Ambition and a Lesson from Alexander Hamilton

I mentioned in my 2017 resolution post that I wanted to spend some time thinking through and writing about the topic of ambition. This is the first such post. More will follow at irregular intervals.

It is no secret to those who have spent much time around me in the past six months that I have come under the spell of Hamilton, the Musical. The central figure of the play, founding father Alexander Hamilton, is nothing if not ambitious. He rises up from poverty and orphanhood on St. Croix to become what biographer Ron Chernow calls "the father of the American government." Hamilton, both the character in the play and the actual historical figure, was an unstoppable force, challenging American luminaries like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson while serving as an indispensable ally and mouthpiece for George Washington. He accomplished this by working constantly.

And herein lies at least part of the problem with ambition. Let's call it the opportunity cost of ambition. In order to complete the voluminous list of tasks set for himself both internally and externally, Hamilton perforce neglected other important elements of his life, most notably his family. In his biography, Chernow is careful to commend Hamilton as a doting father (when he was around), which is all well and good, but his ambition kept him from his family for long periods of time, led to a scandalous affair, and the pride in his accomplishments helped spur him into the ridiculous duel with Aaron Burr which cost his life.

This is my fear when I consider ambition. Not, I should note, that I will die in a duel but that ambition will lead me into too much single-mindedness and lead to me neglecting my family or my friends or my physical health or . . . The list mounts. Ambition freaks me out because I don't want to miss out on the vast realm of life experience that lies outside the narrow corridor of my ambition. 

Here I want to say that one option is just to be ambitious in every part of life: an ambitious father, husband, teacher, friend, athlete, writer, etc. I'd like to say that. But the problem is, that's bullcrap. Again, opportunity cost. If you want to be great at anything it takes a whole lot of time. A whole lot of time that is not being spent on something else and actively taking away from time that could be spent on those other things. All of the great men and women that we read about from history were single-minded. I can't pretend otherwise. You don't back into greatness. You cultivate it over years of sacrifice. You work to put yourself in the way of greatness. There is no other way. 

The corollary concern, of course, when it comes to ambition is failure. You put all of your eggs into one basket, work your butt off, and accomplish nothing. I'll talk about that fear a bit in the next post.