Ambition

Ambition

"A strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work"
"Desire and determination to achieve success"

I look around the world today and see an enormous working class and think to myself, do I want to do that? Do I want to do the exact same thing every single day, and for what? This thread is going to be a bit of a motivational speech sort of thing and an essay on my thoughts of the world. To start off I am going to talk first about a life changed experience I had. I played an online game and met this cool guy who taught me a lot about metaphysics and spiritual things and he told me he thought I was super smart and am really going to do something great in life. Along with this friend, my family has done this too. My family makes little jokes about how when I'm older I will be a big leader, or own a huge company, and my brother will be my dish washer, or executive washroom cleaner. There really was no reason for my family and that friend to say such thing, my school grades aren't awesome, mid 80's, there are kids way smarter than me. My friend told me there is just something about me, and that I have a lot of ambition and he just somehow knew I was going to do something great. I happened to run into this friend in this game at the same time that I was what I believe to be abducted by aliens, and I thought that I was being genetically engineered to be smarter, and be a great leader (and I still believe this) so it all clicked to me that this was all happening for a reason. I also happened to randomly gain an interest in great leaders such as Alexander the Great, and I studied what he did and learned so much about him, and his quotes "There is nothing impossible to him who will try." and "There are an infinite number of worlds out in the stars, and I can't even rule one!." Alexander's quotes are great examples of ambition.

Now I suppose I will talk about the lack of ambition in our society and my criticism on it. I go to school every day at an academic school and hear people say such things as "I can't wait to finish high school, I hate learning I just want to go learn a trade and get a job" or "Man I am totally not going to university, too much work I'm just gonna go get a job." It is thoughts like these that clearly show how pathetic people are. Everyone thinks it is an absolute necessity to get a job to earn your money. When people ask me what I "want to be when [I'm] older" I just tell them I don't know because I don't want to have a job. Having a job basically implies that you are working for someone else, them making money off your work. The working class is so huge, and all the members of the working class just do the exact same thing over and over. Go to work, do your job, come home, eat supper, watch TV, sleep. What is the point? To provide for the prosperous, to make the prosperous prosper more. So what I am getting at is that people need to be more ambitious and strive to be part of the "prosperous" / upper class. For example I hope that when I am older I will be some sort of leader, I hope to be the ruler of the world actually, and when I say this to people they will either say "Oh don't be stupid, so seriously what job do you want when you're older?" or "Yeah you are smart I am sure you could do it." Again, here we go with people thinking there is some job you are given, and you just do that forever until you die. This sort of relates to a thread I made a while back, I asked the meaning of life. So for most people it seems right now that the meaning of their lives is just to work, sleep, work, sleep on and on and on. What is the point, I ask again? What do they gain out of working, and working, until they die? Nothing. I observe this so much that I sometimes question reality, I often ask myself if maybe the world is just a test for me, and my goal is to rule the world and everyone else is just here to aid me in this.

So now I want your opinions on ambition. It seems to me that it is really lacking in our world, and people need to realize what I have, and make some changes.

reply to post by typwar


The thing that you have to discover is that reality is so much more complex than you see on the surface.

Of course your life's path is important, pivotal even, for the whole of humanity.

So is everyone else's, there are no bit part players in reality unless they poison their chances with destructive, selfish or self defeating ideas.

You also realise some will call you a megalomaniac too. Don't worry about them, these are usually the ones who choose oblivion.

thats just ur ego talking buddy, its trying to convince itself its more than just a mental abstraction of nothingness, in reality ur no better or worse than any other false form that spawned by manifesting as a result of nothingness wanting to organize itself so it could experience desire

reply to post by typwar


well it seems you have slight delusions of grandeur, but thats ok,its good to be ambitious and hopeful at such a young age,highschool im guessing,and there isnt alot of kids interested in education,and ur right,whats the point of work like u said,well when you get older everything is work,its what work you chose to do is what counts,u wanna go for something that you enjoy,its very tough to do these days most of us have to settle for a mcjob or any of the various crap service positions that are being monopolized by illegals,making it even harder for real americans, and what ive noticed as well,i went to culinary school for instance,as well as audio pro, but still havent gotten into the career of it yet no matter how ambitious i am,its very tough,what i soon realized that what a producer told me back in highschool is true, its not what you know its who you know, so get friendly and get to know as many people as you can otherwise your university certificate aint worth the paper its printed on

Young man. I am an old man. I recall these thoughts in myself very well. There was a movie back in my day that spoke to this issue. The inner debate between ambition and just going along. It was made in the 1960's in New York City. Filmed in black and white.

It may just be to culturally out of date for you but I will recommend it anyway. It is not the kind of movie to watch haphazardly. It is a character study where the main character is kind of an odd ball who must face these serious questions within himself.

It is called "A Thousand Clowns" and to this day it remains on my top ten list.

I too am old. Funny though, I have always more impressed by people who were not ambitious than I was ambitious ones. That's not to say that they were necessarily sheep, but there was always something cold and often even sinister about ambitious people. They were happy to do, for me, unconscionable things to get what they want. "The meek shall inherit the earth" is something that has always had a ring of truth for me.

Perhaps what you would like to get across is more that we shouldn't take a passive approach to our lives? We can be very active but still not become wealthy or famous. What we will be is content. We will be happy. Isn't that what we all really want and need?

As an answer to you from those of us in the Working Class.

We work to eat, to provide for our loved ones, and to survive.
We LIVE through our connections with each other, and the validation we find in those connections.

Surprisingly, we aren't all that interested in being leaders of the world.
We merely strive to be fulfilled in who we are, and the people we are with, everyday.

It's called a community.

You want to be a great leader of the world? Be our guest.
We'll catch up with you at the end of your lifes journey - at the same place we are all headed.

Sincerely,
The faceless masses of industry.

reply to post by CosmicEgg


That is sort of what I was getting at, and for me that is achieved through achieving things because I am an ambitious person.

Everyone has ambitions, however, many people choose ambitions that are selfish or vain. Most people are consumed with thier own "personality" above all else, I don't know exactly why, but it has something to do with the state of our soceity and our lack of spiritual understanding.

reply to post by typwar

Alexander the Great a fine example of humanity.
How many did he kill?

Dude, look at the greats. Matter of fact, study the greats and what they've been through. From the religious leaders, to the politicians to the musicians. They all felt the same way when they were young. They had ambitious dreams, people telling them that one day they'll be important and so on.
But what they all had to do is fight the system.
I take that back. They used the system to their advantage. They worked regular jobs, went to college,traveled alone and struggled for years. But they took advantage somehow. They met people, told their peers about their ideas, impressed and over powered their superiors. They had to put their egos aside prove themselves and climb up the ranks.

Ofcourse your family and friends is going to tell you those types of things. Your probably a very bright kid, so when you speak or bring up certain topics people usually dont talk about theyre going to see something great in you. Im always talking about metaphysics and philosophy and music with everyone I know and they all tell me they see something great in me. But it doesnt mean anything if your just all talk and no action. You gotta put yourself out there kid. Epiphany's get old after awhile

It takes a much greater man to sustain his living without companionship and recognition than it does to rise to the top of the social food chain and be hailed as a false role model.

Sure, some people have no idea what they want to do after school, but some are set on not continuing education...that's their choice. Maybe they just see ambition for what it is: Sort of like peering out into the universe and realizing it only gets bigger and bigger, and at no point will you ever be satisfied for what you've done in the past, more so then you are now.

Ambition and creating opportunities are a great aiming point for the "now", just don't expect to hit every target. Could you survive longer then two weeks in the wild? If the answer is no, then your "ambitious nature" is about is about as useful as 99% of people's in today's society.

Ambition you say? I will agree with the first definition you gave, "A strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work".

But this one, "Desire and determination to achieve success", I disagree with. "Success" is merely a concept created by the society you grew up in. There is no "success" out in the world. It doesn't exist. If you live you're life trying to be successful, god have mercy on you. I feel sorry for those that are chasing success.

You believe there is a lack of ambition in society. I don't agree or disagree with you here. How would you or I know if there is or isn't enough ambition? We don't. Only in your "ideal" in your mind there isn't enough ambition.

My advice to you is find whatever you love to do and do it. Don't worry about success. Don't worry about what everyone else is or isn't doing. Worry about YOU.

Ask yourself, what do I want to do? What do I love to do? Not what Alexander loved to do or any of the greats.

I hope one day you may quiet the background noise in your mind and find the song that springs forth from within.