Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.


Kissinger’s outsized ambition was equally obvious to those who encountered him on his rise to the top. Fellow students, even his friends, called his determination to succeed “fierce.” An undergraduate roommate said the studied harder than anyone else, working until the early hours of the morning. Words like “drive” and “driven” were common in descriptions of the young scholar. Robert Dallek called Kissinger’s ambition “a ceaseless force.”

Even when he was a mere Harvard graduate student, he was laying the groundwork for later achievement, though his personal goals weren’t entirely clear to him at the time. He may not have known where he was going, but he was determined to get there.


We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.


Among precautions against ambition, it may not be amiss to take one precaution against our own. I must fairly say, I dread our own power and our own ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded. It is ridiculous to say we are not men, and that, as men, we shall never with to aggrandize ourselves in some way grandized? We are already in possession of almost all the commerce of the world. Our empire in India is an awful thing. If we should come to be in a condition not only to have all this ascendant in commerce, but to be absolutely able, without the least control, to hold the commerce of all other nations totally dependent upon our good pleasure, we may say that we shall not abuse this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of power. But every other nation will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which may end in our ruin.


But I reflected that we needed the space program, scientific arguments aside, because a society that does not stretch its horizon will soon shrink them. The argument that we must first solve al our problems on earth before venturing beyond our planet will confine us for eternity; the world will never be without problems; the will become an obsession rather than a challenge unless mankind constantly expands its vision.


Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled.


Trong từ điển của người Việt, người ta vẫn hay dùng những từ như là “mưu sinh”, “kiếm ăn”, “làm ăn” không mấy ai nói đến “sự nghiệp”. Có một “sự nghiệp” để đeo đuổi rồi thì mới co thêm một thứ gọi là “niềm kiêu hãnh”. Kiêu hãnh ở đây có thể hiểu là niềm tự hào về công việc mà mình theo đuổi, người ta tập trung vào cái mà mình theo đuổi, không bị sao nhãng bởi những thứ xung quanh. Khi con người ta không có một cái “sự nghiệp” để theo đuổi thì dễ bị ảnh hưởng bởi đám đông, bởi những cái lặt vặt, luẩn quẩn của cuộc sống. Người ta “tham” bởi vì xung quanh, gia đình, họ hàng, làng xã… ai cũng tham, cái tôi của họ không đủ lớn, niềm kiêu hãnh không có. Người ta luôn nói về đạo đức một cách chung chung, luôn cần noi theo một chuẩn mực nào đó mà quên mất chính mình.


Small dreams work this way: figure out what’s available, then choose your favorite. Important dreams are based on what needs to be done, and then… find your how.


At age 14, Mellon discovered a “dilapidated copy of the autobiography of Dr. Franklin.” The book, he wrote, “delighted me with a wider view of life and inspired me with new ambition — turned my thoughts into new channels.”


As with our autonomy obsession, this extreme valuing of attention is a legacy of the Enlightenment: the flip side of Descartes’s “I think, therefore I am” is that we are what we think about. The problem with this conception of selfhood is that people don’t spend all their time thinking in an organized, deliberate way. Our minds wander, and life is full of meaningless moments. Whole minutes go by during which you listen to Rihanna in your head, or look idly at people’s shoes, or remember high school. Sometimes, your mind is just a random jumble of images, sensations, sounds, recollections; at other times, you can stare out the window and think about nothing. This kind of distracted time contributes little to the project of coherent selfhood, and can even seem to undermine it. Where are you when you play Temple Run? Who are you when you look at cat GIFs? If you are what you think about, then what are you when your thoughts don’t add up to anything? Getting distracted, from this perspective, is like falling asleep. It’s like hitting pause on selfhood.


In high school, we tend to have high hopes and ambitions. Too often, college beats them out of us. People are told that they’re small fish in a big ocean. Refusal to recognize that is a sign of immaturity. Accepting the truth about your world - that it is big and you are just a speck in it - is seen as wise.


Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would not otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man would have dreamed would come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now.”


The idea of the Greek Stoics that all ambition is due to fear of death: if a man wants statue raised to himself, it is because unconsciously he is afraid of dying, but of course he is not likely to realize that.


We have an average of 15 “personal projects” going at once, a mixture of trivial pursuits and magnificent obsessions. We are our personal projects.


Set your ambitions, even if you are uncertain about what they should be. The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power. Status you can lose. You carry character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity. Watch and observer while you move forward. Articulate your experience as clearly and carefully to yourself and others as you possibly can. In this manner, you will learn to proceed more effectively and efficiently towards your goal. And, while you are doing this, do not lie. Especially to yourself.


In Sun’s case, from the day he made minister of agriculture in 2006 he’d focused like a laser on moving up the chain. He’d told Whitney that as long as he didn’t slip up, he was going to end up on the Politburo’s Standing Committee and if he wasn’t going to be president he’d be the premier. He made every move with his eyes on the prize.

The Party alleged that Sun paid for prostitutes and took bribes. But we knew him well. He didn’t lust for money or sex. He lusted after power. Why would he run after women or a few million dollars when he had a nation of 1.4B people potentially in his grasp.

From what Whitney and I had observed, the guys who succumbed to the temptations of corruption were usually about to retire and seeking to feather their nests, not the ones vying to rule the country.


At age 14, Mellon discovered a “dilapidated copy of the autobiography of Dr. Franklin.” The book, he wrote, “delighted me with a wider view of life and inspired me with new ambition — turned my thoughts into new channels.”


I asked how many times that year his golf coach had talked about winning the national championship.

“Not at all,” the boy replied. In fact, the team had felt it did very well just to qualify for the NCAA tournament, where it failed to make the cut. They had a party after the tournament was over.

“That’s the point. You have to look at what you’re aiming for, because that’s going to influence your level of commitment.”