The Nature of Achievers

 

Ambition, like leadership, is dispersed among people in all walks of life and is realized at different times and circumstances.

• Ambitious people show remarkable persistence, preparation, clarity of purpose, and optimism.
• The strengths of creators, capitalizers, and consolidators vary, as evident in the different stages of ambition at which they flourish.
• They show remarkable persistence, preparation, clarity of purpose, and, most of all, and optimism.
• They overcome roadblocks and obstructions. Ambitious leaders may wish for divine intervention, but, in fact, their timing runs as hot and cold as anyone else's. The difference is in how they dealt with adversity.
• They see every setback simply as temporary and external to their own efforts. They never give in to doubt and say, "This was a mistake, I'm in trouble."
• Nor do they delude themselves about the enormity of the challenges they faced. Rather, they prepare for success with single-minded devotion to their cause.
• They understand the risks they face because they've walked in the marketplace and examined their work and themselves.

 

Describing your vision and articulating the values by which you hope to attain it are crucial for bringing an ambition to life. The first step is to define the end state that you want to create - whether an incredibly efficient distribution system for computers or a society with equal opportunity for all. Once you state your purpose, however, employees, customers, and communities will hold you to them.

 

Ambition in Organizations

 

Organizations tend to be cautious by nature. Large corporations, in particular, develop immunities to innovation, entrepreneurship, and ambition. They train people in the analysis of risk but focus on avoiding the unknown rather than taking prudent chances. They tend to look backward rather than forward. If those who assess risk have no ambition, they will see only the hazards, and never the opportunities. And while any organization can succumb to the tragic flaw of arrogance, large organizations tend to discount a new idea - no matter how great - simply because they believe that it's too small for them. Of course, initially it usually is.

That is why organizations need to cultivate ambition. The only way to create something new and substantial is to have a substantial ambition. General Electric Chairman Jack Welch recognizes that when he gives promising young managers "popcorn stands to run" - a small part of the business in which act out their ambition and to develop as a leader and role model.

 

• Ambition can be developed in an organization, but it must be held first by senior executives in the enterprise.
• And, if the organization is to be more than a collection of ambitious individuals, its leaders must be able to articulate a shared, compelling purpose and must engage others in its pursuit.
• In sharing their dreams, leaders encourage others to dream, and to perform.