Filed under: Ambition, Images, Opportunity | Tags: Ambition, Images, Opportunity, Tal Yarden
Nick Grillo, as a boy in Italy, dreamed of America and its opportunity, Southington, Connecticut. He saved enough money for boat passage to this country. Today, after 22 years, he is one of the world’s outstanding flori-culturists, developer of the famous “Thornless Rose,” an age-old dream of his craft.
One of 1600 rare color photos from the Great Depression were compiled by the Farm Services Administration from 1939 and 1944. Available here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsac/
Question: Does ambition have to equate with money?
Money toward your project vs. money for you.
Money = the way of keeping track, or you can track with fame, status, etc.
Ego-drive?
Money is a social system – means to an end after you have money it becomes an end. After you have enough money it becomes an end.
Process vs. end
Does the end pull you, or does the intention push you
Enjoying the process seems healthier – keeping traveling vs. landing somewhere
Is ambition a contemporary problem?
Rich people’s children lack ambition – is it based on need?
Making a mark on society
Capitalism needs ambition – it is fueled by ambition – within capitalists system – ambition is equated with money but within other systems ambition is equated with other things.
Even in American capitalist system: Olympians working as waiters – poor but ambitious. Politicians who want power, but know their jobs aren’t going to necessarily bring in the most dollars.
Question: Is your ambition like your parents or unlike your parents?
(Thanks Kim Whitener and Scott Blumenthal for recording these) posted by Tal Yarden
Aspiring not to success but to be inspired and optimistic, failing and going on to the nest thing, “to approach the world with childlike wonder”
“I have the ambition to be like my father and to be exactly the opposite of my mother.” Mother is the negative – she suffered, cancer, rape, suicidal, stuck in a jobe because she needs the insurance.
The person with ambition has the vision for possibility.
Mother is devoid of ambition.
Ambition as part of the immigrant experience – living with a sense of responsibility for my parents’ dreams for me and the opportunities they gave me.
Missionary parents – ambition to serve (in a liberal sense – building hospitals, schools, etc.) In China through the revolution. Dedication to service.
Father’s ambition drove the life of the family. Mother was the helpmeet, though she was a smart and capable woman.
“I am a-religious…but the principle of service has translated and that’s why I am in the arts.” (producing director at HERE!)
Sacrifice – does the reward equal or outweigh the cost in struggle and discomfort?
“Am I ambitious for myself or for my parents?”
Ambition = achievement always ambitious to achieve the next goal.
“When I was a kid I didn’t have any dreams like [being a doctor]”
Particularly American goal, kind of ambition, to have a different ambition from your parents, to break away, to have your own ambition.
Priorities are different from ambitions, they affect ambitions. Obligations too.
“I don’t feel like I have as many ambitions as I use to… I have achieved what I set out to achieve. Now I want more security.”
Cost of ambition.
Does ambition have to be risky? Is that an American notion of ambition? Can it be ambition if the ambition is to be secure and stable?
Stages. How does ambition change through life?
“Striving for something more than the norm, maybe even more than what is achievable…”
“I never think of ambitions as a pejorative term. Maybe over ambitious.”
“My ambitions that are like my parents have to do with relationships, but my work is less like their ambitions.”
Tiny things that have been part of my father’s life, and I’ve been swept up by them.”
Do your brothers and sisters divide a long the like-your-mother / like-you-father camp?
Compromises
Wants to write more fiction, but out of practicality writing grant proposals
Stability, taking care of children and family. Opposed to fulfilling one’s own ambitions?
“I am very much career-oriented and I want my life to be a certain way.”
“the choices, the cost”
“I feel like a lot of who my parents are is middle-of-the-road.”
“they both had artistic ambitions as young people… but then they had children… As a child the supreme goal of life was to be an artist; it wasn’t about making money.”
“I had the karma to be born to my parents, so I have this kind of situation…I am already in a relationship to my parents before I was born.”
No childhood ambition – coming from umbrella of a strong parental influence (pushing for high achievement – large umbrella but not discussing specific possibilities). Not realizing til adulthood that you could have choices aside from your parents specific ambition. Ambition tied to service, about sacrafice.
Habits from parents, work ethic, integrity, but ambition comes from his spirit, something larger than his family. Knowing at a very young age – desire to make his own way – certain obstacles stop it, push it under for sometime but it comes back.
Being pulled toward or pushing to:
- potentiality that one can’t deny
- interior drive as opposed to an external pull.
From a cosmological perspective, can program your children, but there’s another perspective that the parent-child relationship preexists birth (Buddhist perspective)
Very few people take 100% responsibility for their life
- many things are inherited and continue
- can always reinvent oneself in a new way
filters -immigrant experience – religion – cultural difference –all the differences in this country – we all share this kernel of the dream Jewish/Catholic/Polish/Filipino – “follow your dreams” – create one’s own identity
Ambition Think Tank, photo by Carl Skutsch
We had more ideas for conversations than we had time to do -here’s a list of all of our ideas and I have marked the ones that we actually convened – notes are already or will be posted for each session over the next day or so…..
posted by Kristin
When to Let go of Ambition (convened)
Does Ambition expire? How When Why Where?
Ambition for doing the most good (convened)
The ends vs the means
Is your ambition to be most like your parents or most unlike your parents? (convened)
Childhood vs Adult Ambition (convened)
Courage (convened)
Self Destruction
Immigration (convened)
Ceiling?
What is your relationship to Ambition?
Desire
Renown or Stardom
Competition
Winning
Caste
Pride
Luck
True to Yourself?
Does ambition have to equate with money?
Wordspace it Growotski It Shakespeare It
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ambition, Ambition, Events, Kristin Marting
Ambition Think Tank, photo by Carl Skutsch
When do you give up on ambition?
notes by Melanie Joseph and Carl Skutsch
When your goals and ambition are working, you don’t even notice
Let go of ambition if you’re beating your head against the wall
In what / when you achieve goals it’s not just the achievement of goals but it won’t feel any different (??)
Everyone is trying to clarify life’s true path
Ambition is tactical and practical, not visionary. There is a difference between ambition and vision
Success kept coming up in place of ambition
Even Barack Obama must wonder if he’s achieved his ambition and has doubts and fears.
Few people ever achieve their ambition.
Does success achieved = ambition achieved?
Is ambition going beyond success, going beyond happiness? Is that when you give up on ambition?
Does ambition ever stop?
What is the connection between ambition and winning?
What is the difference between ambition alone and ambition among a group of peers and/or competitors? Which is more painful? Having an audience to stare, criticize, or support? Beyond alone to focus, or to torment yourself?
Do you give up on ambition when it becomes too painful for you, your family, or those around you?
Fred questioned whether ambition would usually ever be negative for those around you? The idea that a strong ambition always gave those around you benefits. I was skeptical.
What if you are really good at something, but lack the skills to get there?
Ie – What if you’re a good actor, but lack the aggressiveness to get the roles, get your feet in the door. Or what if you’re a great writer, but are too shy to push your script/novel/work to push in a way that would make it success.
Is fear the opposition of ambition?
Can ambition and family and friends work together? Are they incompatible with each other?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ambition, Ambition, Events, Kristin Marting
Ambition Think Tank photo by Carl Skutsch
Ambition for doing the most good
Suggested by Sally Harris, Notes taken by Kristin Marting
Participants: Sally, Paul, Kristin, Richi, Melanie, Robert, a few other friends whose names I didn’t catch
Salvation Army slogan as the jumping off point:
Salvation Army has the stated goal of doing the most good – is that ok to say or not?
Susan Holman Fndn & St Judes Childrens Hospital most trusted charities – why?
Nonprofits are in competition with each other, but all trying to do best work they can
How does spending and advertising affect public perception of mission
You have a conception of what good is – are there other definitions of good?
Why do you own good vs someone else’s good?
Salvation Army, Literacy campaign, Cancer Society
People often do bad in the name of good
Missionaries going to Africa
Who is the authority on defining these priorities?
Can you force good on someone else? Is your good someone else’s good?
Relative to your own definition of good, are you obliged to be ambitious about achieving it?
Back to “doing the most good”, taking issue with “Most”– hot button word
When the statement is modified to “the most that I can do”, then it feels ok.
Is Ambition good?
Ambition is a positive value – is that true for most Americans?
Not for most of this group – mixed reaction
Is ambition egotistical?
Having ambition is good – goals and setting out to achieve them
Nature of your goal is the key
Free enterprise as an element of ambition —
If you are interested in serving your self that is good
Do the end justify the means?
Ruthlessness in order to achieve a good – is that ok?
Tainted money to solve problems – is that ok?
How the self is served is always in question
Ambition and religion
Koran says if there are people who say they are doing good, be afraid/ suspicious.
Buddha if a person is on the street telling you how to do your best, this is not the one you are seeking or should listen to.
Oprah = “I did not have such ambition – God had a bigger plan for me “
Calvinist = preordained = you are doing how you are doing because God chose that
Puritan = hard work = achieving what you are meant to by god
Is goal oriented living the unquestionable positive way?
Can you be ambitious without competition?
Better to do your best irregardless of others around –
Subjective perception
Self actualization
I expect if I do my best the money will come and the freedom and good things with that
Your best didn’t hatch that time –then explore the next route
Drive = Ambition
Ambition has an end product – it is for something – it is never where you are
Competition and winning
Winner culture – the leader, the savior, the one winner,
Much more facility to do
Cockeyed ambition
Blind Ambition
Individualist characteristic = neurosis of competition and winning
No noble calling = compulsive need
Power and control and how do they relate to ambition
If you’re not succeeding its because you’re not doing enough
American exceptionalism
The most ambitious country at doing good for the most people around the world
Economic machine, military machine
Sense of obligation to take care of those things
Is anyone successful who was not hugely ambitious?
Who is the most ambitious person we know?
Trump, Obama,
Lincoln and Washington were both hugely ambitious
Dr King had vision and was ambitious —-
Was Ghandi ambitious ?
The scope and scale within which Obama is trying to affect change is enormous —
Can you separate Ambition from Capitalism?
In America, it seems like success is dependent on inequity
It means you have more than someone else
Canada vs America
Canada: ambition = too big for your britches =
Violent revolution in America / Canada never fought free until 1972 = how is that different?
Most rugged individualism = laws are geared this way – protect individual over societal needs
Rights Talk book by ??????/ =
tort law affects the way we make the choices we make
Protecting the rights of the individual over the greater community good
American vs Canadian laws
Ownership
How did the homesteaders/ settlers get the land – they took it = their gun,
Ownership promotes responsibiltiies
Tragedy of the commons – the land is abused and taken advantage of
Uganda no one owned land until the British came- tribal wars started after land ownership took place
Texts to look at in relation to Ambition
Macbeth == it is the ambition that destroys you – it is his regret that destroys him – not “ man enough to own up to what he’s done.
The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand = through selfishness, you do the most good –
Crimes & Misdemeanors – Woody Allen —
Tenets of the American Dream
Own a house?
Your children will do better than you
Sense of entitlement
Freedom to do or freedom from
Hard to see the frame in your own culture = easier to see in other cultures
The doxsa = realm of what we take for granted
Opportunity vs freedom
Pursuit of happiness
Does it require ambition to be happy?
Aspire ==== Hope
Individuated = ambition
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ambition, Ambition, Events, Kristin Marting
Ambition Think Tank, photo by Carl Skutsch
Immigration – Notetaker: Clyde Valentine
Ambition desire obsession
destructive
anti-ambition
Immigrant
1st generation
2nd generation
American dream
Tradition – Family-Home
What people want?
Points of contact?
Family
Americanism
That’s why they call it the American Dream – You have to be asleep to believe it.
Ambition
Personal or Universal
Immigrants conflate ambition
Romanticizing of culture…
Food/cook
Transience
What’s left behind?
Ambition : wikipedia definition : Desire for personal achievement
Vidu/Rudi
Core
Time/patterns define the process…
Conception
Money…
American Empire
Feed into the myth and dream..
Ambition = Ladder
Races
Race as Institutionalization
Truth is the myth
Geography deterring sense and place
Personal v. universal
Ambition and its outward expression
Native v. immigrant
Ambition does not equal success
Immigration as a point of failure
Having to move out of necessity
Dancer
Actor
Other
-subculture
-collapse of a dream…
churn
machine
ambition what does it serve?
It’s complicated!
Corporate
Machinations
Perpetuating
Ambitions
Ambition:
Giving up vs. gaining
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ambition, Ambition, Events, Kristin Marting
Tal & others at Ambition Think Tank, photo by Carl Skutsch
Childhood Ambition vs. Adult Ambition
Notetaker : Marc Bovino
do childhood ambitions drive us as adults?
are they at work subconsciously?
do childhood ambitions become adult ambitions because of the influence of the “american dream”?
or does the American Dream take away from our Childhood Ambitions?
how is the endless possibility of childhood honed down to an adult ambition?
Examples:
Tal: Always loved the books with the character Tin Tin, a boy reporter who would go on adventures
Consciously used that fictional character to shape his life
Eventually became a documentary film maker for a while in direct response to Tin Tin
Now sees this same tendency in his son. Son wants to be a superhero.
When do we transfer from wanting to be superheroes to wanting to be lawyers…
clearly some of us never do
Lucy: Began studying chinese in college. Thought it was a new interest.
Father finds a picture of her at age 5 trying to draw Chinese characters.
Cheryl: always wanted to travel/ explore as a child.
fulfilled her childhood ambition completely.
Man #1: Always wanted to be an actor. Parents encouraged him to pursue it.
Pursued it until he became a father. Now pursuing the kind of person
he would like to be for his son to look up to and not necessarily what
career. pursuing the realistic as an adult. pursuing the ideal as a child.
We talked about desire to be a certain way (like a good person etc)
vs.
Desire to be something…. like actor, surgeon, lawyer etc.
as a child you want to be something as an adult you want to be a certain way
We discussed the idea that at 50 you can look back and see that your life path
was actually determined by the decision of a stoned 16 year old.
You can actually pin point the decisions back to a teenager.
How dangerous that can be to allow your teenage self to determine your “adult” life.
Gabby also discussed the difficulty of voicing her childhood ambitions because
in a way she would be betraying her childhood self if she didn’t accomplish those things
the difference between growing up vs. changing who you are.
We talked about at what age people seemed to lose their childhood ambitions and then
readjust those ambitions for their adult life. Everyone seemed to have different reactions to this.
We also discussed the phenomenon of adjusting ambitions as a child to fit in:
Like if getting good grades made you a nerd, then you’d adjust accordingly
Also discussed stating ambitions that you thought you were supposed to have:
ie. 4th grade English essay about who you’d be
and the response was something you didn’t really want
like married, 3 kids, a house, a job by 23.
Yana discussed the image of her as a child trying to pick up all her toys at once
and ultimately dropping them and crying. Ambitious child.
when does the desires of childhood become ambition?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ambition, Ambition, Events, Yana Landowne
Ambition Think Tank photo by Carl Skutsch
Last night we had our first Think Tank. There was an excellent turn out, about 50 people came and discussed in Open Session the topic of Ambition and what was important to them about the subject. It was incredible to have so much participation, so many diverse ideas and perspectives, and such a good time.
We started in a giant circle, introduced the piece and our goals of the evening (to create a dialogue and to get information.) We stated the basic rules of an Open Session discussion. Next people jumped up and wrote topics for discussion on paper that was posted to the wall. We all broke up into subjects we connected to and began to share ideas.
It was amazing how much there was to be said. Over the next week we will be entering notes from these discussions onto the blog.
We learned that this Open Session was a really good format for us to generate a lot of connections and ideas. Thank you to all who attended, please feel free to write about your experiences or subjects you still want to expand on.
Ambition was a rich field to dig into, looking forward to the next one Happiness. (May 4th 7-10)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ambition, Ambition, Yana Landowne, Yana Landowne
“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
How do you find support for your ambition?
posted by Yana
