Why Ambition Is For Stupid People
Don't chase goals because you want to "achieve" something.
A lot of people replied to my previous post about why I took a break for more than a year. Thank you for all your replies.
Many of you asked what really happened.
Why did I slow down at a time when, from the outside, it looked like I should have kept pushing?
At 38, most people would say that you are at the peak of your career.
This is when society tells you to dream bigger, work harder, scale faster, build more, earn more, and prove yourself even more.
Society is very clever in turning us into workhorses.
Even if we have achieved enough to meet our basic needs, we are told that relaxing is wrong.
Taking a break is wrong.
Slowing down is wrong.
Enjoying life right now is wrong.
We are told that if we have the capability to build more, then we must build more.
Bigger dreams are normalized.
Bigger houses.
Bigger cars.
Bigger offices.
Bigger teams.
Bigger titles.
Bigger revenue numbers.
And a lot of people cannot take a break even when they need one, because they are constantly comparing themselves with classmates, college mates, friends, competitors, and people they see online.
But something inside me had started shifting.
In January 2023, I went for a 10-day Vipassana course.
That experience changed something deep within me.
For 10 days, there was no phone, no laptop, no talking, no business, no content creation, no audience, no status, no identity to maintain.
Just silence.
And in that silence, I started seeing something very clearly:
The present moment is all we really have.
Most of what we chase exists only in imagination.
Our future achievements are imagination.
Our public image is imagination.
Even our ego is imagination.
The ego survives because we rarely look directly at it.
We keep feeding it through achievement, comparison, attention, and validation.
Before this experience, I had dreams of “making it big.”
I wanted to build something huge.
I wanted people to look up to me.
I wanted more recognition, more scale, more status.
And to be honest, this is how most of society moves forward.
People feel small inside, and then try to accumulate things outside.
A bigger house to feel bigger.
A bigger car to feel bigger.
A bigger title to feel bigger.
A bigger business to feel bigger.
But all of this is fragile because it depends on what we think other people think about us.
And here is the funny part:
Most people are not even thinking about us.
They are thinking about themselves.
Our self-image is often just our assumption of other people’s assumptions about us.
That is a very shaky foundation to build a life on.
Even when people clap for your success, they are often not really clapping for you.
They are clapping because they like the idea of that success for themselves.
And if you climb too high in fame, wealth, or status, not everyone appreciates you. Many people start looking for ways to pull you down.
At some point, I realized that a lot of my motivation to build, scale, earn, and prove myself was not coming from a deeper purpose.
It was coming from ego.
And after the Vipassana experience, that ego lost a lot of its power.
In one sense, there was a small death of ambition.
Not the healthy kind of ambition that comes from inspiration.
But the restless ambition that comes from comparison.
After that, I tried to keep pushing myself.
I tried to motivate myself.
I tried to continue building the business the way I used to.
But for almost a year, it felt like an uphill battle.
The old fuel was gone.
And when the old fuel is gone, you cannot keep driving the same vehicle in the same direction.
That is one of the reasons I decided to shut down my startup and step away.
During this period, I read a lot.
I reflected a lot.
I learned from people who had gone through similar inner shifts.
And one thing became clear:
Sometimes, when the old purpose dies, the new purpose does not appear immediately.
You have to wait.
You have to give it time.
It is like planting a seed.
You pour water every day with faith.
But if you keep digging into the soil to check whether the seed has sprouted, you may kill the plant before it grows.
That is what the last one or two years felt like for me.
A seed was planted, but I had to wait.
Slowly, a new sense of purpose started emerging.
And now, when I feel like creating content again, it feels different.
Earlier, I was mostly focused on the output.
Revenue.
Growth.
Launches.
Scale.
Recognition.
My input depended on the output I expected.
Now, I want to focus more on the input.
Can I create something useful today?
Can I share something honest today?
Can I inspire someone today?
Can I help someone think differently about their life, income, assets, time, and mobility?
Maybe this new journey will bring me wealth.
Maybe it will not.
But I do not want the result to be the only reason I create.
I want to enjoy the process of creation itself.
That is the biggest shift.
And I hope this gives you something to think about.
If you are chasing goals only because of comparison, status, fame, or ego, it is a never-ending road.
No matter how much you achieve, there will always be someone ahead of you.
Someone richer.
Someone more famous.
Someone with a bigger house.
Someone with a bigger company.
Someone with more followers.
If you spend your life comparing, you will consume your life in comparison.
And comparison is one of the most foolish activities.
It is like comparing yourself to a tree and feeling jealous that the tree is taller than you.
You and the tree are not the same.
In the same way, you and another human being are not the same.
Your life has its own path.
Your work has its own rhythm.
Your purpose has its own timing.
This is what I have been learning.
And this is also the foundation of what I want to share in my next chapter.
Not just how to earn more.
But how to build a life that is not driven by ego, comparison, and endless chasing.
If this email resonated with you, reply and let me know.
I genuinely want to know if this rings a bell in your mind.
Not everyone will relate to this.
But if you do, I would love to hear from you.
See you in the next email.
Regards,
Deepak Kanakaraju