Strive more to become more:
Become an epic individual, and also drive the human race forward:
Introduction
Something odd when I was reading a lot of Stoic philosophy: ambition was seen as evil or a vice. This confused me, as modern society (American) generally tells us that ambition is good.
I think most modern folks would agree that ambition is good. But then again, there seems to be a lot of unambitious people who are more than content to live average and (mostly boring) existences.
Is there a problem with being unambitious? Is it good to be ambitious?
Certainly there is no right answer, but I will make the claim that ambition is good. This is why:
What does an unambitious life look like?
A comfortable life, with as little pain as possible, as much predictability as possible, with the maximum amount of pleasure in life.
To me, this seems like the most mean, boring, and uninteresting existence.
Why not the opposite? A life with discomfort, a life with the maximal amount of pain (to achieve your life goals), delight in chaos and unpredictability, and a disregard for maximizing pleasure in life. Wouldn’t this life be a lot more fun, interesting, challenging, and worthy of our existences?
Why unambitious people (who have great potential) break my soul
I see so many talented, and great individuals (both young and older) who have insane amounts of potential, yet they seem to have no ambition.
Why? I have no idea, but my theories:
- Nihilism (no matter how hard I try, I won’t be able to make a positive impact in the world)
- Nobody who encouraged or believed in them (I believe that you need to have had at least some encouragement in order to believe in yourself and have self-confidence). In fact, I believe self-confidence is more of a mindset and skill which can be taught.
- Distractions from the media, games, social media, or other nonsense which saps away their power and potential.
It might be a combination of these things, but anyways — for myself, it breaks my soul when I see talent being squandered. I truly believe in the greatness of the individual — that anyone who hustles hard enough, has enough belief in themselves (however foolish), and takes big enough risks can truly become an epic person.
Why become an epic person?
For myself, the simple thing is that life is a trillion times more fun, enjoyable, and you have so much more gratitude for being alive when you attempt to achieve the zenith of your personal greatness, grandeur, and potential.
Furthermore, I love humanity, and I wish to see humanity thrive to the maximum. And I think the only way humanity can continue to evolve and advance is through epic and great individuals.
So in short, a win-win solution for you as an individual, and also for the collective of humanity.
A little megalomania is good
To become a truly great individual, you need to develop yourself to the maximum. And on the road there, you might be called crazy, megalomaniac, insane, delusional, disconnected from reality, etc. This is because lesser minds cannot fathom the concept of a great individual who thinks differently, behaves differently, and acts differently. An individual who rates their own self-importance on an extremely high level. An individual who has great passion, almost to the point of foolishness.
But this is what I believe:
Better to be perceived as an asshole, crazy, and a megalomaniac than be seen as kind, humble, and meek.
Ambition
Perhaps in the past ambition (which literally means, “go around” in Latin) was seen as bad because you would be ass kissing to get people to vote for you. So in the past, ambition was only tied with people in politics — and it seems the unsavory notion of politics is still predominant today.
Anyways, my idea of ambition is the insatiable desire to further yourself, evolve, to become stronger, greater, and more.
Of course when you’re ambitious, you’re always dissatisfied. And perhaps this is a good thing — we can channel our passion of dissatisfaction into a positive stimulus — to drive us to higher heights (“to infinity and beyond”).
Of course this road is going to be more painful, difficult, scary, conflict-ridden, and bloody. But who has ever able to do truly epic and great things in life without these beautiful necessary monsters?
Strive more to become more.
BECOME STRONGER! ERIC