AMBITION PLUS WILL-POWER
ambitious are mistaken. They are, perhaps,
mere day-dreamers. They may be only dis-
contented with their jobs. They may only
crave for more pleasure and less work. To
read about doing glorious deeds and imagine
yourself doing things like that, may cause a
true ambition to be born in the mind, but
wishing and hoping and painting brain-pictures
Is not ambition.
No. Ambition is active, not passive. Ambi-
tion is the process of self-development. It is
a day-by-day matter. It is something you do,
not something you wish.
A rabbit might sit near its hiding-place and
wish to be a lion, but that wouldn’t be ambition.
A young man might muddle unhappily through
his day’s work, and wish to be a millionaire,
but that wouldn’t be ambition. Ambition is
wishing plus will-power and perseverance.
An ambitious man is one who does his job
better to-day than he did yesterday. He 1s a
man who is improving—gaining—climbing—
moving steadily up towards the top. No lazy
man is ever ambitious. He only pretends he is,
to excuse his laziness. Ambition is only another
word for growth. And growth depends on
courage and industry and reading good books
and common sense, and keeping at it.

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