How to Make Your Ambition Work for You

In this TNM Unplugged episode, Zoran and Hugo explore ambition not simply as the desire for money, status or achievement, but as a powerful human force, what Hugo describes as the desire to make tomorrow better than yesterday.

They explore where ambition comes from, how social conditioning attaches itself to our ambition, why achievement can become compulsive, and why reaching our goals often provides satisfaction for only a fleeting moment before we begin chasing the next one.

Hugo introduces a powerful metaphor: we spend much of our lives travelling down the corridor towards the doors representing our goals, yet very little time actually passing through those doors.

The question therefore becomes: Are we creating a life that is meaningful only when we reach the destination, or is the journey itself worth living?

As leaders operate in an increasingly fast, performance-driven and AI-native world, this conversation is an invitation to stop, examine the force driving us and consciously decide where we want our ambition to take us.

Topics Explored:

• Hugo’s journey as a serial entrepreneur
• The question from his wife that changed his direction
• Why ambitious people rarely stop to examine ambition itself
• Ambition as a force rather than simply a goal
• The desire to make tomorrow better than yesterday
• The three stages of the “ambition machine”
• Dissatisfaction, desire and determination
• Social conditioning and inherited definitions of success
• Why ambition does not naturally have a stop button
• The danger of allowing ambition to manage us
• Why achievement can become compulsive
• Learning to celebrate success before asking “what’s next?”
• Hugo’s corridor and doors metaphor
• Why most of life happens on the journey towards the goal
• Looking at goals from the other side
• Corporate goals versus personal definitions of success
• “What is success?” versus “What is success for me?”
• Personal values as a compass for ambition
• The eulogy exercise
• Aligning ambition with what genuinely matters
• Ambition during different stages of life
• Midlife, mortality and changing definitions of success
• Why younger generations are asking different questions
• Leadership and ambition in a changing world
• Hugo’s early success and subsequent loss of everything
• The “fighter pilot” story
• Directing ambition consciously rather than being driven by it

Key Takeaways:

• Ambition is a force, not a destination
• At its simplest, ambition can be understood as the desire to make tomorrow better than yesterday
• Ambition itself may be neutral, but the direction we give it determines its impact
• Social conditioning can quietly determine what we pursue without us consciously choosing it
• Ambition naturally wants movement, which is why stopping and questioning our direction can feel uncomfortable
• Achieving a goal may last only moments, while pursuing it can occupy years of our lives
• The quality of the “corridor” matters as much as the door at the end
• We need to look at our goals from the other side and ask whether achieving them will actually create the life we want
• “What is success?” and “What is success for me?” are fundamentally different questions
• Personal values can provide the compass that ambition itself does not provide
• Conscious ambition does not necessarily mean becoming less successful or less driven
• Leaders can help people connect organisational objectives with meaningful personal goals
• Different stages of life may require different expressions of ambition
• Sometimes what looks like a midlife crisis may actually be a moment when our old definition of success no longer fits our life
• The goal is not to eliminate ambition – The goal is to consciously direct it

Hugo Brooks is an Ambition Strategist and author who helps founders and senior leaders question whether their drive is taking them towards a consciously chosen life or simply keeping them in motion.

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Book: Ambition: Redefining Success for a Restless Age