Ambition and Ethics

To be a successful person, or a successful organization, you have to have both of these. It's not enough, to just be good - you have to do good things also. You have to develop your own talents, and become yourself.

But what about Ethics? How is that compatible with Ambition? This is where things get complicated. And where the answer depends on the context a person or organization is situated in. If you are in a bad situation, you have to be bad also, just to survive.

I have had a hard time with this fact of life, myself - and am still having a hard time with it. You have to be able to tell what kind of ethical environment you are in - and then navigate that minefield successfully.

The strategy most people have adopted here - is to not see anything, and not be anything! That way they won't be hurt. My personal strategy is similar - I notice what is going on, but keep quiet about it, and do the best I can - under the circumstances.

An example will help. I have a Windows 7 laptop, that works fine. But I keep thinking an upgrade to Windows 10 would be an improvement. To my surprise, this turns out to be not the case. My latest Windows 10 laptop with 4 GB of RAM, will be deposited in the trash.

What is going on here? No one is saying Windows 10 is ripping everyone off. This is one of those things, you are not supposed to say. So no one says it. And this list can be easily expanded.

We are in a situation similar to the Fall of the Roman Empire - lots of bad things are happening all over the place. But few are taking a good look at the overall situation. And these few are being ignored.