You should live your extreme ambition
Published:
This essay is for very talented and ambitious young people in Germany. But most of it holds regardless of location and age.
You’re a very talented and ambitious person in Germany. You likely are achieving in your work. But you have the diffuse and nagging feeling “I can do a lot more.”
“I am smart.”, you say, “I have energy. There should be a way to achieve way more; shape reality in ways larger than I currently am.” Why aren’t you?
I (Umer) didn’t because I was afraid. Doing something extremely ambitious seemed such an unusual path - where would I even start? My current consulting job was a risk-free way to achieve something good, and to gain money and status. Plus, being a first-generation migrant, I needed the money to support my family. The diffuse feeling of “I can do a lot more” wasn’t strong enough to risk surely good for maybe amazing.
That was the wrong choice.
I now firmly believe you should live your extreme ambition. Let me explain why.
It’s fun
First, going after your full ambition is so much fun. It’s like you know you were meant to play basketball, but everyone plays tennis and so you also do; but now, FINALLY, you play basketball. Oh, the feeling! This is your game. It feels amazing. No more excuses, no more holding back. You can finally go all out.
It’s less risky than you think
The “risk” involved in going after your extreme ambition is near non-existent. There are a few reasons for it.
Yes, statistically, achieving something extremely ambitious is near impossible. The average person will never do it. But you are not the average person. You are you. Don’t get discouraged by low odds. Your specific odds are way better, because you are way more talented.
Even if you fail, you will learn way faster than and meet way more amazing people than your peers. Any future employer will want you more, and you will know of better job opportunities.
And let’s be real, Germany has a strong social safety net. In the extremely unlikely case that everything goes wrong in the worst possible way, you’ll have a safety net that will catch you. You’ll still live better than 80% of people on earth. And how long will it take you to get back on your feet? Likely not long.
So the choice is not between “surely good” and “maybe amazing”, but between “surely good” and “maybe amazing, almost certainly great, with 0% chance of existential risk.”
It’s fullfilling
Living your ambition creates a sense of purpose, making it deeply fulfilling. Why? Because you will work on something only a handful of people on earth could do. Maybe only you. Imagine working on something and knowing you personally are critically important for this to work. Without you, humanity will not have your work’s outcome.
The alternative is knowing if you don’t do the work, another person will just pick it up (as e.g. in consulting).
Which sounds better?
It’s financially rewarding
In capitalism, you get paid to fulfill the needs of real people. Roughly, the money you get = value created x percentage captured x your relative negotiating power among all enablers
. For example, say you and Sarah created $10 of value by giving me coffee (I love coffee!), you got me to pay you $4 for it (40% capture rate), and you and Sarah are equally important for making “Umer gets coffee” happen (50% relative negotiating power). So you get $10 x 40% x 50% = $2
.
When you live your ambition, the value created will be huge (you’re talented and ambitious) and your relative negotiating power will be very high (few people can do the work). So the financial reward will likely also be huge.
It’s about your total life, not the next years
I said living your ambition is less risky than you think. That is true, and answers to how people usually think about risk, namely in terms of a specific project or the next few years. “What’s the risk to venture X failing? What’s the risk this won’t work out in the next 3 years?”. But that is the wrong framing. You should instead think about your life in its entirety. You have 70-80 years left. What kind of life do you want in these 70-80 years? Having a good life (however you personally define it) is your top priority. Therefore you must evaluate risk first and foremost as risk to your vision of a good life.
Of course, life is not plannable in detail. But there will be choices with large effect. To give a personal example: Consulting gave me a feeling of competence, money and status. But not excitement. And excitement is essential to my vision of a good life. So staying in consulting made my good life a lot less likely, and therefore was very risky!
Don’t forget: You are the architect of your life.
- Umer