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For some reason, the word “ambition” gained a negative connotation as it conjures images of businessmen and government officials gaining power through corruption. In reality, ambition is simply a strong desire to achieve something that requires determination and hard work. There’s nothing wrong with it as long as you use honest means and it’s actually a requirement of success. If you’re not driven enough to work hard in order to achieve something, you’ll likely become a failure.
Why did I talk about this? It’s because of something I read in Orison Swett Marden’s book, Self-Investment:
There is always hope for a person, no matter how bad he is, as long as his ambition is alive; but when that is dead beyond resuscitation, the great life spur, the impelling motive is gone.
There are many people out there who raised themselves from relative failure and poverty simply because they strongly desired success. Brendon Burchard who wrote The Millionaire Messenger started from a worn down apartment before creating his businesses (Experts Academy and High Performance Academy). Even the Philippines’ shopping mall billionaire Henry Sy started with a sari-sari store (a small variety shop). Sure, they could have stopped at “just enough to pay the bills” levels of achievement, but they didn’t. They aimed for something better, and that’s how they were able to succeed.
My mother herself used to be poor until she decided that she didn’t want her future children to suffer in poverty like she did. That’s the reason why she was able to work hard and do her best both in school and in her career and finally rise above poverty.
I’ve read from several self-improvement authors that life is about growth and expansion, and the things that STOP growing are those that are merely rotting and dying. When your desire to grow and improve is gone, then it’s over. You’re just waiting for death.
He who stops being better stops being good. — Oliver Cromwell
It’s really unfortunate that on the way up the ladder of success, so many people become content too early. While some are content with being a branch manager or district manager, it’s really unfortunate that some grow “content” at being a minimum wage worker or worse, a common pickpocket. Then they stay like that until they grow old and eventually die. Living just to survive and pay the bills is simply prolonging death. That’s the complete opposite of of living life to the fullest and achieving everything you are capable of. Take note that this is NOT just for your career or business, but for every area of your life: your relationships, your mental and emotional well-being, your health, your view of the world, and more.
Just imagine being on your deathbed, looking back on all those years where you COULD have done better… but didn’t. You COULD have been great… but you never tried.
I don’t think that’s a happy thought.
If you want to avoid that sad fate, you need to remember that you need great goals in order to become successful. Those goals should be big enough to inspire you, and they need to give you a desire, an ambition powerful enough to drive you through the inevitable obstacles and hardships you’ll face along the way.
Arthur Brisbane said that the person driven by ambition is lucky for it is “the champion driver of the entire world and all history.” Ambition is, after all, the driving force behind great achievements like gigantic skyscrapers, businesses, nations, leadership positions, and more.
Don’t forget this lesson from Orison Swett Marden: “The ambition must always precede the achievement.” Before you achieve anything worthwhile, you first need to desire it and THEN work on it.
One of the few differences between superachievers and the rest of the world is that the superachievers simply dream bigger. — Jack Canfield
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