A Brief History of Ambition
Bring Ambition Newsletter - March 28, 2022
Hi folks and welcome aboard new subscribers!
The Bring Ambition Newsletter is like having a personal executive coach in your inbox. Normally we send out 3-5 quick bulletpoints related to professional development, peak performance psychology, meta-learning, productivity, and more. But this week is different - we’ve been hard at work on a brand new article which you can learn about below.
As always, if you enjoy the newsletter please share with a friend.
A Brief History of Ambition
If you’re wondering what happened to last week’s newsletter, I was hard at work finishing my latest article: A Brief History of Ambition.
This is a continuation in our series exploring the concept of ambition — what is is, where it comes from, why it’s so complicated, and what it means for each of us.
Ambition is strangely absent in popular discourse. In our first article on ambition, we explored how the concept is pervasive yet poorly understood, and examined what psychology researchers have to say about it. In this article, we dive into ambition’s chaotic history to explore the genesis of our polarizing, contradictory attitudes around the notion:
We trace ambition’s story back to antiquity, discussing its presence in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and mythology.
We then follow it through the Middle Ages and Renaissance where it is renounced by religious thinkers and used as a negative, hegemonic buzzword.
Then we watch as it is resurrected with the discovery of the New World and the inception of the American Revolution.
We also discuss the important present-day implications of its muddy, mercurial history.
We’ll be back next week with your regular programming, but in the meantime please enjoy A Brief History of Ambition.
“God detesteth ambition” — Geneva Bible, marginal note
"Ambition in a Republic, is a great Virtue, for it is nothing more than a Desire, to Serve the Public, to promote the Happiness of the People, to increase the Wealth, the Grandeur, and Prosperity of the Community. This, Ambition is but another Name for public Virtue, and public Spirit." — John Adams
P.S. — This article required countless hours of research, writing, and editing, so please enjoy, and if you know someone who would find it thought-provoking, please forward it along.
Have a great week!
Jon D'Alessandro