Is Too Much Ambition a Bad Thing?

Well of course it is, right?  Surely too much of anything can be bad, and it certainly seems obvious that too much ambition can lead to being a workaholic, having no social life, not making time for one’s family, and other such unpleasant things.  However, if you look at successful entrepreneurs, it would seem that many of them have had their ambition and their work negatively affect aspects of their lives such as the ones I’ve mentioned.

Its not that simple, unfortunately.  You can’t simply say “oh, well clearly I just need to have less ambition.”  Insane amounts of drive and ambition is half of what makes a lot of successful entrepreneurs able to accomplish the things they do, besides having to have a number of other qualities.  The trick is, of course, to find a balance.  This may seem obvious but it is far easier said than done.. I know from personal experience.  I have never had any lack of ambition.  I blame (or thank, depending on the day) my dad for this fact.  Indeed, my bursting desire to ‘do great things always’ has been quite the double edged sword at times.  I want to do everything, and I want to be expert at everything I do.  This isn’t really a conscious decision, its just the way I’ve always been.. I manage to do a pretty decent job at this goal, but it also causes me to bite off more than I can chew all too often.  I’ve become aware of this tendency in myself all the more as I’ve gotten the chance to interact with other high-achieving individuals, and I notice in them a set of common traits which I believe are symptomatic of letting your ambition get the best of you:

• Take on large projects and then after a short time (weeks or a couple months, tops) move on to the next thing and the original project is left to the wayside
• Being extremely difficult to get a hold of
• Being too busy for friends and family
• Regularly falling behind on deadlines and having to pull all-nighters to play catch up

I don’t know about you, but I find people who exhibit one or more of these traits to be extremely frustrating!  The interesting thing is though, that a lot of high-achieving people can do a pretty good job of hiding these things when they work at it.  I say this because I know that for myself, at times when I’ve felt like I’m falling behind and things are getting a bit out of control, most people around me have no clue — they still think I’m producing outstanding work.  I’ve also noticed this in other high-achievers.. one of those “takes one to know one” things.

Regardless of how others perceive me, I still care a lot about my own sanity and stress level!  So how can I still do great things while maintaining a satisfying and low-stress lifestyle?  I don’t need to necessarily cut back on being so ambitious, but its more of a deliberate efficiency thing.  First, I accept that there are a limited number of hours in the day, and try to constantly be on the lookout for my tendency to take on more than I can chew.  Second of all, I prioritize which commitments are truly important, and what level of “success” in each endeavor is acceptable.  This one is especially hard for me, since I feel that I have to do an unbelievably awesome job on everything I do, but frankly, some things just aren’t that important, even if they’re still necessary obligations on some level.  Thirdly, I try to take advantage of certain life-hacking techniques, like GTD and ideas related to it, to be as efficient as possible in my personal task management.  And finally, I make sure that I spend time each week on non-work things that really matter too, like family and playing.  Building a car certainly is a good stress relief.

I feel like this is one of those “well, duh” sort of things.  Its so obvious, and yet it seems that relatively few people manage to be both extremely successful and extremely happy.  Of course, there is plenty of research to show that money has little bearing on happiness, with the exception of extreme poverty perhaps.  Take someone who’s just won the lottery, and someone who just had their arm amputated for medical reasons, and see who is happier six months down the road.  Statistics show that the amputee is far more likely to be “happy” than the lottery winner.. The prevalent theory on why this happens?  Ownership.  A sense of ownership over your current situation is very key to happiness, so I guarantee you that no matter how successful you are, if you feel out of control all the time you probably won’t be leading a very fulfilling life.

Entrepreneurship

I have been interested in creating a company and working for myself as long as I can remember.  In fact, my dad related a story to me recently (which I vaguely remembered after he mentioned it) in which I was twelve years old or so, and informed him one day that I didn’t need to go to college since I was going to be the next Bill Gates.  Apparently I was very matter of fact when I made this statement.. My dad of course had to try and explain why college was important without discouraging me from my lofty (to say the least!) aspirations.  He did a pretty good job I’d say, as I’m nearing completion of my undergrad degree right now and yet I still aim for something similar to what I aimed for a decade ago.

As school draws nearer to completion, I have begun ramping up my entrepreneurial efforts and education.  I now follow several blogs on the matter, attend local events pertaining to startups pretty frequently, and am even working on the early stages of a startup.  I will use this blog to discuss my thoughts/frustrations/comments on my experience as a young entrepreneur.

Technology

I like technology.  A lot.  I built my first computer when I was thirteen and began creating websites, programming, and running unix on both my desktop and server around the same time.  Before my fourteenth birthday I had my own domain, my own cgi-enabled website, hosted on my own server running FreeBSD, my own DNS server, my own IRC server, my own starcraft server even and several other things.  Fast forward almost ten years; I’m completing my degree in computer science at Georgia Tech, I follow a number of tech news blogs and try to play around with as many different new platforms and technologies as possible.  So yes, this blog will discuss “tech” stuff some.

Zen

Last but certainly not least is Zen.  I use this word because the school of Buddhism by this name de-emphasizes theoretical knowledge in favor of direct, experiential realization. It also focuses on attaining enlightenment, which to me means a constant state of higher-than-usual happiness, awareness, and togetherness. I’m constantly on the look out for ways to improve my habits, methods, and attitudes.. I want to achieve great things while maintaining my calmness, my composure, and most importantly my sanity.

Where From Here?

In the past I’ve been fairly inconsistent with maintaining a blog.  I’m pretty busy these days, but for starters I’m going to set a goal of blogging at least twice a week.  That isn’t very much, admittedly, but its a reasonable goal to set for myself in the beginning.  Hopefully I’ll manage to ramp that up a bit over time, but for now that’s what I’ll shoot for.