In China, for instance, the government used to provide people jobs for life, but with a more open and rapidly growing economy, people are far freer to jump between jobs and move up the chain.Ī 2014 report by MRI China Group, a Beijing-based executive recruitment firm, found that increased compensation and a clear career path are the two main reasons why mainland Chinese workers change jobs. That perception could be changing, though. In Japan, for instance, if someone is too outwardly ambitious their colleagues won’t work with them, said Sam Griffiths, managing director of Ambition Group, a Tokyo-based recruitment firm. That perception is similar across cultures, but some countries frown on ambition more than others. Some think that ambitious people are selfish and never satisfied because they always want more. Many people view ambition as a negative, said Kammeyer-Mueller. But others, especially on the management side, will want to climb the corporate ladder. Some people simply want to become the best sales person or engineer possible - he calls this cohort “core contributors”. “It’s about achieving things and the status that goes with reaching those goals.”Īmbitious people don’t necessarily want to become chief executive of a company, he added. “It’s not just about working hard or not working hard,” said John Kammeyer-Mueller, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. According to the two professors, ambition is mostly about striving for status and achievements, their 2012 study revealed. Why do some people, like Coney, strive to become the boss of a company, while others seem content to toil away in the same job, perhaps slowly moving up the ladder, for years? The answer, in part, comes down to whether you’re a team player or have an insatiable drive to succeed.Ī study by two US university professors tried to define ambition and figure out why some people have it and others don’t. Ambition, though, is key to success everywhere, albeit in slightly different forms. After all, one of the most famous Japanese proverbs is, “the nail that sticks out, gets hammered down”. While it is often applauded in North America, some Asian cultures are quick to stifle any outside appearance of drive. To be sure, unconcealed ambition as a key to business success is typically seen as a Western trait. There are references to ambition in the Shakespeare’s plays and Greek philosophical texts and even the Bible. The origins of ambition and how it helps people climb to the top, is something people have been wondering about for centuries. “There’s no secret formula or silver bullet,” he said. His father showed him what hard work looked like - he was always up early feeding and caring for his horses and maintaining three rental houses that he owned - but Coney thinks there must be something hardwired that has made him always want to strive for more. It’s difficult for Coney to pinpoint exactly what made him such a go-getter. Over the last 30 years, Coney, now 58, has held a number of executive positions at large global firms and in 2009 he landed his first chief executive job with Unitrends, a Burlington Massachusetts-based data protection company. That same drive has helped him climb the corporate ladder. After high school he joined the US Army and took a two-year course on cryptologic warfare where he finished at the top of his class He was quickly promoted through the ranks. When he was young, he would eagerly get up at five in the morning to work on his family’s farm in Lynwood, Washington, in the US. Mike Coney has been ambitious for as long as he can remember.
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