Ambition: A strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work, including the willingness to strive for the attainment of said achievement.

That’s a good thing, right?

I call my clients as Ambitious Women. To remind us that ambition is a good thing.

Ambition also has a negative connotation: an ardent desire for rank, fame, or power.

That feels a bit less benign. But why?

In our society you can’t accumulate wealth or affect change without rank and power. Increasingly, you can’t do either without some level of “fame” either. So if I can’t be ambitious, I can’t be financially secure and I can’t contribute to my fullest ability.

Not okay.

I didn’t come from a family of college graduates. Despite getting As and Bs in advanced math, foreign language, and writing classes, my high school guidance counselor steered me toward cosmetology school.

That might’ve been when I started spending more time outside of class than in. My high school GPA was not great, but I passed every class by showing up the first week and then again to take the tests.

Should have been a clue I would ace college.

Working in a nursing home my senior year in high school, I decided to be a nurse. A friend asked why not decide to be a doctor instead? The dream of healthcare was short-lived, but her challenge of my limited ambition would stay with me forever.

As part of my [re]education in American history, I’m thinking about ambition in terms of race in addition to class and gender

Of course many of us have been socialized to deny our ambition. To temper or ignore it. To feel ashamed of it. There’s only so much rank, fame, and power to go around, right?

Wrong.

When we lean into our ambition, we give others permission to do the same. When we embrace, model, and support ambition we break old patterns and unlearn old ideas about who gets to be ambitious.

There’s plenty to go around.