Ambition
Before I could really start to write about ambition, I had to ask myself what ambition really was. What causes people to be ambitious, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of being an ambitious person? At first, I must admit it was fairly difficult to comprehend. But I found it to all come together when I related it to another kind of person or group of people – dreamers.
When I think of ambitious people I think of dreamers. These are the people with hopes of one day conquering and ruling the world single handedly, and having everything work out just the way they want it to. I also feel that an ambitious person is a confident one. And because of this, they feel there is nothing they cannot accomplish. There are they types of people who often set goals so high and glamorous that they often set themselves up for disappointment when things do not work out their way. This, I guess, would qualify to be one of the disadvantages of ambition. But since I am the kind of person who believes that the sky is the limit, and if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything, I choose to stay away from the disadvantages of ambition for the time being.
Evver since I was a little boy, I have always been ambitious. But who wasn’t? Before writing this paper, I did a little research to help me better understand the different forms of ambition, and if it differs between younger and older groups of people. I sat and asked my little brother what he ...
Any goal in life is achieved through ambition, fueled by determination, desire and hard work. Ambition maybe a driving force to success or to a pit of failure, the path chosen by an individual determines the end. Remember that any goal to be fulfilled needs desire, desire that strives to do good or greedy desire that is selfish. Also the actions that contribute to our ‘hard work’ need to be morally and ethically right to enjoy the sweet success. However, when the desire and determination is stronger than conscience, many tend to fail often reach or don’t reach what they strived for, leaving them emotionally or even physically dead. The inner lying consequence of ambition is clearly stated by Napoleon, he quotes “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 principals which direct them”. The undesirable consequence of ambition can be observed in the lives of the protagonists of ‘The Great Gatsby and Macbeth. This describes the direction in which ambition is driven could change the end result, it is simply based on the individual itself rather than the dream they seek to achieve. Therefore, the strong drive of ambition helps the seeker attain their goal but greedy desires and wrong paths taken eventually lead to downfall.
Having just enough ambition is what will drive people to be great and do great. Ambition is what makes us accomplish things without backing down until we get to where we want to be. Beowulf not once ever doubted himself, he did consider that things could happen but he had the upmost confidence that he would
Ambition seems to be in all men, and all men strive to fill their need for it.
In my analysis I will focus on “Hidden Intellectualism” an excerpt from “They Say/I Say.” Gerald Graff argues that schools and colleges are missing opportunities with street smart students. He feels that “…the education life is too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts...” (Graff 1). Graff believes that through his own experiences as a kid, caring only for sports, Graff attempts to persuade fellow professors of his beliefs of missing opportunities in such students. He talks about the real world and how everything portrayed in the media, is not what schools and colleges are looking for. Graff argues that, “Only much later did it dawn on me that the sports world was more compelling than school because it was more intellectual than, school, not less” (Graff 3). Graff feels that his street smarts past has sculpted him has made him who he is now. He eventually argues about the Marilyn Monroe example, agreeing with the other side for a little bit, saying there isn’t much difference.
Ambition is frequently seen as desirable - it provides purpose, motivation to work hard, and a goal to strive towards. Yet it also has a dangerous side, when it becomes too great and out of control. Although ambition is often positive, excess of it can have detrimental effects. This unrestrained ambition is predominant in the tragedy of Macbeth. In this play, Shakespeare employs the use of hallucination, blood, and prophecy motifs to emphasize the theme of ambition, which, when goes unchecked by moral constraints, wreaks destruction upon an individual.
In the article “Ambitions to a Fault” by Robert J. Samuelson and in the article Ambitions: Do you need it so succeed? by Bryan Borzykowski. These articles show and tell us ambition is how Americans decide to base their lives off of pushing them to the limits in success.
People need to think intelligently and set goals that are specific to their needs, making it possible to achieve their goals by making sure they are measurable and realistic and making it possible to build a support system around them; furthermore, they also need to set a deadline with time frames that can be met. Chanika Charles stated that “young people are at risk of being gobbled up by despair, overcome by conditions beyond their control” (A17). To avoid this, people need to start motivating themselves and getting excited about what they want to achieve, making sure their goals are relevant to their needs and being more perseverance when situations become difficult. When setting up their goals, they must ask that magic question: is this relevant to my lifestyle, furthermore, what will I do to achieve it?
Therefore the ambition and desire is both a want and a need, it brings peace and comfort but also invades our decision making to figure out the fastest way to meet our goal, which in effect can harm family, friends, and one’s self without guilt.
Since the beginning of mankind, it has been the need to attain a specific goal, which has driven humans to work hard. Without any ambition, humans would not be inspired to overcome adversities and challenge themselves to become increasingly adaptable. When one is motivated by certain factors in their environment, the probability of them being satisfied with the results of their deeds depends on the moral value of their inspiration. If the individual is aware of the fact that their deed is immoral, then no matter how dire their circumstances which forced them to perform the actions, they will not be content. The irony establishes itself in the fact that those characters who are motivated by a cause bigger than themselves, tend to be happier,
Many individuals find themselves developing ambitions or goals. Some of those individuals will have the determination to try to achieve these goals, which will lead to some failing, and others succeeding. In fact, this may impact other individual’s lives. In the non-fiction novel Into Thin Air, author Jon Krakauer examines both the advantages and disadvantages of ambition, implying that ambition can either be a blessing or become a tragic flaw. Krakauer develops his ideas by utilizing character motivation to explore the negative and positive aspects of ambition on self and others.
...rn day society, illusive ambitions can be incredibly detrimental, just as they are demonstrated to be in Macbeth. Ambitions, if they are untamed, can be an impediment to free will; they can overpower your good conscience, possibly leading you into causing death and destruction. They can also corrupt one’s mental health, while practically morphing that person’s perception of reality into something demonstrably wrong and twisted. Finally, they can boost ones ego to a point where that person is engulfed and imprisoned in the vehemence of their own denial, which can ultimately bear fatal consequences. If one’s hopes and desires are innately destructive, then it logically follows that that one’s ambition is also innately destructive; be wary of one with an immense ambition.
Ambition is a strong desire or drive to succeed or achieve something. It can help a person to strive at getting something they want. If someone wants something badly enough, their ambition will help them not give up until they achieve at getting what they want. But also, if a person has too much ambition, it could make that person do destructive things to get what they want and they will hurt anyone or anything that gets in their way.
One of the hazards of ambition is the way it causes an individual’s self-esteem to drop severely when the wrong kind of ambition is developed. In the excerpt from Elizabeth Hay’s novel, Late Nights on Air, she illustrates this theme when the main character suffers emotional issues related to overriding ambitions. Hay shows how a person, such as Gwen, can become trapped in their own ambitions and lose sight of what they are doing to others and themselves. In my own experience, I understand how ambition can change the life of others physically, socially, and mentally. Ambition has the ability to push people to great heights, but many people do not take time to understand the consequences of it.
One of the greatest debates of all time has been regarding the issue of the freedom of mankind. The one determining factor, for Marx, it that freedom is linked with class conflict. As a historian, Karl Marx traced the history of mankind by the ways in which the economy operated and the role of classes within the economy. For Marx, the biggest question that needed to be answered was “Who owns freedom?” With this in mind, Marx gives us a solution to both the issues of freedom and class conflict in his critique of capitalism and theory of communism, which is the ideal society for Marx. His theory of communism is based on the “ultimate end of human history” because there will be freedom for all humankind. Marx saw communism as the ideal society because it is "the genuine resolution of the conflict between man and man- the true resolution of the strife between existence and essence...between freedom and necessity" that capitalism fosters. Marx was also committed to the notion that theory and action go hand in hand. Marx dismissed earlier thinkers because they (philosophers) "have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." He also stated "Ideas cannot carry out anything at all. In order to carry out ideas men are needed who can exert practical force". However, Marx would have been appalled by the way his theory of communism was misused. It can be said, though, that Marx's theory of communism was clearly open for interpretation because he failed to offer "principles or guidelines of even the most general kind" for how the system of communism was to be fully established. It was this opportunity for interpretation that made Marx's theory of communism doomed for failure when it was used in practice.
Ambition is defined as a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. Some may look at this to as a bad thing or a good thing. Some may say that i moderation it is fine. For example, in Julius Caesar, Brutus kills Caesar for having too much ambition. A tragic fall is considered when the main character lets something less than what they are bring them down. When they let their flaw get to them and drive them towards their own demise. The reason people see this is a bad thing is because it can lead to making the person do bad things that will result in possibly dangerous consequences. The reason why some may think ambition is good is because sometimes it is the only thing motivating someone