Ambition is overrated.

I’ve been thinking a lot about ambition lately.

Because I started noticing how often everyone talks about “more.” And now I can’t unsee it. More followers, more products, another launch, more revenue. And on it goes.

It’s no surprise that everybody focuses on more. Ambition is the one virtue everyone celebrates in business. We’re inundated with content about hustling more, scaling faster, and never being satisfied with our results. The hustlers are leaning against sports cars and boarding private planes, and more = better is the universal signal.

But I’m starting to realize unchecked ambition creates a lot more misery than happiness.

The problem with endless ambition

Most business advice suggests continual growth. Your revenue should always be increasing. Grow your audience. Don’t leave money on the table. Sell more. DO more!

But from my vantage point, most entrepreneurs who chase growth at all costs end up with businesses they hate managing and miserable lives at home. They started businesses because they wanted freedom, but ended up creating high-stress prisons they can’t escape from.

Now, to be fair, I don’t think the problem is ambition itself. Ambition makes the world go around, and improving it all the time. I think the problem is ambition without boundaries or the core belief that “enough” doesn’t exist. That more is somehow always better.

Because if you always think more is better, there will always be ​a gap between where you are today and where you think you should be​. And living in that gap is not sustainable…or not for long, anyway.

I spent a lot of time living in the gap, and I look back on those years as missed opportunities. I could have (and should have) chilled out a bit more and enjoyed the fruits of my labor, instead of stressing for more. I didn’t stop to smell the flowers, and I can’t get that time back.

Warning signs of toxic ambition

Here are some pretty clear indicators that your ambition needs some taming:

• You can’t enjoy wins because you’re fixated on the next goal.
• You feel guilty taking time off, even when you’re exhausted.
• You measure your worth primarily by money.
• You think you’ll “start living” after you reach your next target.

If you’re nodding your head to these, you’re going to eventually burn out. And before you do, you’ll probably damage some relationships and go through periods of profound emptiness.

How do I know this?

How do you think?

The money and happiness disconnect

Studies estimate that 80 to 90% of spending goes toward things that have little to no impact on happiness.

Most people are ambitious because they want more money. Then we get the money and spend it on shit that doesn’t really make us happy. And there we are, feeling like we have to keep earning the money so we can keep buying the stuff that isn’t doing what we hoped it would.

It’s a scary cycle. And everywhere I look, people are stuck in it.

But studies tell us, time and again, that once we can cover our necessities and have some savings in the bank, more money just doesn’t make us that much happier. It’s a fact that most people know, but choose to ignore.

So we stay on that ambition treadmill, pushing for more anyway.

I see this all of the time. People hit their income goals and ​immediately set new ones​. They don’t even pause to enjoy what they’ve built.

Finding “enough”

With a lot of introspection and just being tired in general, I’ve changed my mind about ambition.

Put simply, I want less of it.

The exercise that transformed my thinking was defining my “enough: the financial point where I decided to focus on life quality instead of work and money. My ”enough” number doesn’t mean I’ve stopped being ambitious. I just have a different purpose now, beyond monetary accumulation.

And when I sat down to calculate it, I was surprised that my “enough” number was much lower than what I’d been pushing toward (an ever-changing goal post).

If you want to step off the endless ambition treadmill, take a stab at your own enough:

1. Calculate your real lifestyle costs, without any status spending. You have to get real about what actually makes you happy vs. what you spend to impress other people. Honesty is key here because you want to know how much you need to earn in order to feel safe and comfortable.
2. You also want to identify your non-negotiables. What parts of your life do you refuse to sacrifice for business growth?
3. Now, examine which parts of your business energize you and what drains you. Ideally, you design work that maximizes activities you enjoy and minimizes doing stuff you hate.
4. And lastly, stop comparing your business to others who probably have completely different values and circumstances than you do.

When you strip away unnecessary spending, you arrive at a monetary target that is your enough. And if you can earn your enough, satisfying your non-negotiables and doing work that energizes you, then you have a recipe for satisfaction.

Satisfaction. An elusive concept, hiding in plain sight.

Ways to keep work sustainable

I’m not trying to say you shouldn’t be ambitious. I’m just suggesting a more intentional approach with clear boundaries.

• Working hours that leave space for other parts of life.
• Keeping revenue steady instead of always aiming to increase it.
• Limiting what you’re building so you can deliver without burning out.
• Saying no to opportunities that would make your business bigger but your life smaller.

Remember, sustainability is about optimizing for overall life satisfaction instead of just business growth.

The bottom line

Without any ambition, we wouldn’t start businesses, do meaningful work, or push through the difficult challenges that come with entrepreneurship.

But the problem comes when ambition has no end game. When the pursuit itself becomes the purpose rather than simply helping you build a better life.

The happiness we’re searching for rarely comes from bigger numbers. It comes from doing work that’s aligned with our values and having space for relationships and experiences that give our lives meaning.

So, what’s your enough? And how would your business and life change if you honored your enough, instead of chasing more and moving the goal posts?

Maybe the most ambitious decision you can make is to stop being so ambitious.

And that’s all for today.

See you next Saturday.

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