Ambition vs Love
Or, maybe a bit of both
Reading can challenge your thinking about work and life. I like to read a lot. My fiction:non-fiction ratio is probably 10:1 for books, though I also read a lot of articles and industry blogs. Recently, I was taken away in a story that really got me thinking about my own career and also those of the engineers I’m lucky to work with.
The book was called The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand. It takes place in Nantucket and is a layered story about a restaurant with a celebrated and enigmatic chef, her lifelong best friend/business partner and a drifter who enjoys working exclusive enclaves around the world working the front of the house. The story takes place during the last Summer season of the restaurant. I won’t give any spoilers about the story itself, though I do recommend it!
The part of the book that was a bit of a gut-punch was when the celebrated chef was looking back at her storied career with a bit of regret. She reflected…
“When I die, I want people to say, ‘Nobody cooks like Fiona Kemp anymore. Nobody makes foie gras like Fiona. Nobody makes shrimp bisque like Fiona.;”...”All these years I’ve been claiming I cook out of love. But I don’t. I’ve been cooking out of ambition.”...”Ambition is okay. Love would have been better.”When committing to your life’s work: your career and beyond, it can be easy to go sideways. You can do work you love and you can do work you love ambitiously, but work that is done out of ambition without love is empty. It will never fulfill you, and you will never be satisfied. And, ambition unrestrained by love can go all sorts of wrong more broadly.
When I think about the software engineers that are the most effective at the work they do or the managers who are most effective at the work they do, it is usually the intersection of love and ambition. The engineers who are curious to understand how things tick, who love to dig in and debug unexplained system behaviors, who will let themselves be lost in the flow until they solve a problem they really want to solve. Or, maybe they got into the field to build a better life for their family. All these engineers have love in common. Combine that with ambition, and you typically get something magical. You can really feel the difference with those who are doing the work only for the money/prestige/career advancement.
Around the world, there are many craftspeople who do what they do out of love. Many are not ambitious, but they love the pursuit of their craft, mastering technique and making something beautiful. They can work many years happily in the satisfaction of what they’ve made.
Love alone makes life and work worthwhile. Love combined with ambition can unlock innovation, progress and achievement. Beware those who work only from ambition. They will ruin themselves and others in their empty pursuit.