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Dawood Wahid

Ms. Starry

English 9 Honors

26 March 2017

Ambitions Power

Heraclitus once said, Big results require big ambitions, and this is true, in order to

achieve something great, whether it is negative or positive; one must be very ambitious to

achieve it. At one point in our lives, we have all strived for something really bad and we were

willing to do anything for it. Ambition is a very powerful thing that has led many to the path of

success while caused the downfall of others when they got carried away it. If someone has the

right amount of Ambition and makes the right choices they can accomplish anything, even if the

odds are against them, but if they make the wrong choices it can be the main cause of their

downfall.

Tyler Perry had a very rough childhood. He was physically and sexually abused, got

kicked out of high school and tried to commit suicide two times. At the age of 23, Perry moved

to Atlanta and worked odd jobs as he started working on his stage career. In the year of 1992,

Tyler wrote, produced, and starred in his very first theater production. Perry had put all of his

savings into this show and it failed terribly. The show lasted one week and only 30 people came

to watch it. He kept up with the production, working more odd jobs and often slept in his car to

get by (Scottberg 3). After six years, Perrys show on it seventh time on stage became a success.

Perry has since gone after this to have a tremendously prosperous career as actor, director, and
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writer. He is now worth 400 million dollars and was named Forbes highest paid man in the

entertainment industry in 2011. Even though, Perrys show failed miserably the first time, that

didnt stop him from doing it on stage six more time times. Tyler set a goal for himself to make

this show successful even when all the odds were against him, his show prevailed on its seventh

run, and it showed that Perrys hard work and ambition paid off.

Another example of ambition and how it can lead you down to the path of success is

Oscar Pistorius who is known as Blade runner his legs were amputated below the knee at the

age of 11 but his ambition did not stop him from competing at the highest level to achieve his

goals and dreams. Pistorius has won several gold medals and aims to win more, but his journey

was full of hurdles, for example, he had a disagreement with the IAAF, the International

Association of Athletics Federation which said that his artificial limb gave him an unfair

advantage and barred him from the circuit (CNN). Oscar hired a top of the class legal team and

took his case to court which overturned the ban in 2008. Pistorius didnt let his disability belittle

him in the way of achieving his goal instead it made him more ambitious and stronger. By

attaining his goals, Oscar proved that if someone wants something, they can do it no matter what

kind of hurdles come in the way. Pistorius had the three most important factors that one needs in

order to achieve something they are determination, motivation, and ambition. The three factors

helped Pistorius be successful in conquering his goals.

Take, for instance, Mike Coney, when he was young, he would eagerly get up at five in

the morning and he would work on his family farm. After he finished high school, Coney joined

the US army and took a 2-year course on cryptologic warfare and topped his class, and was

quickly promoted through the ranks. Over the last 30 years, Coney, now 58 has held a number

of executive positions (Borzykowski), this proves that ambition has taken Mike to higher levels
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in life. He started from a farm boy to holding executive positions in the army, and huge

companies, and was able to do this because he was very ambitious.

Not all ambition is positive, it may seem positive to the person who has it but those

ambition can that their downfall if they get carried away with it. In the play Macbeth, the main

character Macbeth at first seem a very a honest man to everyone and loyal to his king but when

the witches tell him that he will become king, he turns avaricious and has a strong ambition to

become the king and in order do so he murders many people, including the previous King,

Duncan. He wanted to be happy but he was harming others greatly and tearing their hearts to

pieces. After Macbeth has Banquo killed, he sees Banquos ghost which makes him behave very

weird and it shows how his crimes were catching up to him and that the crimes someone

commits are never hidden from them. During the end of the novel, When Macbeth has to fight

Macduff, he says, Yet I will try the last, (Shakespeare 5. 8. 32. ). This quote proves that

Macbeth was to the end of himself, after finding out that Macduff was not of women born, he felt

betrayed by the witches. Macbeth ambitions to not surrender make him fight Macduff knowing

he will lose and die. His ambitions lead him to his death. Macbeth ambition was negative

because he betrayed many people and caused his own downfall at the end by his own made

choices which shows the actions we take, the choices we make can have good or bad

consequences in the coming future.

Another example of Negative ambition is in A Separate Peace. Finny had deliberately

set out to wreck my studies, (Knowles 53), Gene concludes that Finny betrayed him, and sets to

beat him, to become better than him. In doing so, Gene pushes Finny off a tree in which Finny

breaks his leg and this shows that Genes ambition to become better than his best friend got out of
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hand. He was blinded by the goal of becoming better than his friend and in which he made the

wrong choices and greatly hurt his friend.

Ambition can take you to high places or nowhere at all; it can help you accomplish great

things or it can be the main cause of your downfall. If someone has a true goal in their mind, they

need to put continuous effort towards achieving it and be patient if they fail the first time and

then try again. Ambition is good when it is positive and when you know how to control it, but

when it is negative, it starts to get out hand and makes you make the wrong choices which affect

yourself or others dearly. Now think about your ambition, will it lead you to great success or

great failure?
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Works Cited

Blade Runner's 2012 Olympic ambition. CNN, www.cnn.com/2012. Accessed 20

Mar. 2017

Borzykowski, Bryan. BBC- Capital- Ambition: Do You Need It to succeed?. BBC

News BBC,

www.bbc.com/capital. Accessed 19 Feb. 2017

Knowles, John. A Separate Peace, Harvill Secker, 2017.

Scotrberg, Erin. 9 Famous People Who Will Inspire You to Never Give Up. themuse,

http://www.themuse.com/advice. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth, Simon and Schuster, 2017.