I came to it, I'm like, 'Man, let me just take up their offer. I got a one in three chance of winning.'"
Brown won the briefcase challenge, but his competitors honored their agreement to remove their hands from the jet, securing his victory.
"I commend them a lot for honoring their word, because they could have kept their hands on and not let go, and I would have lost the jet," Brown said.
Investing in the future
Rather than keeping the jet, Brown chose the cash prize, citing the high operational costs of aircraft ownership.
"Why take the jet and then have to take out a loan to try to make the money that you could have just took?" Brown said. "It's better having friends who own planes than owning your own plane."
Brown plans to invest his winnings rather than spend them on personal luxuries.
"I don't plan on spending any of the money on me. I plan on investing, doing real estate and philanthropy," Brown said. "I've got friends that are no strangers to money, and they've been great mentors to me."
Inspiring the next generation
Brown says that as one of the few Black pilots in the United States, he hopes his story will inspire others to pursue aviation careers.
"Chase your dreams. Nothing is ever too big," Brown said. "Being a pilot put me in the room to even have a prize pool that was that big."
Brown continues to operate his online ground school and plans to return to Fort Myers to speak with local students about the importance of hard work and determination.
"My mom always told me, aim for the stars. If you miss, you land on the moon, and the moon isn't a bad place to be," Brown said.
Coach Smith said she's already received calls from people excited about Brown's success and its potential impact on the community.
"He was like, 'I'm gonna come and I'm gonna talk to the kids. I'm gonna tell them what hard work could do,'" Smith said. "Just keep it going, and stay true to yourself, because you are a man of integrity."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
