Ambition 2
This is the second part of my writing on ambition. You can read the first part here.
Action
Ambitious individuals might differ in several aspects of their personality - some quiet, some arrogant, some self-effacing, some religious or not so religious, yet one thing binds them all - action, ambitious individuals have a high bias for action, action in explicit pursuit of that which they need or want.The ambitious do not have a tendency to stay back and hope for God or chance to get that which they are ambitious for, they go get it themselves.
Focus
The universe is an hodgepodge of indeterministic events, yet the man who will achieve great things must be deterministic in action. This is because there are an infinite possible paths and things to be done in the universe, yet the life of man is not infinite, we are timed, hence we must choose what we will or will not do. This necessitates deterministic focus.Ambitious individuals must be focused, monomaniacaly focused to the point where those who encounter them either think they are nuts or realize that their pursuit is not a joking matter. Festus would cry out to Paul: “much learning doth make thee mad”.
Focus serves as a double-edged sword, it serves to build momentum which makes very difficult tasks relatively easier and it lets the ambitious quickly realize if the path they have chosen is worth pursuing for the long term.
One major side effect of focus is ignoring or being indifferent to things that do not aid in the attainment of your ambition.
Petty
Unambitious individuals are as petty as they come. They pay attention and give equal weight of significance to literally everything that happens around them, mostly to the detriment of more important things which they subconsciously want but which they do not explicitly pursue.Married couples want peace, love and emotional stability in their lives, this are core reasons why many marry, yet those who do not realize that they have to actively pursue this ambitious goals explicitly devolve into arguing and fighting over pressing the toothpaste from the bottom or the middle.
Most people want significance in life, but the unambitious do not explicitly pursue this, thus they devolve into spending a ton of their time on petty things that in the aggregate are not only unprofitable but are also hindrances to attaining the significance they subconsciously want.
The ambitious, though might start out petty, soon realize that though attaining their goals is difficult, there are only a few factors that account for it and concentrate ruthlessly on those few things to the detriment of all other petty things around them. If an ambitious person can be said to be petty, they are petty about the few things that counts towards the attainment of their ambitions.
To the unambitious the ambitious is dismissive of too many things, to the ambitious the unambitious is a master at misallocating time and attention.
Tribal Unity
Ambition unifies in more ways than not. Ambitious nations are less concerned about the origin of the participants in their economy than the contribution each participant brings to the table. In ambitious nations, an immigrant who contributes more to the economy is held in higher esteem than a natural-born citizen who doesn’t.One major trait of unambitious nations is the tendency to favor people based on tribal associations rather than ability to contribute or produce. These nations go nowhere and are relegated to secondary status in “the league of nations”.
Ambitious nations and their leaders realize that the best talent to do X that is profitable to the nation might not be born in their nation, hence their elaborate immigration policies seeking to attract the best.
The same applies on an individual level. Ambitious individuals sooner rather than later realize the need of collaborating with people with whom they have little tribal connections. The more ambitious you are, the more likely you will have to relate and carry along many with whom you have little in common other than being able to contribute effectively to the attainment of your ambition.
Ambition cuts across tribal boundaries, it unifies.
Areas
In remembrance, I wrote of two paths to attaining long term significance after death, the same applies here. You can both be ambitious for material things as well as non-material (social, emotional and spiritual) things. One reason I point this out is that many people think their emotional, social or spiritual state happens automatically, that they can readily stumble upon the great in those areas, unfortunately few things in the universe that last happen that way.I have had folks who claim they want to have an healthy social and emotional life, yet they can hardly ignore little things, everything they do not like is an opportunity for complaints and fight, they then are surprised when their relationship or emotional goals are not fulfilled, shifting the blame either to the other party or the all too common devil – devil-blaming is a potent sign of human irresponsibility.
If you will be ambitious for non-material things you must realize that the same ideas for the pursuit of material things apply. Paul is a good example of this, he was not ambitious for material things, yet he wrote: “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” - Hebrews 12:1, and he lived it.
What then?
Nothing great happens by chance, if it does it hardly lasts. Actively pursue that which you need or want, be they material or non-material.Thank you for reading.