Ambition in Action: I believe in You

“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.” — Mark Twain

Hi Persuader,

My clients and students are at the top of their respective games. I know this, because I work primarily with very high end financial advisors, real estate agents, speakers, sales professionals, and the like, and they did not get to where they are by falling into it or because of luck. They got there because they have goals, they have work ethic, they have the intelligence, they have the education, and they have ambition.

Ambition is a very interesting force. Some people have it, others clearly don’t. What is the difference between the two camps? Is it an internal spark? Self confidence? Is it something you have to be born with or something you can acquire? If you think about some of our more recent presidents and the raw ambition it takes to become president, and then consider their brothers (just as an example — Bill Clinton/Roger Clinton, Jimmy Carter/Billy Carter), then we can sort of see where this isn’t much of an argument for the genetics of ambition.

The true mark of an ambitious person is being able to bounce back after a setback, not getting mired down in the ‘oh, woe is me, I didn’t achieve what I wanted to’, that many people succumb to after not at first succeeding. Real ambition lays in the ‘try, try again’ part.

This pulling yourself up by the bootstraps mindset was so well illustrated by Thomas Jefferson when he said, “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”

So it’s all a matter of — do you want it or don’t you? If you want it, and you don’t have it, what are you doing or not doing that’s preventing you from having it? If you want it, and you don’t have it, that’s enough of a start, it’s a platform from which to make that jump.

Stop one: start with a simple list. I’m a HUGE fan of lists. Make a list of what your goals/ambitions. Get specific. These things don’t come to fruition if they’re vague and unformed in your own mind. Get down to the nitty gritty details. Flesh it all out and read over it every morning when you wake up and every night when you go to bed. This will speak to your sub/other than conscious mind and set it up to help you begin to form solid plans for how to achieve the goals you have in mind.

And if or when you cup up against some adversity, remember that the small defeats are not the end result. The end result is your goal, the small defeats are tiny speed bumps (or flat tires) along the way — both overcome-able and temporary.

My last bit of advice — start now. Do not pass Go!. Get to it.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland