AMBITION.
Somebody told you to tone it down.
Not in those words.
Just a look when you said what you wanted out loud.
ambition
noun am-ˈbi-shən
An eager desire for honor or advancement. From Old French ambicion and Latin ambitionem, a going around, from ambire, to go around. In Rome, it meant going around to ask for votes.
It entered English in the middle of the fourteenth century, and early on it was always an insult. It was grouped with pride and vainglory. The neutral and positive senses are modern.
So the word started out dirty.
Listed next to pride.
Treated like a character flaw.
But look at what it actually described.
Going around.
Asking for approval.
Needing the crowd to say yes before you could move.
That was never the wanting.
That was the asking.
The want was never the problem. Waiting for permission was.
Most of us got the two confused.
We were taught that wanting more is arrogant.
So we kept it quiet.
We kept going around, hoping somebody would hand us the vote.
Nobody is coming with it.
Not your family. Not your feed. Not the people who knew you before.
Real ambition stops campaigning.
It does not need the room to agree.
It just gets up and does the next thing.
Want it out loud.
Then stop asking.
Rewrite Your History.
Ambition Was Never A Dirty Word
AMBITION.
Somebody told you to tone it down.
Not in those words.
Just a look when you said what you wanted out loud.
ambition
noun am-ˈbi-shən
An eager desire for honor or advancement. From Old French ambicion and Latin ambitionem, a going around, from ambire, to go around. In Rome, it meant going around to ask for votes.
It entered English in the middle of the fourteenth century, and early on it was always an insult. It was grouped with pride and vainglory. The neutral and positive senses are modern.
So the word started out dirty.
Listed next to pride.
Treated like a character flaw.
But look at what it actually described.
Going around.
Asking for approval.
Needing the crowd to say yes before you could move.
That was never the wanting.
That was the asking.
The want was never the problem. Waiting for permission was.
Most of us got the two confused.
We were taught that wanting more is arrogant.
So we kept it quiet.
We kept going around, hoping somebody would hand us the vote.
Nobody is coming with it.
Not your family. Not your feed. Not the people who knew you before.
Real ambition stops campaigning.
It does not need the room to agree.
It just gets up and does the next thing.
Want it out loud.
Then stop asking.
Rewrite Your History.