Essay on Child Ambition

As a child I had an untamed imagination, I would often dream that one day I would be rich and own an amusement park in my backyard. There would be many attractions such as ponies, cotton candies, and clowns. Ambition was the cause for my imaginary thoughts. Nobody ever told me that I could not be rich or really have that amusement park one day, but as I grew older my ambitions changed. I can remember when I was fifteen I dreamed of owning my own car, a Volvo or Volkswagen. Looking back, this was a diminutive ambition but it was something I wanted at the time. Whether dreams are small or large, to dream you must have the ambition to realize that all things are possible.

Ambition comes from the Italian word "ambito", which means desirable or sought after. There is no correct way to acquire ambition; it is bred in most of us. Ambition starts in our early childhood years up until death. It has been studied by psychologists, and is thought to vary from person to person. Psychologist Abraham Maslow believes ambition could be closely related to motivation, especially achievement motivation (Huitt, 2007). If one has no motivation then they have no ambition. Maslow presented his theory of the "Hierarchy of Needs" in 1943 in which he distinguished between basic needs, safety needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs which all come together as the need to fulfill one-self, to become all that one is capable of coming. Ambition is the birthplace of the "hierarchy of needs", and without ambition your needs diminish, and your life could be severely affected by it.

In a 2005 Time magazine article author Jeff Kluger asks the question "why are some people born with a fire in the belly, while others need something to get their pilot light lit? And why do others never get the flame of ambition going (Kluger, 2007)?" In my opinion a lot of our ambitious tendencies are directed from social class, and family upbringing. Many times how you are raised plays a big part on your ambitious nature as well as how well you do in life. Social class is often classified as upper middle class, lower middle class, working class, and poor class, and depending on which classes you come from you are either less likely or more likely to achieve. If a person is brought up in an upper middle class family they are more likely to achieve their goals, and their ambitions are higher than those from a poor family. Many times people are able to realize that because they grew up without the basic necessities like a home, cars, and unsafe surroundings they are able to find ways to make their lives better and make life better for those around them. When reality hits h you as an adult, and you look at your life and say should've, could've, would've your ambitious nature is sure to come out at full force. But like Kluger asked in his article "why do others never get the flame of ambition going? (Kluger, 2007)"