Lately, I've been thinking about
success, and what is means to have ambition but balance that
"don't take yourself too seriously" thing while also doing exactly the opposite and
believing in yourself HARD, so you can accomplish your goals. I looked up the definition of ambition...
am·bi·tion
noun
1. an earnest desire for some type of
achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment: Too much ambition caused him to be disliked by his colleagues.
2. the object, state, or result desired or sought after: The crown was his ambition.
3. desire for work or activity; energy: I awoke feeling tired and utterly lacking in ambition.
verb (used with object)
4. to seek after earnestly; aspire to.
So all those definitions make sense, thank you
dictionary.com but notice the example sentence about some dude who was "disliked" by his colleagues because he had
too much ambition. Ahh jeez, so what you're telling me is, I have to be like the Goldilocks of ambition; don't have too much, or too little but
juuuuust enough. While pondering over my porridge, I decided that
I balance or soften my ambition with my self deprecation…or at least I like to think I do. And that this may be the female way.
See, I've always been a very ambitious person. I grew up in LA, surrounded by lots of ambitious, and as a result,
successful people, including my dad. I observed my dad nurture his career to great success by working hard, having luck and I think, being ambitious. He went to work every day and often worked late because he had so much to do. He would come home after my mom, my sister and I had eaten dinner and I'd sit with him while he ate his plate of food - that always looked way better than my dinner, even though it was the exact same thing I'd eaten hours earlier. Between his bites, and me stealing bites, he'd tell me about his day and I'd tell him about mine. The ever-present knowledge was that he was out in this world called "business" that I only knew about via his one-sided phone conversations, many of which took place in the car. My dad drove me to school for a couple years while I was in first and second grade. He had one of the first car phones that had the big fat cord and nestled in a giant cradle between the seats. On the 30 minute ride to school, we'd sing songs and then he'd get on the phone and yell at people. I was young, so I rarely caught on to the content of the phone calls, but the tone was evident and sticks with me today; it was important, he was important, and the people he talked to listened when he spoke.
I wanted that, I want that, I want to
work and build a career for myself that has some importance. I don't think my business chops were nurtured much by my upbringing. I don't remember being told that I could be a business woman, etc. "You're so creative" is what I was told a lot, which obviously, I live to this day, having created a career for myself where my
creativity is tantamount. But the world of "business" seemed out of reach as I think it does for a lot of females. We're not really taught to be dog eat dog and aggressive. If we raise our voice too much we're labeled a "shrew" ("bitch" in olde English). So like most things in life, we figure out how to manipulate ourselves, maneuver and observe, compliment and giggle, all the while being keen on what we want:
success. Most of us don't choose that straight and narrow path like boys who can just charge up the ladder like they did with their toy fire truck back in the day. Us gals have
swagger and I'd say, the key to disguising your cut-throat ambition is the above mentioned ability to
make fun of yourself…at least that's what I do.
My business is based a lot on humor, it is called
Mr. Kate, after all. I try to infuse humor in most of the posts we do as well as our weekly
YouTube videos, which hopefully make you all laugh. That humor is my guise, my bumper that shadows my ambition. I always remind myself that the people I like and respect most, have the ability to laugh at themselves.
Be the first one to laugh at yourself before others can - take ownership of your flaws through your humor, I think it will boost your ambition. Humor makes the blunderings and falls along the way, not hurt as bad, it helps you bounce back and
continue onward and upward.
I realize I just wrote a really serious post about humor -
shit, I should have interjected some
fart jokes. I guess it's my little secret that I'm sharing with you guys that I'm actually a really serious person. The yin to my yang, the beauty mark to my mustache, is that I'm intensely serious. Most people wouldn't deduce that upon first meeting me. They see my weird, quirky, loud, and funny side, but I have
ambition and goals in business. I want to grow my company and brand and be important.
I want to inspire people to live their most creative, expressive and successful lives! I want to have fun doing it, but I also want to get on my car phone and yell at some people and have them take me seriously…like, for reals.
I'm intrigued to hear about you and your ambitions!
I pose this question to you: What are your ambitions and how are you working towards achieving them? Let's all
learn from each other and reach our goals!
Comment below and share with me and the other readers,
fart jokes and all! Thanks!
