Why it is Good to be Ambitious

Why it is Good to be Ambitious

Ambition is good because it is the starting point of all progress. Progress implies movement towards a goal. When people have a positive goal, they have something good to talk about, to plan for and to act upon. When people engage themselves in cooperative effort to achieve a positive goal, they build productive teams, they work well together, and they feel stronger and more optimistic.

So, we can conclude that ambition sets off a chain reaction which leads to positive mental, physical, social and economic consequences.

On the other hand, the lack of ambition negates and contradicts these positive outcomes and replaces them either with nothing at all, (which leaves people in intellectual, social and economic poverty) or worse, leads people to negative habits and to vices.

A lack of ambition implies that people would have no goals (no vision for a better future), no definite plans; they would be inactive. Unambitious people do not create productive teams and they make no progress, because they are not even trying to make progress because they have no ambition.

If having ambition leads to so many good outcomes and a lack of ambition leads to so many terrible consequences, then you would expect everyone to be ambitious. But they are not.

Why are so many people not ambitious?

There are three main reasons. Two are psychological and the third is philosophical.

1. Fear of failure.

Success is never guaranteed. It is possible to set a goal and fail to achieve it. People often invest years of effort and still, they end up with nothing. Failure is always a clear and present danger. Consequently, the fear of failure is common. It is tempting to say, "Why even try?"

2. Laziness.

Ambition, goal setting, planning, taking progressive action, is hard work. It requires the expenditure of effort. Lazy people don't want to expend much effort, so they are not ambitious. It's easier.

3. Philosophies that teach "ambition is bad"

The history of philosophy contains countless examples of philosophers who advocate that ambition (wanting things) is the road to misery, and that not wanting things is the "highway to happiness".

They claim that the moment people begin to want things, they feel dissatisfied and unhappy with their current position. The way to happiness, (they say) is to be content with what you have, or better still, be happy with having nothing. They proclaim, "Only by freeing yourself from ambition and the desire to achieve, will you achieve true happiness".
To varying degrees, these philosophies permeate most people's minds, and it affects them.

We wonder, is it morally right to be ambitious? Is wisdom and happiness to be found in the renunciation of desire?

That question percolates through many minds, and it disassociates people from the desire to be ambitious. They wonder if "ambitiousness" may be morally and psychologically bad.

Provided that your ambitious goal is morally good, then it is good to be ambitious,

If you set a goal to be the best bank robber in town, then that is not what we mean by ambitiousness.

Ambitiousness has a moral dimension.

We should strive to achieve ambitious goals that add value to others.

Only if people are ambitious will they:

• Set positive goals.
• Have something good to talk about.
• Plan for a better future.
• Build cooperative teams and societies
• Work productively
• And thus, feel stronger and more optimistic.