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Anne Jenneth Gordo

Mrs. Cox
English 9 Honors
19 March 2015
Ambition Speech
It was 11:59 PM on the 31st of December when it hit me that the year was about to end in
seconds, I can hear my familys countdown on the front porch waiting to light up the rockets for
it was believed to bring good luck throughout the following year. I took the small piece of
crumpled paper from the back pocket of my pants and started reading through my New Years
resolutions. Of course I wondered to myself whether I am able to achieve these goals within 365
days, when I thought ambition. Is it good? Is it bad? What if its neither good nor bad? Should I
have ambition? But how do I know Im not the only one benefiting from this? In Society,
ambition is often the driving force in ones life. However, it can also be a destructive element
that could ruin relationships. True aspiration is a virtue that leads man to great things, for
example, it lead us to one of historys greatest discoveries. Albert Einstein, the man famous for
the formula E=mc2 was highly doubted by his teachers because he did not speak until he was 4
years old. But due to his ambition of getting good remarks and conjuring abstract questions
people couldnt understand, he was able to develop the theory of relativity. If the ambition is
only to help yourself, it is selfish and can cause you to hurt others in your quest to get what you
want and that makes it a bad thing. The results also depends on what kind of character and
ambition you have. However, ambition can also be expressed in a negative manner. For example,
it can drive a person into doing bad things. Its because being ambitious is focused on the future,

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on what you want to achieve. It implies that something is wrong with whats here right now. It
could also frustrate us when we set up goals that may be too unrealistic and unreachable, which
could lead us to giving up and abandoning our dreams. An example of this is the main character
in Great Expectations. Weve all read the book and therefore we all know that Pip was an
ambitious character that possesses a strong desire to move up the social rank. Im pretty sure, we
can all relate to that and everyone has an ambition of wanting to be rich, which could be viewed
in two ways. According to new research, while ambition can help you achieve a better life, it
may or may not lead to happiness. So should it be considered a vice or a virtue? Generally
accepted as a requirement for success, it is nonetheless just as widely viewed as a dirty word. A
study led by professor Timothy Judge claims that there is a strong correlation between ambition
and success, but those who led successful lives were not, despite your expectations, markedly
happier or longer lived. This shows that the value of aiming high has its consequences too.
Ambition by definition causes people to raise their goals and aspirations which could sometimes
be frustrating as it seems too impossible. Like trying rolling a ball uphill, a thirst that can never
be quenched. So, I went back to reading my new years resolution and slowly planning my way
on how to achieve these goals by the end of next year. I heard my mom call me downstairs to
celebrate with the family, so I crumpled the paper and put it back in my pocket. Now that I think
about it, ambition can be viewed as good or bad it just depends on what it is and how you use it.
It could bring you happiness, as well as it could ruin it. The counterbalance to ambition was
gratitude for what you have, a quality which often seemed forgotten by society. There is nothing
wrong with wanting to aim high, although it is up to you if you are ready to face the
consequences that you may encounter. That would be the lesson for ambitious people, remember
to stop for a moment and take a good look with what you have, and be happy with that.