Many of us want to be somebody without understanding or knowing how or who we want to be like. We envy others and want to surpass them in achievement without appreciating their peculiar pains and limitations, costs and compromises, sacrifices they offered and sins they committed in their ascent up the ladder. We fight for fame and falter on faith and fidelity and in our quest for office and power, we kill our conscience in killing and kidnapping even our consorts, co-travellers and confidants.
We openly declare before large congregations that God is our refuge and His banner over us is love, yet we stoop very low in certain covens in darkness at odd hours of the night, genuflecting before dead objects and mere mortals who lack our own gifts and grace to seek succour and protection because of our ambition. We seek the face of Allah or the heavenly Father for fortune and forgiveness, yet we follow fools and fortune-tellers with famished faces and frail fingers as our pathfinders to direct us on our ambitions. Because we want to make it so fast and so cheap in our aims and ambitions, we cheapen our God-given authority and trade away our integrity for a morsel of eba, a sheet of kilichi, a plate of edikang ikong, isi-ewu or a slice of bread with a N50 note insert.
We seek perfection in our character and demand decorum from others; yet we engage in the denigration of our human essence. We seek salvation and serenity of our soul from the machinations of the Great Enemy; yet we mortgage our peace of mind by our pride and conceit, and the pains we inflict on others to protect our vested interests or prove our power, place and position. These are the colours of ambition but these are also the limits to attaining the ultimate of ambition, which is…Happiness.
Are we indeed happy? Do we understand or appreciate the true meaning of Happiness? However, between the Stoics and the Epicureans is a vast field of variation on the definition and experience of pleasure/happiness and of adversity. Yet, these two experiences or values underline the motives, intentions and actions of most us. Nobody lives to experience pains and adversity or relish it all, which however is part of the realities of our everyday existence.
We suffer losses and experience disappointments, for many almost daily not even occasionally. Our expectations fail and aspirations are unmet even when we have toiled and labored so hard. We fervently and feverishly pray and offer so much sacrifices and many even are tempted to ask, why are we so cursed. And for many too, life is just so good, so sweet, so smooth that everything they lay hands on just turns gold. They have the Midas touch, without the asking. For them, things are taken for granted. And we expect them to be happy. But we also have the saying that the rich also cry. The doses of predicaments that are invariably contained in our diets of life ultimately measure the extent of our happiness. The fewer the doses, the more likely are we to be happy; the more of them, the more we suffer depression.
So right sir, Ambition is what we all need in life..
View CommentNice write up sir….Ambition should be our soul purpose in life
View Commentwell said sir. Ambition should serve as a drive to man. It’s should be that thing that’s a surge to your positive existence.
View CommentSalaudeen Fatimoh Olorunseyi
Great work sir. Indeed Ambition is a good servant but could be a bad master.
View CommentThis is a great piece sir.
View CommentWhen I was still a kid I used to say to myself “When I grow up I don’t want to be rich. I would just get married, have kids and live a ‘comfortable’life with my family in a small bungalow. “… That used to be my ambition. I didn’t except more from life. My environment limited my expectations from life. It limited my vision,because most people around me lived a life of mediocrity. Everyone’s concern was to wake up, eat, make money and sleep(no true happiness). However, growing up, I changed my environment and got exposed my mentality changed. I started seeing life differently. I began to aim for more. I began to dream big. I saw people’s needs, I discovered what gives me true happiness. I made a decision to make impact before I take my last swig of breath, to leave my footprints in the sands of time.
This is absolutely true, a life without an ambition is like a well without water. It’s better for it to be called a hole than a well. Man needs to be ambitious and also remember to set his mind on his ambition. This is a must read to everyone out there.
View CommentThis is ok
View CommentWell said sir.
View CommentOur ambition is the desire to achieve something or to succeed accompanied with determination and an internal drive.
Then, the gravity of our happiness is not determined by the amount of money stocked in our account but by the fulfilment of our mission and desire.
Nice article sir
View CommentAmbition is a very important aspect of our being successful, without ambition one is likely to remain in an exact position, ambition needs to be fuelled with consistency and intelligence.
Wow!!!This article is one of,if not the best I’ve ever read.Ambition! Ambition!! Ambition!!!What is the purpose of life without ambition?Just like Sean hapton said:”A dream without ambition is like a car without gas……it’s going nowhere.”
View CommentI love this.
Ambition is a factor that defines most of a humans life. From the moment we can understand the word and its concept till the day we leave this world. Everyone wants to leave a mark but alot of people don’t realise that you have to have something that drives you.This is very capitivating and detailed.
View CommentWell penned sir. Life of no ambition will be lived in futility and damaging to the wards coming behind us. What is the essence of life lived unguardedly.
But sir, if the children of Dangotes, Otedolas and the likes develop their own skill and not flamboyantly flaunting their parent’s wealth, their own goal can be achieved. DJ CUPPY, daughter of Otedola is a good example.
View CommentIndeed, ambition can truly be called the essence of purpose …Some ambitions seeming greater than the other but all the same ambition sets a man to pursue goals. But how funny ambitions get limited by circumstances while some get driven. .. You just have to say.. Sometimes Ambition is proportional to situation and circumstances but anyways we all have to go beyond limits to reach our goals.
View Commentthis part really caught my attention.
” any man or woman without ambition aims for nothing, ventures for nothing and so gains nothing. He lives to be exploited by other players in the field of life and consumed by other forces that shape the world. ”
because in the long run, your ambition coupled with self determination will be your driving force to achieve greatness.
View CommentA beautiful piece I must confess. I enjoyed every single part of it. The instances given to enlighten us on the significance of a man’s ambition as well the conceptions surrounding it.
View CommentI believe every man is born with a void – an empty space, a hunger and thirst to satisfy, I believe the pursuit for greatness (man’s ambition) is the link that connects him to this fulfilment.
As it was said in the excerpt : “…ambition is noble when it is for the edification of humanity…” Ambitions differ but irrespective of which one it may be, it’s pertinent we channel it into humanity because that’s well the real fulfilment lies.