There are some people who are willing to sacrifice almost everything, including their time, resources, sometimes even their social life, their sleep and some "normal" pleasures of life. All of that, in order to work hard and focus on their vocation, to improve things or try and make their world a slightly better place. Your grandparents had a word for that: Saints. Today we refer to them as Entreprenerds.

We lost one of the top soldiers. An Internet Legend and amazing artist has left us. Monty Oum was an American digital artist known for his crossover fighting videos such as Dead Fantasy and RWBY. He was, among other things, a self-taught 3D animator, whose education was mostly observational. 

Most geeks first became aware of Oum after he released the crazy fighting mashup Haloid, using characters from the video games Halo and Metroid. A part time dreamer production: 

 

The video caused a buzz in the gaming industry, and Monty joined Namco Bandai, where he worked on the video game Afro Samurai. He was also responsible for some of the most awesome Web Animation around, most of which relied on Rule of Cool. Millions of people enjoyed his web series "RWBY" (Ruby - Red White Black Yellow).

He chose being Awesome as a career and beyond his artistic skills, he was the man who never slowed down, who always wanted his life to be efficient, quick and as productive as possible. In the industry, Mister Oum’s dedication was legendary. Monty Oum, also known as the Bruce Lee of Digital Arts, was just one of those people that was ferocious about the need to create, thus that great combination: an amazing creative ability and the drive to put it to use. Monty was the personification of motivation and determination. 

Can you match this resolve? If so, then you will Succeed.

Personally, I have been following his work since the Road. I admired him for working so hard and being so passionate about what he created

So much potential, but gone by age 33, following a sudden allergic reaction. That's the kind of stories that remind us how transient, fleeting and ephemeral life is. Sometimes we work extensively, getting into (large) projects... But everything may collapse all of sudden, due to a small accident, a simple medical error or some allergy coming out of nowhere...

Philosophically, it's a pretty important concept: to stay aware of the end which is inevitable. Living in the Borderlands at times, if not all the time. Here, "Borderlands" is a reference to the Bushido concept of meditating on your own death: realising that you will die at some point, and living your life accepting that. Bushido (the way of the warrior) is the code of moral principles that Japanese samurais had to observe and that inspired the code of honor of disciplines such as aikido, judo, jujitsu and karate. But in its purest form, Bushido requires the respect of danger and death from its practitioners, so that they can effectively assess and deal with the present moment in relation to their own death.

To this extent, we could have concluded with the cliché stating that life is short and that we must enjoy every moment. The problem is that there is some complexity in the proposition "enjoying the moment", given the widely divergent interpretations. What is a chore for some people can be a real pleasure for others. And vice versa, which is a distraction for some may be boring for others. The main thing is to do what you love. Have you ever been so intensely absorbed in a creative activity, so that when you get disconnected, you feel that getting back to it would be more exciting than proceeding with "normal" distractions? Some of us execute like crazy because there is no alternative.
Workaholic? Please. That’s sounds like something lazy people would say. When you are emotionally engaged by passion or for a cause, you tend to explore ambitious perspectives without regret, no matter what might happen next.

A lot of life lessons could be learned from this man, but the most important is probably how indomitable the human spirit is. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death.

Monty Oum may have left us, but he leaves behind many great works and inspiration.