Justin Bieber has been the butt of every joke since his rise to fame in 2009/2010. Almost everyone feels a love or hate towards him with very few people in between. There is the die-hard “I know everything about him and I love him,” and then there is the “I know what the media reports about him and it’s not good, so I hate him.” The thing is, whether you hate him or not, whether you believe you know everything about him or not, there is no denying how inspirational he is when you look at his career and how he’s picked himself back up. He has his faults—we all do—those aren’t being denied, but those have enough attention and reasons many people look up to him tend to be overlooked and unheard of.

When "Never Say Never," his concert documentary film, released in 2010, the world got a brand new look at Justin Bieber. There wasn’t any reason to hate him yet unless you count his seemingly overnight rise to fame and his lack of approach to puberty. The public discovered, though, that this was not an overnight rise to fame—it may have just been happenstance for it to begin with him, but the amount of work put in was incredulous.

Justin Bieber’s mother had him at the young age of 18, and his father left them when he was only a few months old. They stayed in touch as Justin got older, but his mom raised him alone, and they struggled growing up below the poverty line. Around 12, he started entering local singing competitions, and because he had family far away, he uploaded videos of himself to YouTube to share with them. His now-manager discovered his videos and tracked him down, determined to make him famous. His manager had connections but was by no means extremely successful with artists yet. They came up with a first single and drove from radio station to radio station where Justin would play acoustically and sing live on the spot until he won people over. He worked to where he is, and once he saw the opportunity, he put in everything he had until he reached his dream.

His whole life, every move he made was ridiculed. Every person and every celebrity made fun of him, teased him, or insulted him from the moment his name was out there. He never fired back, though. No matter how harsh or how insulting people were, he often let it go, not even defending himself and never insulting anyone in return, which I find to be very admirable.

He loves his fans, puts them before himself most times, and never lets them forget it. He released an entire album on iTunes with almost no promotion because he wanted it to be for his fans. Not only that but one of the songs was free and five of them could be bought together for less than two dollars, as he knows many of his fans are tight on money. Every award show, every tweet, he thanks his fans and reminds them that he loves them. He’s the second highest granter of Make-a-Wish’s ever, most of which are done in private. He’s performed multiple shows with strep throat, and he once broke his foot on stage during a concert and finished the concert before going to a hospital. He then performed multiple shows with said broken foot in the following weeks. The lights in the Apollo Theater went out while he was performing, and instead of stopping the concert, he sang a cappella until it was fixed. He never wants to disappoint his fans, even if that means putting himself second. It’s a trait that makes fans feel truly loved, which is something everyone needs.

Finally, as everyone knows, he went through a rough patch in 2013 to 2014. He finally put himself first and took a year-long break, which ended up just being a break from media and appearances as he was in the studio nearly every night. He put in constant work, distanced himself from people who were not good for him, and found God, which helped him find himself. He came back in late 2015 as a better version of himself. He’s still working on himself and still making mistakes, but no one can expect him not to. I didn’t say he was perfect, but I truly look up to his ambition, drive, passion, genuine care, and ability to keep fighting even when all seems lost. As his manager Scooter Braun said, “It’s how you rise from a fall that truly defines you as a man.”