Motivation and Ambition are the Ingredients of Success

One important thing to ask about Ambition is if being too motivated is inherently wrong or selfish. This question is important because ambition is motivation, which helps business-men create businesses, Writers to write novels, and Creators to create. A common misconception seems to be that Ambition is thought to be a ‘dirty’ word and is often misconstrued as selfishness and blindness to the simple joys in life. A ship leaving its harbour on a trip to nowhere is no different to life without an end goal. “To be ambitious is to achieve first and foremost not for the sake of achievement itself (which is to be high-reaching) but for the sake of distinguishing oneself from others. Were we the last person on earth, it would make little or no sense to be ambitious” (Burton, Neel). And so, A healthy amount of Ambition is beneficial to the future, and this is due to the fact that everyone needs a little ambition in them, ambition has given us a way to travel across the globe, and ambition has given us what was thought to be impossible.

Everyone has a little ambition in them, whether it's to to create great things, or to get a better mark on the next test. Some of the most successful people in modern day either did extremely poor in school, or even dropped out. This didn’t stop them, however. Our world isn't run by valedictorians and straight A students. For every CEO of a major company that graduated with a 4.0 GPA, there are more who did not. What matters in business, and in life, is pursuing goals with a sense of purpose. Having ambition and directing that ambition toward a problem. If a person is not ambitious about doing well in school, that person will not do well in school. School is hard and takes a lot of time and effort. However, that doesn't mean that person isn't ambitious and full of talent. We all choose to apply ourselves differently and to different things and in an ideal world that is how we would be measured. Not by the letters on a piece of paper from our time in school. “I studied everything but never topped… But today the toppers of the best universities are my employees” (Bill Gates). A GPA does not measure a person's emotional intelligence or their leadership ability, and does not particularly measure their problem solving abilities. The ability to predict the needs of society or consumers is also not taken into account either. A GPA does not shed light on the ability of a student to work with others and negotiate conflicts. 

All of these things are important to a student’s success in life and almost none of them are measured by grades. Standardized test scores measure the ability to answer questions and remember information; not much else. Having ambition will always be more important to success than your GPA will ever be. A student could have the highest GPA ever, but without an end goal or a plan to use this “power”, a motivated person with a lower GPA could do more. ambition is more important than talent. 'My ambition far exceeded my talents,' said Johnny Depp's character, George Chung. Ambition can take you places. No one wakes up one day and has everything they've ever wanted. There are endless opportunities out there, you just have to take the initiative. Joan Rivers remained famous for three reasons: abundant talent, hard work, and single-minded determination. 

Although originally longing to act, she was always willing to go where the jobs took her. She authored 12 best-selling books, performed countless stand-up routines, directed a movie, hosted a day time talk show, and sold a line of jewelry and apparel on QVC. When most folks her age had long retired, she had two TV shows on the air, both with her daughter: Fashion Police and Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best? Hard work pays off more than you realize.” You don't necessarily have to be good at something to succeed. Instead, you just have to want to succeed badly enough to make it. Work harder because of it. 

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