Ambition can lead you into trouble and cause you to do things you’ll come to regret. There’s a better alternative for spurring you on to improve your life and prospects.

Ambition is conventionally thought to be a ‘good thing’ — a strong motivator and spur to getting ahead. But it easily comes off the rails, becoming obsessive and blind to everything but a single goal. It can also tempt you into excessive and unwise risks, as many people are discovering as the financial melt-down continues. Last, and by no means least, ambition is used to justify all kinds of unpleasant and uncivilized behavior, like getting ahead over the damaged lives of others.

That’s why this story in the New York Times about UBS’ public confession of guilt for incurring massive losses in the sub-prime shake-out caught my eye (“UBS Faults Blind Ambition for Subprime Miscues.”)

The opening paragraph pretty much sums it up:

“The Swiss banking giant UBS, which has written off more debt from the subprime crisis than any other bank, conceded in a report on Monday that a blind drive for revenue led it to take more risks than it should have.”

The reality behind the ‘corporate speak’

The report published by UBS is as full of ‘corporate speak’ as anything I have ever read, but these seem to be the key points worth considering in a wider context:

1. Managers were encouraged to go for growth with little attention to risk.
2. There was too little concern with the overall good of the business compared with “. . . the perceived importance, interests and demands of a few individuals . . .” who were also given exceptional autonomy.
3. The “ambitious strategy” suffered because its ideas and direction “. . . apparently were not sufficiently challenged internally.”
4. “Members of the . . . Senior Management apparently did not sufficiently challenge each other in relation to the development of their various businesses.”

Generalizing from this experience

My purpose is not to criticize UBS. Indeed, I think they deserve some kudos for publishing a report that doesn’t reflect well on anyone, especially those near the top. What I suggest is that their situation illustrates well how ambition — the urge to do well and ‘win’ in a sharply competitive world — can become a poor guide to conduct.

What would be better is what this report says UBS management didn’t do: challenge themselves and one another on their actions and assumptions. Instead, you get the impression of a somewhat complacent group, all following their personal ambition wherever it took them — which was into horrendous losses.

The many down-sides of ambition

Ambition tends to see in only two directions — forward or backwards. The reality of this world is that life offers you an endless variety of ways to proceed: some clearly good, some obviously bad, and many uncertain until you try them.

It also assumes bigger is always better. Mae West may have said,” Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!” but it can also prove horrible — wrecking everything good that went before. As many people are finding, the price paid for past profits may be current and future losses on a gargantuan scale. If you challenge yourself instead, without assuming anything about the answer, it’s hard to go wrong, since that answer can always be, “No. I’m just fine as I am.”

More reasons why challenging yourself is better than being ambitious

1. The price of ambition is usually to be driven get greater results, go faster, deliver more of whatever you’re already doing. It’s one-dimensional in a multi-dimensional world, and easily becomes a treadmill that you can’t get off. By challenging yourself instead to answer questions like “Can I do better? Should I do more? Is the outcome worth what it will take me to achieve it?” you open up wider possibilities. The answer to any one of these questions might be “no;” in which case, the next challenge should probably be,”What should I do instead?”
2. Times change. What was once correct may now be unnecessary, silly, or downright dangerous. Just about every disaster that has afflicted mankind could be described by the phrase “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Excessive ambition has little time for thought or questioning whether what you have in mind is really as good an idea as it seems. If you regularly challenging yourself by asking, “Is this really such a good idea as it seems? Is this the right path for me?” you’ll soon know when you’re losing your sense of direction.
3. Challenging your own ideas is essential for creativity or insight. It’s easy to become mentally fat, dumb, and happy. Lots of people seize on a few ideas early in life and stick with them until they die, despite all the changes in the world around them. That would be pardonable if the ideas were so profound and beneficial that they couldn’t easily be bettered; but in many cases they are banal, superficial, or trite. If they challenged them from time to time, or allowed others to do so, they would quickly see why they’re stuck in a rut.
4. People rarely notice how many assumptions they make in coming to a decision. Assumptions are like wallpaper, or that broken handle you’ll get around to repairing one day. After a while, you no longer notice them, though they may be extraordinarily powerful in determining your actions. You need to take your assumptions out from time to time and deliberately challenge them. Read something written by a person you know you don’t agree with. You’ll quickly see all their assumptions. Now ask yourself, “How would they see me? What would they fasten on as my unproven assumptions?” If you don’t test your assumptions again and again, you can easily become way too sure of yourself.
5. Lack of challenge means asking too few questions and accepting too many hand-me-down answers. If you allow others to think for you, you’re little better than a robot. If you always accept what seems to be socially acceptable and widely believed, you’re not much better. It’s not just assumptions and habitual ideas that slow you down and limit your perception; it’s accepting the status quo without question. Think for yourself. Ask as many questions as you can. Keep trying to find alternatives and fresh options. If you don’t come up with anything better than the conventional, you’ll at least have proved to yourself that it may be worth trusting.

The medieval Christian church thought confession was good for the soul. It remains to be seen if it is good for UBS. Still, challenging yourself, then owning up honestly to where you are going wrong, is a vital part of any path to happiness and satisfaction with life. Best of all, if you do it before things get really bad, you can do it in private.

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