Ambition of Professional Life:
A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of
his ambitions. —Marcus Aurelius
Ambition
derives from the Latin ambitio, ‘a going around (to solicit
votes)’, and, by extension, ‘a striving for honour, recognition, and
preferment’.
Ambition
can be defined as ‘a striving for some kind of achievement or distinction’. It
involves, first, the desire for attainment, and, second, the motivation and
determination to strive for its accomplishment even in the face of failure and adversity.
Some people achieve for the sake of achievement alone, or for the sake of
developing skills and competencies, but ambitious people qua ambitious people
achieve first and foremost for the sake of the rewards of
achievement, such as money, honour, power, or fame, which elevate them above
other people.
In
the Politics, Aristotle advances that men’s ambition and their
greed are among the most frequent causes of deliberate acts of injustice. In
the Novum Organum (1620), Francis Bacon refines this
thought: as long as ambitious men find the way open for their rising, they are
busy rather than dangerous; but if they are checked, they ‘become secretly
discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye’. Bacon advises
princes to exert restraint in employing ambitious people, and to handle them
‘so as they be still progressive and not retrograde’.
Bacon's
'Of Ambition' is another short essay
on a popular subject. It deals with how to handle professional life's ambition.
To Bacon ambition makes a man active, energetic and prompt in the performance
of his duties. But if an effort is made to put some restraint on an
ambitious men , he is likely to become
spiteful and dangerous. If ambitious men go on getting opportunities for rising
higher and higher, they are busy rather than dangerous. But, if they are
prevented from their desire to grow stronger and stronger, they become secretly
discontented and feel happy when things go wrong with the ruler or with the
people in general. This kind of discontentment in a public servant can prove
very harmful. However , it is often necessary to make use of ambitious men. For
instance, the services of a good commander must be utilised in war no matter
how ambitious he is. The usefulness of such a commander will make up for any
other defects in him. Besides, if a soldier has no ambition to rise higher in
his profession, he will have no incentive to take risks
It
is to be noted that Bacon does not show much regard for what we consider to be
ideal morality. He does not show any scruple in the kind of advice that he
offers to king and governments. He aims at expediency rather than nobility as
regards the course of action that he suggests. He would like a king to resort
any kind of manipulation in order to
maintain his authority and to prevent any ambitious person from becoming too
powerful. This is one of those essays in which Bacon's worldliness appears most
markedly.
