Ambition is a tricky topic. It’s not like it’s hard to understand the concept, but it can be extremely difficult to comprehend what drives us to give our best and what we’re trying to achieve at the end of our yellow brick road.
I used to think that I was motivated by money. While attending Bradley University and in groups and courses designed to teach me how to be a successful entrepreneur (which can’t really be taught, it can only be experienced) I tried coming up with the next billion-dollar business idea. I quite possibly came up with good ideas – but these ideas would only have been “good ideas” for someone else.
Without the ability to build a complicated consumer app that would improve the lives of millions (and without the desire to learn how to code/engineer an app) the bulk of my ideas were completely wasted. I had a false sense of ambition. Not only was I incapable of creating the bulk of these ideas, I lacked the actual interest and passion to see these through.
The world’s best business ideas are wasted without ambition that is driven by passion and supported with knowledge and hard work.
I learned that I was not driven by money through an exercise where I was forced to write my own eulogy. When thinking of myself passing away and what I would want to be known for and the impact I would want to leave on the world, not one thing I wrote had anything to do with acquiring or passing down millions of dollars to my children. A lot of good can come from creating wealth, but if I lack the interest of making a lot of money, there’s no point in setting goals tied to earnings.
Ambition, as I see it, can only come from internal desires and one’s ability to use their abilities to see them through.
What are you ambitious about? What do you want to accomplish? How can you use your skills and your network to accomplish this?
My top ambition is to take care of my family and build them up in a way that helps them positively change the world. On a more selfish level and as a secondary ambition, I want to improve the lives of as many entrepreneurs and business owners as possible.
As mentioned, money is not the motivating factor, but in order to take care of my family and help many small businesses, it does play a part. In other words, money is an ingredient in the ambition equation, but not what lies at the end of my yellow brick road.
If there’s anything worth taking away from today’s creative ramble, I hope that it’s to avoid false ambitions and focus on what’s truly important to you in order to get the most out of yourself, and to make the biggest positive impact you can on those around you and the world.