You weren't meant to have a boss

Regarding Ambitious, Independent people.

I tend to agree with you, but there's another class of people that doesn't fit your high ambition/low ambition paradigm.

I don't know how to label these people, and they confuse me greatly, because I'm not one of them and don't understand their motivations. These are people for whom ambitions and motivations are unrelated to "career choice"

I've met a great many people who work fairly-routine/moderate-pay/low-stress jobs, who have no desire to do work any more mentally taxing, and who profess to "live outside of work."

Now, some of these people are just not ambitious or independent. But some really seem to be extremely passionate, ambitious people. Some of these people are the "cause people" -- people that are heavily involved in political campaigns, in "causes," do large amounts of volunteering. They seem to derive their fulfillment from this work, and the paid job is a means to the freedom to pursue these causes.

Yet a different class of these people are the "family-focussed." They work, they may volunteer, but they appear to derive their fulfillment from... well, to be blunt, from raising kids and helping/coaxing/celebrating/watching their kids grow and succeed.

I'm not suggesting at all that these two other alternatives are in any way "lesser" (or "greater" for that matter) -- nor am I suggesting that other people aren't interested in, or don't do these things.

But, to generalize from just one example, (everyone does it -- or at least, I do...) though I don't do much in the way of volunteering or raising of a family just now, even if I do either of these at a future date, I don't think I would ever define myself by these things. I would identify and define myself more by the contributions I make in, for lack of a better name, the financial marketplace. Since this is a forum of "the startup crowd," I imagine that most of you define yourselves similarly?

Anyway, I went on so long, I forgot to make my point, which was that some of these people are perfectly happy in a job where they are not expected to be ambitious, so that they can save their energy and ambition for the part of their life that matters to them. I do not understand this, but I have recently come to notice its existence. I thought I'd point it out, since we're talking about ambition and lack thereof.

Thanks for this Paul. I've spent time on both sides of the side spectrum in addition to my own failed startup (but I'm not beaten yet!) and what you say is at this point in my life glaringly obvious.

I'm making the jump this month from a (safe, established) monolith back to a (exciting, dynamic, risky) small company and hope to be back on my own startup path soon, and this post was a bit of inspiration precisely when I needed it.

What about Ken and Dennis.

Here is what Malcolm Gladwell wrote about just this topic in a 2002 New Yorker article: "Institutions are not just the best environment for success; they are also the safest environment for failure--and, much of the time, failure is what lies in store for innovators and visionaries. Philo Farnsworth should have gone to work for RCA. He would still have been the father of television, and he might have died a happy man."

I am curious to hear you relate this to Jesus. Please give me details.