This edition first published 2016
© 2016 Rachel Bridge
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For Harry and Jack
“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”
Salvador Dali
When you are a child, adults are always asking you what you want to be when you grow up. Along with “What's your favourite subject at school?” and “Haven't you grown!” it is pretty much the standard question at any family gathering and indeed sometimes used by teachers as a lesson theme. I can still vividly remember a fabulous picture painted by my sister at the age of five, depicting her as a pop star with sparkly purple hair and big red shoes.
As you get older, however, people gradually stop asking you what you want to do, and by the time you are grown up no one ever asks at all. Presumably they feel that you have either already achieved what you wanted to in life, or you haven't, in which case you probably don't particularly want to talk about it.
It is a real shame because no matter what you have already achieved and regardless of what stage you are at in life, having the ambition to achieve more can be a wonderful, life-affirming force. Ambition drives us on to better and greater things, whether for ourselves, for our family, or for the world. Without it we would have no progress, no inventions, no innovation, and no change for the better.
Unfortunately, the concept of ambition is often misunderstood and as a result can sometimes be regarded with suspicion. People who are old enough to remember the 1980s, in particular, recall how wanting more somehow became synonymous with shouty people with big hair wearing red braces or shoulder pads. Ambition became a dirty word, a shorthand term for greed and the desire to win at all costs.
Even now, many of the words used to describe ambition are harsh, fierce words – burning, raw, naked, ruthless ambition, anyone?
So let's start by clarifying exactly what we mean by ambition. At its simplest, ambition is the desire to make the most of your potential to achieve something special, which would make a profound difference to your life and to those of others, whether that be through success, achievement or distinction. That might mean the desire to create something unique; reach the top of your field; start a business; become an expert in a particular area; or make a positive difference to the world.
Ambition spells the difference between those who are content to let random circumstance determine their journey through life, and those who would like to have a say in where they end up.
The late American preacher Dr Myles Munroe divided opinion with some of the views he held, but he got it right when he talked about the tragedy of people not using their potential. He said: “The wealthiest places in the world are not the gold mines of South America or the oil fields of Iraq or Iran. They are not the diamond mines of South Africa or the banks of the world. The wealthiest place on the planet is just down the road. It is the cemetery. There lie buried companies that were never started, inventions that were never made, best-selling books that were never written, and masterpieces that were never painted. In the cemetery is buried the greatest treasure of untapped potential.”
Or as one of the people I interviewed for this book put it: “It's about trying to squeeze the juice out of life.”
The interesting thing about ambition is that it is not just a driver for success; it can actually increase your chances of being successful. A study of more than 700 people with high ability by American academics Timothy Judge and John Kammeyer-Meyer in 2012 found there was a definite positive link between ambition and success. In particular, they discovered a link between ambition and educational attainment and prestige, which in turn led to higher wages, more prestigious work, and greater satisfaction with life. In other words, your ambition will not just set you on the road to success; it will also increase your chances of reaching your ultimate goal.
The purpose of this book is to show you how to use your ambition to achieve the big goals in your life. It will show you how to harness and direct your ambition in the most effective way, how to target it to overcome the things that stand in the way of your goals, how to chart your progress, how to stay motivated. And above all, how to succeed.
All the advice in this book is based on the stories and experiences of successful people in all walks of life and is grounded in academic research and proven studies.
The world is an exciting place, full of wonderful possibilities and amazing opportunities. And the good news is that whatever ultimate goal you have in mind, your ambition can help you get there. Faster.
So what are you waiting for?