THE POVERTY OF AMBITION
“If
you would get ahead, be a bridge.”
Welsh (on ambition)
Ambition
is not only a highly misunderstood word, it’s also a grossly misused one.
When I first
woke up to this vocabulary, I was all set to step out of my college. I was
still filled with self-doubts… shy, scared and overwhelmed by the feeling of
unworthiness. Simultaneously, there was a dream inside my heart, which was restlessly
struggling to make its way through the mess called my mind. The result? More
self-doubt, more anxiety!
It’s here, on
the streets of Bombay – more than four decades ago - when I found an used copy
of Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’, that I was first given the ‘deeksha’
of ‘Ambition’ … Good, that it came to me when I needed it the most. But, in
retrospect, I say, that it’s even better, that I learnt, right at the outset,
that the deeksha of ambition could lead me to be a worthy human or an
unworthy one. I was just getting into the world with my college education tucked
around my mind. But, I knew, that’s not enough… My mind and heart needed a
different kind of education… They needed to be fired by the ‘loftiness of ambition’…
not by the ‘poverty of ambition’…
I learnt, early,
that having no ambition in life was not akin to ‘Poverty of Ambition’… It’s
absence of ambition. Having self-centered ambition would be the ‘Poverty of
Ambition’… This catalogue was heavily
loaded with personal symbols of success. It’s this kind of ambition, that I wanted to
steer away from…
The ‘Loftiness
of Ambition’, as I understood early in my life, focused on the model: when I empower
others, I empower myself. Personal symbols of success never featured in on this
catalogue!
So, as I
mentioned at the outset, in this Post, ‘Ambition’ is not only a highly
misunderstood word, it’s, also, a highly abused one.
On
13th May, 2009, President Barack Obama was invited to deliver the Commencement
address at Arizona State University. He was 49 and he was the first Black
President in American history. Just four-and-a-half months earlier, when he was
elected to be the President, the world, and America in particular, was facing
the worst recession after the Great Depression… American people wanted a leader
to fire hope, ambition and idealism in their sinking hearts. Obama’s arrival on
the American consciousness was like a fresh breath of air… bringing along the
desperately-needed re-ignition of hope, ambition and idealism…
Here is the Commencement
address Barack Obama had delivered on 13th May, 2009, extempore, for a
stadium packed with students, teachers, alumni, faculty and university
officials. I consider the words of former American President to be golden.
Please listen to him fully… and save the 'hard copy' in the special locker
of your most cherished things…
Through
our ambition alone, we progress in life. However, if alone our progress enables
us to be the ‘bridges’ for our fellow-beings, the ambition provides the ‘loftiness’
to our education. Else, it’s the ‘poverty of ambition’!
GERALD D'CUNHA
Pic.: 1. Zachary DeBottis 2. Oliver Sjostrom
Video: Arizona State University (ASU)
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