Greed and Ambition
“The real reason they are the 1% is because they are willing to do things 99% of people are not.”
So I watched that Netflix movie “Don’t Look Up” this past weekend. I’ll say that its a bit different than I expected from the trailers and part of the movie left a profound impact on me. Maybe that’s a bit corny but its honest. Without spoiling the movie I’ll say the end of the movie was interesting and the entire movie had me asking myself an interesting question:
What is the difference between Greed and Ambition?
I’ll say in many cases they overlap and in others, they are opposed to one another. This is because ambition is personal. Your ambition is personal to you. There may be others depending on your ambition for their own objectives but your ambition is like your emotions. It flows from you and is something you control entirely. Like many things, it is also something that we measure based on personal experiences and what it means to us. Merriam-Webster defines ambition as “A particular goal or aim” or a “desire to be successful powerful or famous.” Not that I have the power to redefine a word for humanity but when I hear ambition I think “the desire for more.” My life is relatively comfortable. I don’t have a food insecurity, I have a roof over my head, I have a car to drive and a way to pay my bills. I could exist at my current level and be comfortable for the rest of my life. Most people could, barring a major incident in their lives. Most of us could keep doing what we’ve been doing for as long as our circumstances allow us to and would not have any concerns about the most basic human needs: Food, Shelter, and Security. For me that comfort is something I’m looking to avoid. I want to see how high up the mountain I can climb. That inner desire to achieve more and to expand beyond my current self is what ambition is. Many of the goals I’m pursuing now weren’t goals earlier in my life. It took my achieving other things to realize that there was something else I could pursue. It’s like scaling a mountain and seeing other summits to climb. You would have seen those mountain tops in the distance if you hadn’t climbed the first peak.
To me, ambition is one of the predecessors to action when attempting to be successful. The first thing is to have a level of belief in yourself or self-esteem to be able to achieve something. Ambition is the desire that is built on the positive self-image that you can achieve more than your current state. Ambition is not different than fire. Fire is not a naturally negative or naturally positive thing. Its alignment is with its user. Fire can cook your food or it can burn your house down, how you use it is your own choice. For those who are driven in the sense that they do not think of the impact their actions can have on the immediate or greater community, ambition can be a concern for the greater community. That also has much to do with the goals their ambition leads them to. The interesting thing about something like ambition is because it’s so personal it is also a giant neon sign that can be revealing of who you are. We’ve all seen movies (and I’ve actually observed it in real life) the classic situation where the good clean wide-eye protagonist is eventually turned cold, menacing, and dark by his own desires. Some of this is related to the nature of the environment your goals exist in and what you’re willing to sacrifice to get them. What you are willing to sacrifice has a lot to do with ambition. For some people sacrificing their personal humanity is worth it. Some are even willing to sacrifice humanity itself to for their own goals. That desire to sacrifice whatever is necessary is typically admired when it comes to personal goals. When it comes to goals that affect the community at large things can get much more dicey.
Merriam-Webster defines greed as “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed.” By this definition practically ever human on the planet has a desire to be greedy. In a place like the United States where we consume much more than our percentage of the global population would show equitable greed is a lifestyle. Greed is packaged and sold to us and celebrated in our culture. From the most popular people in our society, to the media coverage and television shows, to the food we eat, to the health of the average American. We are all greedy. By Merriam-Webster’s definition of greed, a desire to be greater than you currently are is definitely greedy. Again I am not one to redefine words in the English language but I believe true greed is when your desire to consume beyond your needs overrides your desire to see others also consume as it applies to a finite resource. As an example, if a table has 10 burgers and I have 10 friends that want one if I eat 5 burgers because they taste good when I only needed one it means I valued my own pleasure and desire over the hunger of my friends. When you don’t care what happens to anyone in around when pursuing goals that will affect everyone around you that may be greed. One thing I’ve learned getting into some of these rooms is that after you get to a certain level, after you ascend to a certain mountain peak the air of morality starts to get thinner. Getting to that next summit will require you be more morally ambiguous in many ways. It’s not because you have to be evil to be at a certain level, it’s that the people you’re playing the game with and against have fewer restraints psychologically when it comes to winning. This is the classic place where you have to ask yourself if you’re willing to make that final sacrifice to get to your goals.
Selfishness isn’t the same as greedy. I believe achieving any modicum of success REQUIRES some selfishness. You must put yourself first, but that is survival selfishness, not different than putting your mask on first before assisting others. Greed also requires selfishness, just to the point of maliciousness. I’ve had to do some soul searching related to where selfishness, greed, and ambition intersect. I have allowed my ambition to push me to the point of greed before. It has cost me relationships I’ll never get back, and not the type that are easily replaceable either. The thing about ambition and morality is that something is going to be sacrificed if your goal is big enough. You are either going to choose your morals and taper down your ambition or you are going to forgo your morals for that thing you want. Know that for either scenario are probably going to be losing something else, it could be additional business opportunities, money, or even people.
Just make a choice that you are willing to live with and won’t disrupt your peace.