Ambition

To some, ambition is seen as a virtue, however to others it's abhorred and aberrant.

What are your thoughts on ambitious people; is it a good or bad trait?

Apologies if this post isn't up to SFA standards, as this is my first one!

 

I don't think I've experienced anyone seeing ambitious people and being abhorred by them purely because they were ambitious. I think it's more when someones ambition to succeed leads to a lack of something else, be it empathy, morality, etc. Ambition itself as a trait I think is necessary in life for success, but as with almost everything, too much of it is a bad thing, often leading to clouded judgement which inhibits success in other areas of your life, such as family, spirituality, etc.

 

I believe ambition is a very great trait to have. I believe the people who see ambition as abhorrent are people who don't have ambition. I'm struggling to see how having ambition could be a bad thing though. I suppose if someone had the ambition to do something but didn't put in the work it could be a negative thing. Like someone who always has huge goals of doing great things but when it comes time to put the rubber on the road they don't do anything about it. Just for fun, I posted the dictionary definition below!

am·bi·tion
amˈbiSH(ə)n/
noun

1. a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.

 

Well part of where ambition has some bad connotations is from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, in which Julius is often described as being ambitious, but it's used in the context of ambition being more of a lust for power, or some form of greed. This isn't just because of Shakespeare either. In Marcus Tullius Cicero's De Officiis in book III section LXXXIII, he says:

(source)

In this case, Cicero has a distaste for the ambitions Julius had. Notice that he's stating that the ambition itself is wrong to hold up morally. Part of my point in showing this example, other than to show an example of ambition being viewed negatively, is to bring up a potential discussion topic: Why do people sometimes abhor ambition?

Addition: the first time I really started considering this question was when my Latin class was translating an excerpt from Cicero (it could have been this one for all I remember).

 

I understand where you're coming from but if you look at the current definition, you can't really justify it to be a bad trait at all.

 

You're looking at it in the wrong way i feel..

 

How so? Elaborate, please.

 

Ambition itself I wouldn't class as negative, the want to be successful in itself isn't a bad thing

If your neglecting other areas to achieve this ambition, then it is that neglect which is negative. Not the ambition

 

From a Buddhist perspective ambition could be seen as very negative. Assuming the agreed upon definition is:

"an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment."
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Desire is the root of earthly attachment and attachment is the root of earthly suffering. Therefore, it could be said that ambition will only lead to suffering. However, this is a highly uncommon way to think about ambition -- or even desire for that matter -- because a majority of global culture and society encourage ambition for things like accruing wealth and status.

 

Ambition is an noun, nothing more. Inherently, it holds no virtues good or bad. It is neither moral or immoral, etc. Any word before or after the word Ambition is an adjective describing Ambition. Think about it, you or someone you know may be ambitious, but what about the terrible people in history? By the given definition, Hitler was ambitious, but was immoral to many us according to the majority of the rest of the world.

I'd also like to point out reasons why people would disagree with people having ambition (assuming the persons initial full intentions are moral). Let's compare two hypothetical situations where person A strives to gather funds to create a homeless shelter and/or provide food/items for them. Person B strives to build a production business from scratch and dreams to start a family and pursues to live life well. Both persons have ambitions to live life as as they see fit.

A decade later, person A builds a shelter and continues to serve the community. Person A does this for the rest of his life. On the same token, person B evolves his company and does well. Person B exceeds his expectations of profit and eventually treats his employees poorly, only concerned about profit as opposed to his employees work environment.

Therefore, it's HOW the individual evolves from said ambition. With this evolution in mind, you add adjectives after the word "Ambitious" when describing person A and person B.
Example: "Person A is ambitious for good reason."
"Person B is ambitious for an unfavorable reason."

 

Ambition is a good thing I reckon.