Is there a place for an ordinary person with ordinary ambitions in this extremely competitive world?

So many people walk around with a meaningless life.They seem half-asleep,even when they are doing things they think are Important.This is because they are chasing wrong things.The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself  to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning(Morrie Schwartz to Mitch Albom in tuesdays with Morrie)

This thought has been there at  the back of my mind  for quite some time now.This is the result of my association with corporates,business schools, training & development institutions and also the books I laid my hands on including self-help books, autobiographies of successful people and corporate stories.Most of them talk about  becoming extra-ordinary achievers by single-mindedly pursuing extra-ordinary, jumbo ambitions.All of them try to teach you how to go one up on others in achieving your highly ambitious goals.And such jumbo ambitions continue to be nurtured by  many of the individuals  even after they have acquired whatever they wanted from their professional and personal life and even after retirement from active service.Most find it difficult to rein in their  ever-increasing ambitions-higher pay packets, better or best luxury vehicles, palace like houses, increasing investments in real estate and stock markets, better vacations and tourist spots, membership in elite clubs, sending children to Ivy league schools and institutions for education, acquisition of private yachts/jets- there is no end to it.And most of the personality development programmes for executives force  them to set  sky-high ambitions and pursue them aggressively .They also mention that even if you don’t reach sky, you will have moved far away from the earth(current level) to somewhere closer to sky and that is definitely a cause for celebration.

My intention is not to propagate a pessimistic view of ambitions.One has to be ambitious.But why have ambitions that are usually beyond one’s capacity or capabilities?Why corporate chiefs, institutional heads or leadership trainers talk about stratospheric ambitions? I still remember attending a talk by a person connected to Amway in their  MLM chain.(I attended because I was told by the person who organized it that it was about interactive marketing).The whole talk was about kindling the softer side of life’s ambitions  from a sky-high plane:Wouldn’t you like to  own a mansion, the best in  the best place in your locality? Wouldn’t you like to drive a Ferrari?Wouldn’t you like to have great vacations in exotic locations like Alps in Switzerland or   Maldives  when you want to? And a number of participants, who were moved by the possibility of realizing such extra-ordinary ambitions, immediately enrolled by paying on the spot.Of course, the speaker also mentioned about the need to apply ‘stretch’ principles to your life ( already popularized by GE and its former CEO,Jack Welch).

And what happens once you start achieving your ambitions?You usually set a higher  ambition(not necessarily a higher order one) as a target.You may still achieve it.Then you again raise the bar of ambitions.You will be tempted to believe that you can achieve whatever ambitions you set for yourself.But, at some point, the bar cannot be surmounted.Or in some people’s cases,their capabilities or competencies and even stretch efforts don’t enable them to realize their high ambitions.In both cases, people in their anxiety to prove that they are capable of realizing their ambitions, and also understand that  no more stretching is possible or can work,start using short cuts  to maintain their rates of achievements of ambitions.Their comparisons with peers start foundering and they start feeling uncomfortable.And here, usually the problems start- both on professional and personal front.

It is in this context the worth of ordinary people having ordinary ambitions  and leading ordinary lives come to the fore.They are sans the stratospheric ambitions but ones that are more down to earth. They may apply stretch but from a different, broader perspective of nation’s or society’s interest, they may even do extra-ordinary work not necessarily  from a higher-level wealth or other routine ambition-aggrandizing angle but from a higher order of conserving resources, indulging in sacrifices, preserving nature and values of life.One may critique that aren’t these also ambitions?They are.But, by and large, as of now, when we talk about high  ambitions or say that one is highly ambitious, it is basically interpreted or understood  as materialistic ambitions.May be on a later date, the word ambition may take a different meaning altogether. 

Of course, my perception about ambition may be in direct contradiction to Adam Smith’s proclamation each individual furthering self interests  and that the ‘invisible hand’ will take care of the rest.As many of the incidents of economic recessions in the recent past will prove that the invisible hand failed to work , at least when required.It was the ‘visible hand’ of the government(and not of the managerial class as envisaged by Charles Handy) that had to intervene to save economies and countries from the verge of disaster.

While my  concern  about the chances of an ordinary person with ordinary ambitions  in this extremely competitive world may be pooh poohed by many, I still feel that they are real.And I feel such people can survive only if a paradigm shift happens in the way we look at profession and life. This will require that the  mindset of people have to change to take care of the following factors:

1.Restrain from the temptation to compare your achievements with your peers  in your organization or outside.This is because  most of the time the comparisons are about materialistic achievements which may vary, sometimes even dramatically. 

2.Try to be contented with what life has given you-capabilities,position, power,money, wealth, physical assets,family &  children and friends. All the factors in the environment with which you interact, will advise you to set your sight on being first.But remember that in any competitive event, there will be only one first or that everybody cannot be first and that in order for someone to be first, there has to be a second. When you are in doubt, please look downwards- there are many who are under-privileged and who is deprived of many of those things which you, by god’s grace,have.And when it comes to matters related to personal life,you set your own success parameters . 

3.Redefine success or rewrite the parameters of success.You may find that you are successful by many counts but still there may be other parameters where you have to catch up.For example, if you find that you have still not attained the simplicity or humility that you aimed at, you may still have to work for it.But, for sure, a lack of comparison with peers will relieve the pressure on you and you can still go with a very open mind about  those parameters.

4.Apply stretch principles with a paradigm shift in thinking.The questions involving stretch can be something like: Can you,the CEO or a senior ranking position with power anywhere,think of yourself as one among equals and settle for a pay cheque that is not very different from your senior level(and also in comparison to the average paycheque to employees in general)?Can you apply stretch to drive a small car preferably by yourself(rather than a luxury gasoline guzzler) thereby reducing costs and adding value to the customer, company, shareholder and other stakeholders , and create more jobs through productive ventures and helping the society at large(by using less of its depletive resources)?

5.Start applying stretch principle to your personal life- like devoting more time with wife, children and friends,doing what you can to help the poor  and needy , reading books you always wanted to read, and helping your country and world at large in conserving some of the rapidly depleting resources like oil  by driving a small, fuel efficient car rather than a big fuel guzzler  etc.

6.Determine how much money you need.Your company or institution may have a policy of compensating at the 80^th percentile of the industry standard.But it is for you to decide how much you need to take.Same is true for perquisites.Resist the temptation to ask for or take more.

7.Don’t show craze for assets like land, gold etc  as such additional interest will only push the prices of these assets up making them unaffordable for many of those who really need them.