Ambition & Greediness - What's The Difference Between Those Two?
Greediness is the root of most evils. Some people find hard to differentiate between greediness and ambition. And then, there are some people who like to class their greediness as an ambition but they are far from being ambitious and this is just an attempt to hide the evil intention.
Taken from pixabay.com
Greediness itself may not be the evil but it is the root of most evils. It leads you to the wrong directions. Most of the time when you want to become a millionaire overnight, you'd prefer to go to a casino and play all the night. If your luck doesn't play out, you'd surely lose everything you bet. Do you think that winnings at a casino are derived by ambition? Not at all!
It may be hard to differentiate between greediness and ambition because both look similar from the cover but actually, they are not the same. In this article, we'll discuss the ways how greediness and ambitions are different and how to identify whether you have an ambition or you're greedy.
# 1-Difference of Connotations:
Greed is usually associated with negative connotations and that refers to the intentions you have when wanting something. Most of the times we want some things that are completely unnecessary but we want it just because our friends have it. Not a good motive!
Ambition is different from greed in a way that it is associated with positive connotations. You have pure intentions when you desire something. If you want a car and say to yourself that in the next 2 years, I'll have my own car so that I could fulfill some of my needs, then it's an ambition, not greed because you genuinely need it.
# 2 - Satisfaction:
Once the first want/wish of a human is fulfilled, another one appears and this happens for the whole life with every single of us but the important thing is how you control your emotions. In case of greediness, you'll never feel satisfied because after every want, you'll have another and you start chasing that want by following unfair directions because you want everything fast.
Ambition actually satisfies you. You may have the ambition to make $5,000 per month so that you could provide for your children and wife. That's not greed but an ambition. You're aiming for $5,000 because you believe that you'll be able to fulfill most of your needs with it. In order to achieve your goal, you start working hard and prefer the legit way to accomplish your goal.
# 3 - Shortcuts VS Hard Work:
As I said above, Greed encourages you to choose the way which is short and it is often seen that shortcuts are usually fraudulent ways. It's true that greed is the root of most evils. Yes, you may become successful in fulfilling your wants through unfair means a few times but the end will always be destructive.
Ambition doesn't push you towards shortcuts. Yes, when they are legit and sensible ways, acting on them doesn't count in greediness since it was a legit way and that simply means that God is helping you accomplish your goal. A person does all the hard work to fulfill his needs and accomplish the goal.
In short, Greed is a negative emotion which leads to unnecessary wants and destructive shortcuts while ambitions are usually pure and realistic to achieve through working hard.
People who grow up in a happy home where the family and the environment that surrounds them gives them good advice and life lessons is very difficult to become someone greedy. The ambition to achieve the goals that we propose is something that each person has in their heart and that person will decide whether to use that ambition right or wrong, we all want a better life and help our family to overcome and when you fight for what you want to feel empowered and gain more confidence in yourself. You become more positive and you understand that maybe it is likely that you have to fight, but without harming others because you know that you will achieve it if you fight cleanly. In addition, you will realize that you have all the strength necessary to achieve your dreams and get what you long for, that you are able to strive and not fall halfway, however much it costs, if and only if you have the support of the family.
Such a good explanation of the differences between greediness and ambitions. Greediness breeds enmity between people more often and ambitions mostly leads to achievement.
Greed involves increasing material possessions as a goal of it its own. while ambition involves the expansion of experience, growing from one state to another for both material possessions and immaterial values.
Thanks @coconut for your inspirational post.