[A]mbition feels like a hollow word to me. It’s sort of one-directional and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get from this point to that point, whatever it costs. I know that’s not how everybody views ambition but I feel like it’s one of those words that needs a companion, like heart, and soul. And then if you put those three together– ambition, heart, and soul– then you have purpose. And I think I have purpose.— Lori Barra
I’m a word nerd. I love finding the perfect word to articulate the thing I’m trying to convey. And the word that feels perfect to describe what I’ve been doing with ambition these days is that I’ve been worrying at it. Chewing on it, maybe. I’ve been carrying it around everywhere with me— wearing it down, pulling it slowly apart, trying to get to the marrow of it.
I think that’s why I love the above quote from photographer and philanthropist Lori Barra, because it gets at something at the heart of ambition for me. The more I worry at it, the more I agree with her. Ambition is a word that needs a companion, or a qualifier. A thing that puts it into the context of the life of the person pursuing it.
By itself, ambition is just an action, like running. If someone’s running I want to know where to, or from whom. The girl is running is partial. It doesn’t tell me everything I need to know.
We allow ourselves this partial use of ambition because we presume what we mean when we enlist it. It must mean the person we’re describing wants to be public, famous, better than anyone else, and definitely rich. That is capitalist ambition. It’s status ambition, and it’s public ambition.
But that’s not the only way to do ambition, and if we assume it is then we discount our own good work in the world, the particular, potent, and unique gifts we bring.