Some people presume I lack ambition. This doesn’t particularly bother me, since they are mostly people who have made a snap judgement based on the very little information available to them.
Why would they think such a thing? MOSTLY, it’s because I’ve had Funkanatomy up and running for four years now and I haven’t really “expanded” in the traditional sense of how any other business would expand…I’ve gotten lectures about the steps I should take and who I should contact if I REALLY want to get my brand out there, you know, start selling on a larger scale to more people by PEOPLE I HAVE JUST BEEN INTRODUCED TO – Like thanks GUY/GAL, now if you don’t mind, I would really appreciate it if you stopped blocking direct access to the chip and dip RIGHT BEHIND YOU.
I’ve gotten to the point where I sort of don’t really WANT to bother explaining to them that Funkanatomy isn’t about mass sales. It’s about the personal connection I have with each and every customer that shops on the website, that I make every single earring I ship out that the whole point of what I am doing is to provide people with something special that they can say is a rare work of art (ok I’m being a little pompous by calling the earrings I make works of art but they ARE SPECIAL). But I go ahead and explain anyway and 95% of the time, I will get another lecture about how much better it would be if I were to approach some of the bigger brands to stock the stuff I make. This leads me to believe that a lot of the times, people aren’t REALLY listening to what you’re saying. Either that or they measure ambition in money – How successful you are is directly proportional to how much money you’re making.
These repeated NONversations (non conversations) lead me to ponder the actual meaning of ambition.
- Ambition: a strong desire to do or achieve something.
- Ambition: a desire and determination to achieve success.
- Ambitious: having or showing a strong desire and determination to succeed.
- Ambitious: (of a plan or piece of work) intended to satisfy high aspirations and therefore difficult to achieve. (this one isn’t really one which i want to focus on in this blog, but it’s a definition, so I thought I would include it)
Okay, so broadly, ambition = desire to succeed, which to some people might mean the desire to earn pots of money, and that is ok! But when did it become ok to presume anything other than the desire to make money = non ambitious?
Success means different things to different people. Here’s a list I made of possible ambitions:
- Being the CEO of a multinational company and taking home huge bonus’ every year
- quitting smoking
- To make that amazing chocolate cake which has just the right amount of moistness
- making the world a better place by positively impacting other lives
travelling to 100 countries by the age of 30 - travelling within a whole country and knowing it like the tiny town you were born and raised in
- living alone in the forest leaving ZERO carbon footprint
- to be able to afford to send your child to college of their choice
- quitting alcohol for life after being an addict
- putting together an amazing place to live for you and yor loved ones
- raising a kid to be a great human being
- mastering an instrument
- reading all the great classic literary works of all time
- to live a clean life
- to own property
- to keep learning new skills
The list is NEVERENDING.
Where you come from shapes where you want to go. You history as an individual plays a part in the direction you want to work towards. What I’ve learnt from these NONversations is to never assume that someone else’s’ ambition isn’t worthy of being one. Success means different things to different people. One of my favourite saying of all time is “Be kind to everyone one you meet because you never know what battles people are fighting”. Though it might not serve perfectly well in the context I am desperately trying to cram it into, I think you never really know what anyone else is working towards achieving.
