Ambition is the desire for personal achievement. It provides the motivation and determination necessary to help give direction to life. Ambitious people seek to be the best at what they choose to do for attainment, power, or superiority. Ambition can also be defined as the object of this desire. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambition

I guess it was always there. From my perspective, I see ambitious people as those who want to get power or superiority. In the work force, it’s those who want to quickly climb the ranks and rise to the top. You can see them. You know who wants the job of the one they’re under. “Gekokujou” (下克上) meaning “to defeat the greater and take his place” – Wakashi Hiyoshi, Hyōtei Gakuen

Why I wouldn’t call myself ambitious is because I didn’t see myself as fitting that description. I don’t want to manage people which tend to be something people often do when they rise up. I was perfectly happy doing my daily work/routine. When I didn’t get promoted, it originally didn’t bother me. I was okay with it for a few days. I didn’t really think about it even. And then, a few days later, a conversation came up where the topic of what would be done in the future was covered. It was at that point that it hit me, and hit me hard. There were all these really interesting projects planned. And as we were going through them, my initial reaction of “oh, this sounds exciting….maybe I can work on this, maybe I can work on that…” turned into “I’m not going to be working on any of this”. Because the new projects were for senior developers, And I wasn’t going to be one.

It was at that point I realized: I did not want to do what I’d been doing for the last 2-3 years any longer. I wanted to be part of all the bigger projects. I felt I was ready. Which led to this post: http://www.warrenshea.com/?p=928

So my ambition is a bit different than what I saw ambition to be, power and superiority. Though the titles and pay are nicer the higher you go, that’s not what drives me. I’m ambitious in terms of knowledge attainment. It seems more passive…which I don’t see ambition as. But I’m driven by learning and working on interesting things. Again, it all comes from what you want…and everyone’s different. I don’t want to be bored in life. And by bored, I don’t mean I want/need to travel, don’t need to see this or go to that. I don’t want to be bored in the things I think about or the things I work on. I’m really driven by doing interesting work. I would much rather code than go have a beer or go clubbing. I’d rather sit and talk to someone about philosophy, sociology, psychology, the WHYs of the world than talk about the WHATs or the WHOs. It’s not normal but that’s who I am.

This post didn’t come out nearly at all how I envisioned. It was originally about being ambitious because I’m highly competitive and motivated by competition. But I didn’t discuss that at all in the above. As I started to write, what I wrote above made more sense than what I originally wanted to write about. I learned something about myself in this post, I like how blogging and writing can do that sometimes. The written work just takes a life of its own and you do something that, despite coming from your own thoughts, surprises you.