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Emerald Green
Starry
English 9 Honors
20 March 2016
Ambition: It Depends
Too much of anything can be bad for you. Thats just how the world works. Too much
water can drown you. Too much food can make your stomach ache. Too much pain can kill you.
Ambition is no exception to that rule. On the other hand, not enough of something can also be
bad for you. Not enough water can lead to dehydration. Not enough food can lead to
malnutrition, diseases, viruses, infections, stunted growth, and even death if prolonged for long
enough. Not enough pain can leave you without experience and unprepared when you finally do
feel it. Ambition is no exception to this rule either. Like anything, the positivity or negativity of
something depends on the circumstances of the situation, the people that are involved, and the
perspective you choose to use, but ambition will ultimately impact a person whether that impact
be negative or positive.
Ambition is a quality. The dictionary defines a quality as a distinctive attribute or
characteristic possessed by someone or something. You can define your qualities, or you can
allow your qualities to define you. You can control your qualities, or you can allow them to
control you. You can limit your qualities, or you can allow your qualities to limit you.

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I say allow for a reason. You are the only person living your life. You choose what
happens to you and how it will affect you. You are the only one that makes the decision to allow
something to have a positive or negative impact on you.
You can limit your ambition, or you can allow your ambition to limit you. You can
control your ambition, or you can allow your ambition to control you. You can define ambition,
or you can allow your ambition to define you. Ambition is just a quality.
This quality has had many different impacts on many different people, all in very
different places, under many different circumstances. There have been positive examples of
ambition being a positive quality, and there have been negative examples of it being a negative
quality.
Thomas Edison is a great example of ambition having an overwhelming positive impact
on a person because he chose not to allow it to have a negative impact on him. It took Thomas
Edison more than 10,000 light bulbs before he finally invented the same incandescent light bulb
that we still use today. I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded
in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not
work, I will find the way that will work (Furr 1). Edison did not choose to look at the 10,000
bulbs that did not work as failures just like how he chose not to let his ambition have a negative
effect on him. He kept inventing and trying new bulbs until he finally made a working
incandescent light bulb because he let ambition have a positive effect on him and lead him to his
success.

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Some would say that Shakespeares character, Macbeth, even though he is just a
character, is a great example of ambition having a negative impact on a person. They would say
that Macbeth is still popular today because the characters in the play still struggle with things
that people today still struggle with, like ambition. Very few people can detest to that. Ambition
did have an overwhelming consumption of him. It consumed his thoughts, his actions, his
morals because he wanted to get what he wanted. He wanted to be king. Even when he was
king, he was not satisfied. He was still very ambitious. He wanted to stay king. In the end, he
lost loved ones, and he lost himself I have almost forgot the taste of fears/ The time has been,
my senses would have cooled/ To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair/ Would at a dismal
treaties rouse and stir/ As like were int. I have supped full with horrors/ direness, familiar to my
slaughterous thoughts/ Cannnot once start with me (Shakespeare 5. 5. 9-15) because he had
ambition.
However, let us not forget the other factors that pushed Macbeth into allowing his
ambition to consume him and eventually lead him to his downfall. Lady Macbeth pushed
Macbeth into killing Duncan, but Macbeth did not have to listen to her. He did not have to kill
Duncan. He did not have to kill Banquo. He did not have to kill McDuffs family. He chose to
kill Duncan. He chose to kill Banquo, and he chose to kill McDuffs family. He made those
decisions. He convinced himself that he was doing the right thing for his people, for his family,
and for himself. Ambition did not consume Macbeth, and it was not just ambition that

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contributed to his downfall. It was also desire, greed, selfishness, cowardness, and insecurities
that led him to his downfall.
It is hard to judge whether ambition alone is a positive or negative quality when there are
so many other factors to be accounted for in any given situation. Ambition can be a positive
quality if it eventually leads you to success. Ambition can be a positive quality if you choose to
look at it with a positive perspective. Ambition can be a positive quality if you know when to
stop. Ambition can be a positive quality when you allow it to be a positive quality. If you dont,
then ambition will never be anything more than just a negative quality.
Ambition does not always drive a person to be the top of the top or the richest of the rich
Ambitious people dont necessarily want to become chief executive of a company, he added.
Some people simply want to become the best sales person or engineer possiblehe calls this
cohort core contributors (Borzykowski 2). Sometimes, an ambitious persons goals are not to
climb the corporate ladder or to be above everybody else. Sometimes, an ambitious person may
just want to be the best at their job or the best person they can be.
A lot of water does not have to lead you to drowning. In the easiest of circumstances,
hopefully one would just come up for air. A lot of food does not have to lead you to a stomach
ache. In most cases, you know when you are full, and you have the option to make the decision
to stop. A lot of pain does not always kill you, but in some cases, you cannot control the pain
forever. Sometimes, the pain stops on its own. Sometimes, we have to control how the pain
affects us. Sometimes, we have no control over the pain at all.

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Everybodys body is different. Maybe what someone else says is too much water is the
just amount where you only begin to feel hydrated. Maybe what someone else says is too much
food is just the amount where you only begin to stop feeling like you are starving. Maybe what
someone else says is too much pain does not even hurt you at all.
However, maybe you dont have the option to stop swallowing the water, to rise above
the water and take a breath because you are being forcefully submerged under it. Maybe you
dont have the option to stop eating because you are a duck in a factory with a tube shoved down
your throat. Maybe you dont have the option to stop the pain because your body just does not
produce the right chemical balance.
Everybodys situation is different. Maybe what someone else says is too much ambition
is the amount of ambition you feel you need in order to achieve your goals. Maybe what
someone else refers to as negative is what you refer to as positive. The positivity of something,
anything, depends on the people involved, the circumstances of the situation, and the perspective
you choose to use. Whether ambition is impacting negatively or positively, it impacts.

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Works Cited
Furr, Nathan. How Failure Taught Edison to Repeatedly Innovate. Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, 05 June 2011. Web. 25 March 2016.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanfurr/2011/06/09/how-failure-taught-edisonto-repeatedly-innovate/#28b131c38f5b>
Borzykowski, Bryan. Ambition: Do You Need It to Succeed? BBC. The BBC, 08
May 2014. web. 25 Mar. 2016.
<http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140805-

ambition-born-or-bred>

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth, William Shakespeare. Scholastic: Mary Glasgow,

1987. Print.