The Many Faces of Ambition

I used to be young and ambitious. Now, I guess I’m just ambitious.
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Over the last 25 years, I have had the great fortune to work with hundreds of highly ambitious people across all walks of life and work. From fellow athletes to fellow artists, from community organizers to the marginalized young people we worked with, from startup founders to investors, from ministers to gang members, from teachers to doctors to politicians to parents, I have seen ambition in seemingly infinite forms.

And yet, it dawned on me recently that despite the many topics in leadership I have studied and lived and taught over these 25 years, I have never put much thought to ambition. So, I tried to categorize people throughout my career to see if any patterns might emerge on ambition and where it comes from and to what end.

Through this reflection, I discerned 4 archetypes of ambition that are not mutually exclusive, but the people I have known who I would call ambitious are driven predominantly by one with typically a clear second coming in behind it.
 
Acquisitive
People driven by acquisitive ambition look out into the world and seek to acquire what’s in front of them. They are effectively ambitious consumers of opportunity. They want to win, but they also really want others to acknowledge they won. At work, they may look for the promotion with their contribution or value creation a secondary notion. Their ambition is the position. Their purpose and goal are the external reward. Their ambition can serve them well in highly structured career paths.

Advancing
People driven by advancing ambition are trying to get somewhere and their drive and reward system are deeply rooted within. These are the people who live and work from their values and internal drivers and their work persists whether anyone recognizes them or not. They may be seeking a better life. They may be seeking to create more opportunity than they had. They may just be doing the thing they love. Their ambition can serve them well in creative or entrepreneurial settings where they make their own path.

Altruistic
People driven by altruistic ambition have something deep within that drives them to do right by the world. They are motivated and rewarded by the success of others which ties fundamentally to their sense of self. These are the people who always step up to help, to give, to mobilize, to engage even when they may not be directly affected by a situation or circumstance. They often sacrifice personal benefit for the sense of contributing to the greater good. They tend to give credit for success more than claiming it. Their ambition can serve them well in purpose-driven communities and organizations. 

Associative
People driven by associative ambition want to help others but they also want to be recognized and known for it. They often do good in the world but can come across at the same time as self-promoters. They want to be seen doing good work and seen and associated with people and organizations that do good work. For them, the good deed is made better by the recognition that they were part of it. Their ambition can serve them well in societal and political settings built on social or economic standing and status. 
 
As I mapped out these quadrants, I realized again that we all possess a bit of each of these ambitions. I also recognized that my ambition has changed over time as I have aged, started a family, and changed careers. While my dominant ambition hasn’t changed, the degree to which it drives me has. 

So, what’s your ambition? Can you guess mine?

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