So who are some real life people (preferably people we'll have heard of) who you look up to and find inspiring?
Uh oh, watch out. Rambling and adoration may or may not lie ahead.
Generally, I'm inspired by people who are creative, sensitive, intelligent and empathetic.... who have overcome their own personal "demons" in order to be successful and happy(ish). I guess @SehnorFrio put it well - the people I'm most inspired by have been through a lot and are still awesome people.
Stephen Fry
So by the age of 20, Stephen Fry had attempted suicide, been arrested and locked up for stealing credit cards and chucked out of almost every school he was ever in. However, he got in to cambridge and turned his life around. Despite all of his personal problems with depression and such, he's become extremely successful. Also, he's just incredibly intelligent. I could listen to that man talk for weeks on end, his anecdotes are always funny and entertaining, and his insights are always great too.
When I saw him at QI live, I would have eaten my own hat had I had one on. He's pretty much my #1 role model/inspiration
Daniel Johns
Man, this guy is
fucking good. His songwriting, vocal and guitar abilities are awesome... he's an amazing performer. And he's also a dedicated supporter of animal rights, campaigning for peta and being vegan for several years. Despite his musical success he was almost dead from anorexia by the age of 19, and once he recovered that he was hit with a rare case of arthritis which left him bedridden for over a year. Since then, he's released several successful albums and turned his life around. He was never super famous in the USA... but you still might know him as the lead singer and guitarist of the Aussie band Silverchair.
Russell Brand
Heaps of people have heaps of shit to say about him. I don't really care though. I like that although he was a self loathing, self harming, bulemic heroin addict... he overcame all of it and made a wildly successful career for himself. I'm not a huge fan of his stand up and from what I've seen, he doesn't really act (Just gets roles and is himself), but I think he's a very intelligent, empathetic human being and I have a lot of respect for him. I also like that he's vegan. His autobiography was a wildly entertaining and interesting read.
So they're my top three people I think are amazing. I'm sure the list would be a lot longer, if I had time to read the autobiographies of more people.
The next few people, I greatly respect, and they all inspire me, but I'm not
quite as completely enamoured simply because they haven't overcome such extreme "demons" as the ones above. Still, I love them.
-
Danny Elfman. Rocker turned soundtrack composer extraordinaire. You'll know his music even if you don't know his name. He wrote the theme song for The Simpsons, and did soundtracks to movies like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands
-
Chuck Palahniuk. Seriously eye opening writing, especially to my little brain when I first read his stuff at 15. Life changing. You may know him as the writer of Fight Club
-
Joaquin Phoenix. Great actor and animal rights activist. Enough said! Brother of River Phoenix, won awards for his roles in movies like Gladiator and Walk The Line.