Success At An Early Age// Random Ramblings

I was watching a clip from Barbara Walter's 'Most Influential People of 2012' segment and 

I saw Ben Affleck is one of those people.

I have a great deal of respect for him, despite his weird and unbecoming stint of 

being J-Lo's arms candy. I think that was about the time she was no longer "Jenny from the Block," but J-Lo.

Unfortunately for celebrities and their personal life things are documented like crazy. And it didn't help that they did a music video together and a movie. We'll leave that bad boy to rest.

Anyways, I will tell you why I picked Mr. Affleck and why I think he's an inspirational guy.

At 26, he and his best friend, Matt Damon wrote a screenplay by the name of Good Will Hunting. And he won an Oscar. At 26, I was working a job that wasn't really geared to my field of study & now only being in 5 months into my 27th year, I am making my way to understanding what it is that I am supposed to be doing and what I love doing.

Ben Affleck has said in countless interviews when asked if he felt accomplished or even like he had it all together at 26 when he and his best friend wrote and winning screenplay and his answer was always definitely not. 

He didn't even know that he was going to be married with kids at this point in his life. 

How crazy must that have been to receive a prestigious award such as an Oscar at the age of 26 for your writing abilities? Now I know that does not define success, so let me continue. 

The maturity of Ben Affleck was reflected moreso in his work outside of his films for years after he did Good Will Hunting. I was flipping through the TV one day and saw Affleck giving a plea at the United Nations to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in East Congo. He spoke with such urgency and knowledge of the subject matter that he founded the Eastern Congo Initiative, which also ended up being the first U.S.-based advocacy and grant-making initiative wholly focused on working with and for the people of eastern Congo.

So you see, being young and accomplishing many important things has nothing to do with the number age, but everything to do with what your passion is. It won't go away. Your passions don't go away. No matter if you're going through something and you want to 

push it out of the way, your passions are your thumbprint.

He may have had a rough patch in the movie choices he was making, but as you get

older, hopefully you get wiser. I think he just got really wise. In that charming

smile of his, you can still see that 26 year old who won an award for being a story teller.

Now he's telling different stories, and those stories are helping advocate

assistance for people in need of it.

If you would like to know more information about the organization, just click on the link for the Eastern Congo Initiative. He has another one that he's apart of as well called A-T Children's Project which is a non-profit

organization that helps bring attention to a disease that effects children 

with a form of muscular dystrophy that most suffer with and don't

live past their teenage years.

My hope is that in whatever you are doing, whether it is your bump in the road, 

or an interim before you get to your destination, that you

continually push yourself in a forward motion. 

I mean if Bennifer 1.0 still existed, do you think Ben would have been

the brilliant writer that we're seeing now? Or do you

think his passion would have been stifled because of

the distractions that happened?