Sunday, September 7, 2008

The true definition of Ambition

I read the below assay. It strikes me and echoes with my thoughts, too. Well written, Scott Adams!

I believe that ambition is something that drives you forward and makes progress at work, in personal life. I am a very practical person. I do believe that the whole world would be so much better, people would be so much better off if every one of us is dedicated to what s/he is doing and wanting to do something even more advanced, either to improve her/his personal life quality or to fulfill her/his inner satisfaction or even vein some times. 

This is also a sensitive issue between my husband and me. Why is it sensitive? He is not ambitious to my standard, therefore, I am not satisfied. As a result, there is a big gap between my vision and the reality.  

Now read on...

By Scott Adams.

The ambition defect

I once worked with a guy who referred to his older brother as the "white sheep of the family." The older brother was a CEO of a Fortune 500 company while his siblings had no ambitions that extended beyond lunch. That sort of thing makes me wonder about the whole nature versus nurture question. I assume all the kids in this fellow's family had a similar upbringing, but only one had ambition.

When I was a kid, adults often told me I would be rich and famous some day. Apparently I was giving off some sort of ambition vibe early on. I think ambition is a genetic defect. You can't have ambition unless you think there is something wrong with the way you are. Ambition is a state of feeling perpetually flawed. 



By most objective standards, my career has gone well. By my internal standards, I am in a continuous state of not doing enough. A couple of years before he passed, Charles Schulz called me at home to see if I would be interested in a charitable activity he was passionate about. We chatted for awhile, and I don't remember how it came up, but he mentioned that Peanuts greeting cards had just passed the billion cards sold mark. 



Pause to digest.



A billion greeting cards. I wonder if any other artist has ever sold a billion of anything. Unfortunately for me, that instantly became my new yardstick. So if you will excuse me now, I have a lot of work to do because apparently there is something wrong with me.

 

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