Ambition And Greed

When most people think of the word ambition, they often think of it in a positive light; they do not realize that this personality trait is actually a double-edged sword. Ambition mixed with the right amount of inspiration can often lead to success and power, but ambition is often a difficult hunger to satisfy. One of the most basic aspirations all humans have wanted to achieve is fame and fortune. It has been desired since before the Common Era, and is still being sought by many today. In fact, a study performed in 2012 found that being famous was the most popular goal in a group of children from the ages of 10 to 12; the biggest reasons these children sought fame was because of their vulnerability, the celebrity of the lifestyle, they believe

It is very easy to get caught up in the glamour of success and affluence and lose your way. Some people may over reach their worth self-destruct due to their hunger for ambition. While chasing their dreams, many will do all they can to obtain their goal, including sacrificing what is most important to them. Larry Flynt, an American businessman was once recorded saying “The only question to ask yourself is, how much are you willing to sacrifice to achieve this success?” (Young). Even without knowing it, in order to achieve your dreams, you will have to sacrifice something. It may only seem like one family outing, or one day with your friends, but in the end it adds up until eventually your tunnel-vision could possibly lead to the loss of loved ones. Ambition can not only be harmful to the people around the individual, but also the individual itself. Ambitious people are incredibly difficult to satisfy; many suffer from the need to make everything perfect that they do not realize that it is stunting their personal growth and could possibly cause them deep psychological harm. This will cause them to never believe they are good enough and they will critique themselves harder than any others. Ambition is a never-ending cycle of finding a goal and achieving the goal; once one goal is met, ambitious people try and think of another, more difficult goal to obtain in order to keep busy. They will continue this cycle until they find a goal that they cannot accomplish and that would lead to their downfall. Many people remember Napoleon Bonaparte as a great French military leader, but his ambitions and greed led him to be exiled in the year 1814. After gaining the control on most of Europe, Bonaparte still wanted to add more land to the French territories. Bonaparte marched his troops into Russia in hopes of gaining some territory, but the Russian winter, paired with disease and attacks from the Russians, wiped out the majority