My Reality Check Bounced! - Jason Ryan Dorsey [15]
Global Youth Service Day became one of the largest international youth-led initiatives in history. Ben’s vast network of youth organizations was instrumental in the initiative’s success. Just as Ben imagined at age eighteen standing spellbound in the halls of the UN building, youth could come together to better the world, if given the chance.
Since the UN first rejected his proposal, Ben has spoken there many times. His Global Youth Action Network is now an official partner of the UN system. Every day, he receives hundreds of emotional e-mails from youth in distant countries thanking him for his work and asking how they can get involved with GYAN.
Now twenty-seven, Ben still sleeps in a room in a basement apartment that he bricked himself. He has almost no savings. He has no retirement plan. He pays his staff when he cannot afford to pay himself. He never complains. He just presses on. He views each day as a gift, because each day he gets to live his passion.
SO WHAT EXACTLY IS PASSION?
Passion is the simmering energy inside all of us that boils over when we are living our greatest, most authentic purpose. Passion is the natural buzz that keeps you working late into the night when others have called it quits. Passion is the commitment you feel in your stomach when you push yourself to your personal best.
What motivated Ben to help starving kids in foreign countries while he was living hand-to-mouth sleeping on a basement floor? What kept him going when the UN rejected his youth assembly proposal? What gave him the courage to move to the desert to follow his vision of a better world? What inspired him, a young guy with no college degree, few friends, and zero savings to put his crazy dream into action? PASSION!
Passion is burning desire that drives dedicated action. Ben desired, more than anything else in the world, to empower youth to come together to solve local and global problems. This passion permeated his every thought, action, dream, and breath. His spirit was on fire to help young people he would most likely never meet. Discovering this passion transformed him from a suicidal kid sleeping on a basement floor to working directly with world leaders as well as with disenfranchised young people who never before had a voice.
True to his character, Ben downplays his role. You won’t ever see him on national TV asking for donations or dropping names about the leaders who call him for advice. However, the countless lives GYAN has affected say more than he ever could.
Finding your passion will change your life, too. Finding your passion will push you to dream big and act on those dreams. Finding your passion will inspire others to believe in you—maybe even more than you believe in yourself. Finding your passion will light a fire in your belly that will bring more joy and meaning to your life than any award or accomplishment.
When you find passion, your triumphs become so much more rewarding and your setbacks so much less daunting. Passion keeps you from boredom because it gives significance and purpose to your every moment. Following your passion is what separates those who live their dreams from those who can only dream.
Throughout your life, you’ve seen glimpses of the passion within you. Maybe it was a flash of comedic genius on a karaoke stage. Maybe it was an invention that came to you in your sleep. Maybe it was how much you enjoyed making friends in a foreign country. Maybe it was how you felt helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. These flashes of meaningful purpose are commercials for the fulfillment that’s possible when you look for, find, and then follow your passion.
Ben stumbled onto his passion when Leslie took him on a tour of the UN headquarters. He saw possibilities that he never before imagined. He chose to invest everything he had left—emotionally, financially, spiritually, and physically