The Cost of Ambition

Saw this on LinkedIn.

It’s hard to put a price tag on it, but let’s put some data behind the Cost of Ambition anyway.

I worked a corporate 9 to 5 job for 15 years and I rarely just worked 40 hours a week. And for a significant % of the time I worked on things that didn’t always interest of challenge me.

Now I work 24/7 but it is very unstructured. And I am almost always working on things that are both interesting and challenging.

I no longer dread waking up. In fact I am generally full of energy right out of bed.

Before I couldn’t always take time off when I wanted to because it was someone else’s choice. Now It’s always my choice when to take time off.

More time to do what I want to do… cost benefit is a plus.

I have a combined 20,000+ connections on Linked, Facebook and Twitter. I have many, many friends. But I only spend significant time with a handful of them.

Big network, cost is a plus again.

I do indeed spend more time explaining myself then I used to. Being an analyst for Wells Fargo kind of speaks for itself. Being a entrepreneur who set up a business in the Philippines to empower people to use more data and analytics take a few more words to explain.

Often many more words. That’s a cost benefit as well. I can make more money because I can do more things.

As I evolve as a businessman and a professional analytics champion, I do spend more time alone.

The air is definitely thinner on top where the higher you go, the fewer you really relate too.

That might be perceived as a negative cost to many, but to me I’ll add it as plus too.

It takes a certain kind of person to do what I have done. I’ve been told I have moxie. That I am bold. I do not fear much and I enjoy jumping into the deep end of the pool.

As my acquaintances grow, so does my competition.

It is important to look for collaborators while at the same time get used to being burned by failed partnership.

There is definitely a negative cost financially, but I learned a lot of good lessons. So this cost is wash.

I do sometimes feel alone. But more often than not I’m too busy to notice.

Ambition does indeed have its costs. More of somethings, less of others.

But when I add up what my choices have cost me, they pale in comparison to what my choices have brought me.

Success, satisfaction and knowing that if I die tomorrow, I truly did make the world a better place.

And that is priceless.

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