The Right Side of Ambition

When paired with meaning, ambition is the path to success.

“Ambition is enthusiasm with a purpose.” — Frank Tyger

Live life with great ambition.

After all, is not ambition the pursuit of an aspiration with unwavering determination? ”Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” [Bill Bradley]

Ambition gets a bad wrap these days. It is viewed as unseemly, overtly aggressive and less than virtuous. But then again, conventional wisdom rarely aligns with common sense.

What good is the knowledge you have gained without some purpose? “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” [Salvador Dali] If you are a bird, then you must fly.

I say be ambitious in all things meaningful. For where there is meaning, so too must there be a passionate heart willing to pursue it to the ends of the earth. Why jog toward your meaning while others run?

Don’t allow “your betters” to have a monopoly on ambition. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” [Mark Twain]

Your supposed betters often practice a bastardized form of ambition. One without meaning. One with only power as its purpose.

Ambition without meaning in the pursuit of power is a dreadful concoction. It is soulless in nature and seeks to feed its own unquenchable thirst. Lives trampled and torn asunder matter not. Beware its call to your darker side, lest it seduce you to the path of ruination.

You and I will follow the true path of ambition, one cut by meaning and guided by purpose. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” [Henry David Thoreau]