I don't disagree, except that you've taken ambitious to mean climbing the corporate ladder, which is a relatively narrow reading.
It can also mean wanting a achieve a large dream or goal e.g. writing a book.
It can also mean wanting a achieve a large dream or goal e.g. writing a book.
I was in the Summer 2016 batch. Ten years out feels like long enough for some reflections on lives well-lived. There were people in my batch who were ambitious, not in climbing someone else's corporate ladder but in building their own massive/successful/wealthy company.
For those who separated it from what they were passionate about—and here I mean the impact, not "passionate about building a big business”—there have been more than a few crash outs. Existential crises, Extremely Online Syndrome, pulled into a world where what VCs say or competition with press releases on Tech Crunch define their self-worth.
These people are generally not happy. Some are! But many are not.
The founders who worked on things that they care about—with technology or company-building as a _means_ to achieving some greater end—are doing much better. They might or might not still be at their start-ups. Many have gone on to work at other impactful companies or organizations. They seem much more content with life and their contributions to the world.
That's the type of ambition that is healthy _and_ meaningful _and_ lasting. It's not that these people aren't ambitious—they very much are! But it's not "big company good". It's "big positive impact good."
I couldn’t care less about the external validation part of it or my job title.
Maybe you could argue that’s a lightweight version of “approval of others”
But I guess the reward is not the money but the expertise and signal.
https://martin.kleppmann.com/2020/09/29/is-book-writing-wort...
And who is being able to say you were someone who finished a book for? You? Or is it for someone else?