Ambition: A Key to Success

By Herb Rubenstein and Marissa Levin 

Introduction

There is a huge coaching, self-help industry and the world is full of leadership development trainers and educators.  Leadership development is a multi-billion dollar a year business just in the US alone.   Thousands of books are written each year and possibly hundreds of thousands of articles and blog entries come into existence on leadership.  While this article is merely one additional article, it is different from you will find in the mainstream literature.

Putting The Word “Ambition” Into Your Vocabulary

You want to be successful.  You may run a company, a team, be a member of an advisory board, have others who advise you.  You talk with many people every week with one of two goals in mind – be more successful yourself or help someone else be more successful.

However, during these conversations over the past several years, you have not used the word “ambition” very often.  You have used the words - goal, objectives, strategies, insights, strength, perseverance, quality, and many other similar words over and over.  Now it is time to look closely at the word “ambition” and see if it has a place in your vocabulary and the vocabulary of those with whom you work.  We believe it does.

Benefits of the Word “Ambition”

Ask yourself two questions:

Are you ambitious?  If the answer is a definite “No,” you can stop reading this article now.  If you have some trouble answering this question, then keep asking yourself the question before you go to the next question.  If you answer this question with a definite “Yes” go straight to the next question.

The next question is: What is your ambition?  And if you are really ambitious the question becomes “What are your ambitions?”

This discussion around these questions will help you get clarity about whether you are ambitious, want to be ambitious, and what your ambitions are. Don’t be shy.  This is not a word to avoid, although we will be the first to tell you the word “ambition” has received some very negative press over the past few decades.

Our basic premise is that when you use the word “ambition” properly, it can help you become more successful and help others around you become more successful.

Ambition is defined as:

an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment. www.dictionary.com

First of all, ambition must be earnest, not some idea or dream that is fleeting.  Second, it must be achievement oriented. Third, it must include a commitment to the hard work to realize the achievement that one seeks. 

Getting clearer about your ambition(s) helps you get clear on who you are, your identity.  Getting clear on who you are helps you become willing to do the hard work to achieve your ambition and help others achieve their ambitions.

Living life at the level of ambition is a very high state.  Some will not want to have a conversation about ambition with because they view the word negatively.  However, as you find more and more people who want to have a conversation about their own ambitions and your own ambitions, you will find that these conversations are much more powerful than conversations about goals, objectives, to do lists, and even “visions of the future.

Try Out the Conversation

With someone who advises you or you advise, or a close friend or professional colleague, begin at an appropriate time a conversation about ambition. Explore your own ambitions with them and ask them to tell you about their ambitions.

This type of conversation works brilliantly at the Advisory Board or Board of Directors level, just as it works with family members and even children.  It is time to put back the word and concept “ambition” into our daily life and use our true ambitions to help drive us and those around us to greater success.

Conclusion 

If you are not comfortable using the term “ambition” we believe you will become more and more comfortable the more you use the term and the more those you engage with in conversation use the term.  Ambition can be used to help achieve good or evil, just like a hammer can be used to build or destroy.  But, carpenters need to use hammers and those who want to be very successful in life and help others be successful in life, need to be in touch at their very core with their own ambitions and the ambitions of those they help in life.

Getting clear on your ambition(s) can give you and those around you more energy to achieve your goals and can improve your chances of success.  It will also help others succeed.  Not bad for a simple concept like ambition.