Ambitious Grads: How Big Should You Dream?
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“Dream big!” “Shoot for the moon.” “Be more ambitious.”
But why?
Why should you assume the risk for a bet that mightn’t pay off? How are you meant to feed the kids and pay the mortgage?
But what if you’re dissatisfied or unhappy with your situation? What if you do want to have a crack but don’t know where to start?
Or, what if you’re an idealistic grad who wants to achieve big things? Who wants to know if they can feed the kids and pay the mortgage without worry?
It’s all a bit of a mind fuck, isn’t it?
Well, hopefully this email will provide a bit of clarity.
let’s get into it.
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What Does Ambition Actually Mean?
The notion of ‘ambition’ is often misunderstood. We’re not advocating you drop out of university to start the next Microsoft. That’s ridiculous.
We mean you should aim high, or at least not lower than your capabilities. More concretely, you should:
List the longer-term career paths you could aim towards.
Think about the positive impact you’d have if each path goes well (upside scenarios).
Think about what will happen if the path goes badly.
Choose between the remaining paths by pursuing the one with the best outcome in the upside scenario.
Aiming high isn’t meant to be an all-or-nothing ultimatum you give yourself.
Reasons to Be More Ambitious
You might surprise yourself
The improbable nature of ambitious leaps means we don’t often consider the best-case scenario: succeeding, which does happen.
Let’s say probability has its way and things don’t work out. What happens then?
Well, assuming you were well-positioned to take the risk (which we’ll cover later on), then you’re likely back in a similar position as you were before. You haven’t experienced any real loss, meaning you can switch to your next best option without any great costs.
Competition dwindles
Most people either don’t aim very high or are too confident in their capabilities and overshoot.
How’s the saying go? Aim for the moon and land in tech sales?
What does this mean?
If success were a staircase, then with each step ascending you face less competition. In the initial stages, it’s because most people aren't aiming very high, then as you progress, the stakes for further ascension are higher, meaning people become more risk averse.
For most people, the odds of success decline as they attain more of it, which you can leverage.
Limiting Downside Risks
Aiming high becomes an ultimatum when downside risk runs rampant. Reduce it, and suddenly that leap of faith you were making becomes nothing more than a measly little jump.
So why limit downsides first?
Well, to state the obvious, if you aim high there’s a chance you won’t succeed. And if you do, it will take a while, so by limiting downside risk, you enable yourself to “stay in the game”, increasing your chance of long-term success.
How to do it:
Think of your life as a castle by its lonesome. What’s protecting it from invasion?
Absolutely nothing.
Before aiming high, you want to fortify it. That means digging a mote, filling it with crocodiles, and surrounding it with sharp stakes.
In other words:
Build up your financial security. If you can’t pay your rent how are you going to take any career-related risk?
Look after your physical and mental health and important relationships. Something has to keep you sane when the hours pile up.
Build valuable career capital that gives you backup options.
Reasons Against Aiming High
Eliminating some risk isn’t a one-way ticket to Success Street. There are still numerous reasons why you’d want to rethink your decision. They include:
Your estimate of the value of your upside option probably contains a huge amount of uncertainty, which means there’s a chance it won’t be as good as it seems. This will be even worse if you’re prone to overconfidence, which is most people with ambitious desires.
Focusing on upsides can make it feel more justified to incur big risks, even if you’ve done your due diligence in eliminating downside risks.
‘Aiming high’ looks awesome in your head, but the reality is almost the complete antithesis. You may discover you much prefer doing some good within the security of full-time work, especially if your upside opinion isn’t as successful as anticipated.
All worth considering. Anyways, that’s it, cya!