ambition

Ambition is about the echoes you want to leave reverberating in the world around you. It's about finding the place in The Current where your heart, mind, and gut resonate with creation. Ambition is about living life as an art of devotion to the Process and Pattern, making reality more beautiful with your participation than it would be without it.

But while the stereotype of ambition is indeed someone like Elon Musk (or Steve Jobs, before that), I don't think you literally need to aim for Mars to stir the heart of sailors. Nor do I think you need to be as abrasive or demanding, as the stereotype implies. That's the balance we've been trying to find at 37signals since its inception: The visio... See more

Your physical location should match your level of ambition

People love to ask what you do for work and understand your professional trajectory. Often, it’s a surface question. Or, used to quickly categorize people in familiar boxes. But beneath this lies a far more interesting story. 
I don’t think you can truly answer questions about work without exploring ambition and identity. Looking back over the... See more

I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched. I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: T

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Author E.B. White once captured the essence of why. “I wake up in the morning unsure of whether I want to savor the world or save the world,” White said , “This makes it hard to plan the day.”

People who do great work are not necessarily happier than everyone else, but they're happier than they'd be if they didn't. In fact, if you're smart and ambitious, it's dangerous

not

to be productive. People who are smart and ambitious but don't achieve much tend to become bitter.