Joost Polman is legal director at law firm Baker McKenzie in Amsterdam and makes no secret of his ambitions: he wants to become a partner. “For me, ambition means being the best version of yourself. And the partnership is, in terms of function at least, the highest possible.”
However, this pursuit of his career should not come at the expense of other priorities in his life. “I am also a father and a friend and a son. I want to be the best version of myself not only at work, but for everyone,” says the 34-year-old lawyer, who works on mergers and acquisitions.
In a society that suffers from performance pressure, ambition has gotten a bad name among some young professionals. After all, in the new way of working, happiness and personal growth come before money and status. That here and there the first openly ‘ambitious’ people come out of the closetis a further sign that they are in tune with the spirit of the times.
It raises the question of whether there is such a thing as a healthy ambition, in which striving for the highest achievable can go hand in hand with personal well-being.
“Ambition has two faces,” says philosopher Joep Dohmen, emeritus professor of ethics at the University of Humanistic Studies. “On the one hand, ambition refers to healthy ambition, commitment or enthusiasm. On the other hand, ambition can be an unhealthy ambition – what the Swiss-French philosopher Rousseau called ‘a desire for undeserved fame’.”
Dohmen sees this ambiguity in contemporary views on ambition. “People who show ambition command respect in our society. At the same time, we reject people who are more ambitious than we consider proper or appropriate.”
According to Dohmen, a healthy ambition depends on what exactly we are ambitious for. “Everyone wants to make something of their life. Do you do that by striving for fame, status and wealth? Or by becoming good at a profession, for example, or serving a social interest?”
Change
According to Auke Bijnsdorp, managing partner at headhunting agency Top of Minds, a younger generation is no less ambitious, but less willing to make sacrifices for a classic career path – positions at large, established companies, “where you move up by working between 8 a.m. to achieve the best turnover figures in the morning and 8 o’clock in the evening.”
Bijnsdorp: “In jobs with social relevance, on the other hand, the same candidates are prepared to run very fast.” According to the recruiter, whose agency recruits managers below the administrative top level, a change has begun on this front.
Healthy ambition goes hand in hand with meaning in your work, says Dutch professor Karin Sanders of the University of New South Wales, where she teaches human resources management and organizational psychology. She conducted research into, among other things, the effect of personnel policy on employee behavior. A meaningless ambition – to simply earn more money or get promoted every year – is a one-way ticket to burnout, according to the professor.
At the same time, says Sanders, it is much more unhealthy to be without ambition than to be ambitious: “Ambition prevents you from getting stuck in a job, it gives you the learning opportunities to move forward. Without ambition you leave your life and career to chance. That makes a person insecure.”
By setting goals together with your employer and periodically reflecting on them, you will find out whether your ambitions are healthy or not, says Sanders. “If that promotion is so important to you in five years’ time that you are in a bad mood every day and no longer see your friends and family, then ambition is very unhealthy.”
Live to work
For photographer Jagoda Lasota (34), work is her life and vice versa. In fact, ambition is her ‘pest’, she says. The Polish freelancer, who has her home base in Amsterdam, sees ambition as the driving force behind her work performance. But the satisfaction that comes from it turns out to be fleeting. Deep down, Lasota knows that no milestone will give her the satisfaction she seeks. “I find it difficult to say to myself: I am good enough.”
When the photographer recently received a prestigious assignment from a foreign newspaper, she was happy for half a day. Then her feelings changed. “I quickly change the inner narrative: this is not permanent, it is only one assignment.”
A dent in self-confidence
It is important to ask yourself why you are ambitious in your work, says Professor Maarten Vansteenkiste (Ghent University), who specializes in motivation as a psychologist. “Is it because you find a task interesting and challenging and want to perform it better and better? Or because you want to be better than the other person, for example?”
Confirmation by third parties and other external stimuli strengthen the feeling of being competent, a basic human need. But anyone who allows the standards of success to be determined entirely by the outside world makes themselves vulnerable, says the professor. “We connect the ego with the results we achieve. If we don’t achieve it, self-confidence will be dented.”
The question of what exactly ambition is and how it is expressed is not easy to answer, according to Vansteenkiste. “How ambitious someone is varies greatly from person to person and depends on the environment in which you grow up. How performance-oriented were your parents, for example?”
A leading American research from 2012 defines ambition as a “consistent, general pursuit of success, achievement and achievement,” which is highly dependent on a person’s personality and socio-economic background. The study, which used data from 717 people and covered a period of seven decades, showed how ambition can come at the expense of personal well-being. It turned out that those who are ambitious in their work achieve more, but are not necessarily happier or healthier.
On the other hand, those who cherish ambition for the right reasons will certainly benefit from it, various other studies showed. When the motivation behind ambition rests on inner pillars – a desire to grow, gain new knowledge and collaborate with others – well-being benefits. A focus on societal incentives – wealth, status and the recognition of third parties – has the opposite effect.
Not a goal in itself
For lawyer Polman, becoming a partner is not a goal in itself. “I get a lot of pleasure from the content. I enjoy thinking about complex issues, but also working with other motivated people in a team. I think I could do all that even better as a partner. But I don’t focus on that title.”
The path to partnership could easily take fifteen years. Working weeks of sixty to seventy hours are not unusual in Polman’s work. After all, clients pay high hourly rates for fast service, he explains. The parties involved would like to complete an acquisition or sale quickly. There are also quieter periods, but as a mergers & acquisitions lawyer, who has several projects running at the same time will often feel the pressure.
According to Bijnsdorp of Top of Minds, the most successful people enjoy the work they do. They take for granted the sacrifices they have to make for their ambitions. The context is also important for healthy ambition: “If you are in an environment in which your goals are not achievable, that is by definition unhealthy. It leads to frustration. In most organizations, it is not the most ambitious people who are the first to achieve their goals, but the people who have the right ambition and are reinforced by their environment.”
Demanding parents
According to photographer Lasota, her ambition comes from her upbringing. Her parents and teachers were demanding, she remembers. “If I left school with an 8, the question was why I didn’t get a 10. If I took part in a local sports competition, they asked why I didn’t play at a national level. And so on.”
After detours into biotechnology and as a graphic designer, Lasota now has the profession she always wanted. “If someone had told me ten years ago that I would now be working as a photographer in Amsterdam, I would have died of happiness! But I am unable to enjoy what I do. Ambition is one for me killer.”
Anyone who wants to be healthily ambitious would do well to concentrate on the effort required by the work and less on the end result, says psychologist Vansteenkiste of Ghent University: “Think of a football team that focuses on system, technique and tactics. The result, winning the match, follows as a side effect of the process.” The alternative, obsessing over the end goal or the competition, leads to tension and underperformance, he adds.
Moreover, ambitious people who link their ambition to new milestones will never feel satisfied. Vansteenkiste: “A more stable source of satisfaction is the answer to the question of whether you do something meaningful, for example by helping others. In this way, your work is also of value regardless of the immediate results.”
Philosopher Dohmen advises: “Focus on things that are worthwhile and strive for quality. If you are then praised for that, that is just a bonus.”
The ambitious photographer Lasota does not lack inner motivation. “There is nothing more satisfying for me than working with images. I get to know new people and develop as a person. And as cliché as it sounds, photography helps me understand the world.”
In her studio, Lasota regularly captures people she has never met before. She makes contact with her subjects and tries to capture them as naturally as possible. “Then I stop thinking about all my goals, about the future. I only care about the person sitting in front of my lens.” Here her ‘teasing spirit’ lays low, if only for a moment.
Enough for today
For lawyer Polman, it is an almost daily search for the right balance between work and private life. Polman notices that his ambitions – and the fact that he expresses them – are appreciated within the office. And there is room for flexibility if Polman wants to make time for his family.
“I manage quite well to be at home during rush hour, when the children come from daycare, eat and go to bed between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM. But after that I regularly go back to my laptop.”
When Polman is very busy at work, he often calls on his partner, who works as a psychologist. “She is no less ambitious than I am. But her working hours are more predictable. I’m lucky with that.” However, Polman knows that he cannot rely on her indefinitely. “More often than before, when I didn’t have children yet, I say in the evening: it’s enough for today.”