Recently, I was in a meeting with my team at ADDO, and we were discussing possible candidates for a position in the company. We shared evident strengths and potential weaknesses as we evaluated each candidate, hoping to find a new member for our team.
When discussing the potential weaknesses of one candidate in particular, someone suggested, “He seems very ambitious.”
This comment puzzled me. I’ve always considered ambition to be a positive thing. After the meeting, I decided to do some research and have been surprised by the varying negative and positive definitions attached to ambition. Let me give you a couple examples.
Dictionary.com defines ambition 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.”
To me, this definition is negative. Someone who has an earnest desire for power, honor, fame, or wealth and works hard to get these things is self-centered at best. This person is also probably greedy, arrogant, and downright selfish, so yeah, with this definition, ambition is definitely a bad thing. However, let’s look at a different example.
Google.com defines ambition as “a strong desire to do or achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.”
This definition is positive; isn’t it? Someone has a goal that will be difficult to achieve, but this person has the resilience and drive to attain this goal. This person is hard-working, a problem-solver, and eager to achieve success.
The greatest difference between these two definitions is how they define success. The first claims success is “power, honor, fame, or wealth” for the ambitious person. However, the second doesn’t clearly define success. It leaves it open and provides an opportunity for success to be a positive thing, even a selfless thing, that achieves something positive for both the ambitious person and the people around him.
After thinking through these two definitions, I believe that ambition can be a good thing and a bad thing; it just comes down to the motivation behind the ambition. If a person is motivated by greed, their ambition is self-serving. However, if a person is motivated to serve other people, their ambition is admirable and selfless.
Are you ambitious? How do you know if your ambition is admirable or not?
Here are some admirable things worthy of your ambition:
Providing the best products for your customers.
Adding value to your employees and coworkers.
Solving problems that create peace at work and at home.
Growing your influence to impact lives.
Sharing your faith boldly with the people God places in your life.
This week, take some time to analyze ambition in your personal and professional life. Make goals. Work hard. Solve problems. Achieve success. But, do these things for the good of something or someone beyond yourself. The world needs more ambitious people eager to improve the lives of the people around them.
