<i>When it comes to ambition, I tend to agree. Ideas are not ambitious, people are.</i><p>The author just doesn't support this claim. All the examples he gives (Bill Gates, Zuckerburg, and people leading successful companies) could just as easily be explained by:<p><i>Successful people are usually those who find a line of work they truly enjoy and pursue it, with some luck.</i><p>To me, that kind of person seems more likely to make it than someone who is just "extremely ambitious" without those qualities.<p>To me, this little writeup comes across as a pseudo-philosophical pep talk (i.e., basically hogwash).
"Ambition is key because he[Bill Gates] could have left Microsoft much earlier, and moved on to do anything else he wanted as extremely wealthy man. He was already a billionaire when he chose to stay, and turned Microsoft into an empire."<p>Value creates opportunity.<p>I'm not suggesting that Bill Gates wasn't/isn't ambitious, but if one of your ventures has made you a billionaire I'd imagine it be much easier to stay on board and see how far you can ride that train.
I think it's entirely possible to be both throughout a lifetime. I've been frighteningly ambitious and conservative at different points in my life and with different ideas.<p>When I was 21 / 22, I decided I was going to take on eBay. The premise, circa 2002, was to wipe out fees and shift the monetization to information and reselling (provide analytics & data to the sellers, and a re-selling channel in which they could contact buyers and attempt to generate repeat business). Basically sell tools and productivity to the sellers, instead of just slapping them with fees; at the time eBay was borderline retarded when it came to analytics and data provided by the marketplace.<p>I built the service, launched it, got modest early traction, took no venture capital, used guerrilla marketing, and then a really bad event struck my life that was outside my control. Shit happens and all that.<p>My latest venture is more modest, and I'm older and wiser. The odds of success are radically higher in this venture.<p>At 30 (no kids yet), I find my threshold for frighteningly ambitious projects is now primarily dependent on my personal finances. At 21 I didn't give a shit, at all. When I add another layer of financial security, I'll chase the dragon again - I really can't wait.