Ambition...

[fajrdrako]

I'm not sure what I think of this quotation, but it amused me because it made me think of Doctor Who, and when I read it, I heard it in David Tennant's voice.

A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. - Pearl Bailey, 1918 - 1990

Comments

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Pearl Bailey, you were a woman of hidden depths!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I guess so!

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Why did it make me think of Eureka? Nevermind.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't know - why did it make you think of Eureka? Is that about ambition?

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

The ambition, yes. But also the ambition vs the interpersonal relationships.


To be perfectly honest, I think both traits are overrated and too celebrated in this society we live in. But it makes for catchy quotes.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think both traits are overrated

What, ambition and relationships?

I never know what people mean by ambition, especially when it isn't qualified or described. Ambition is only as good or bad as the goal it aims at. Ambition for oneself is selfish, ambition for a cause or a goal depends on what the cause or the goal is.

I like the quotation on your icon. Where did you get it?

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Ambition and "love".

Ambition means - for some reason - to be very driven, very goal-oriented, very "in the race".

The cause or goal, being it oneself or others, doesn't really matter at the end of things. If you're driven, it's usually because you have that personaly, and if you didn't have goal A you'd have to make up goal B.

The quote.. let me check. The icon info says Bronislaw Malinowski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronislaw_Malinowski), it sounds about right.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, I can see being goal-oriented, in the sense that Michelangelo or Beethoven or Shakespeare were goal-oriented, with the creative work being the goal. I'm not sure that is the normal definition of ambition, though.

Malinowki: interesting. Thanks!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Fine. I'm dead twice, then.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Naw, you love lots of things. Conrad, for example. You are more 'alive' (in the Doctor Who sense) than most people.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I just get fed up with the wilful ignorance and petty spite that some people delight in chucking around (more online than in real-life: I see very few people that I know to talk to here in Glasgow); with the hopelessness of my economic situation (2 more job rejections in the past 3 days).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. Not a good week, then. I hope things get better!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Well, loupnoir and albionwood will be over from the US later in the week.

But I also have to see the Careers Service on Thursday again, re: my efforts to dumb my CV down for the employment market..

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

A depressing prospect! The CV I mean, not the visit from American friends.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's dispiriting. I have now to bring "written proof" that I am "actively seeking employment" when I go to sign on every fortnight, otherwise they can stop your benefit. But when I apply for jobs, all I get is rejection. Why can't they just let me get on with my book? The sheer hassle of applying for jobs I know I'm overqualified for, only to be rejected, seems pointless.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've been in that situation, and had the same problem with it that you do. I tried to just write it off as part of the situation - going through the motions on the job-hunting, however sincerely, was the price of getting UIC. Funny thing was, I was being honest, and it felt dishonest, because the writing and studying meant so much more to me.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

It's the fact I had 8-9 years of it before. No-one wants to employ people like me, with an armful of qualifications and publications: why can't the authorities face up to it?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

why can't the authorities face up to it?

Because you are an unusual case. Everybody else fits a familiar pattern: you don't. And the system is set up for 'average', not 'extraordinary'.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

What I find truly risible is that they work on the assumption that you actually want to subsist on £50-odd a week, and need to be threatened and bullied into looking for work. I would be only too happy to have more money coming in, and write in the evenings and weekends, but there simply aren't enough vacancies of the right sort of job, and too many people with more relevant experience going after the generic ones.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It isn't a sensible way to make things work, but no one ever claimed that our world was sensible.