JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Ambition vs greed

Ambition is view as a good thing while greed is usually frowned on, but where does ambition end and greed start.Something to ponder.Some say greed is a good thing because it keeps the economy going. The millionaire wanting to become a billionaire.

They are totally separate ideas.

Ambition is a hunger, a desire to achieve something "greater" that takes focus, determination, dedication, work, time etc

Greed is accumulation for the sake of accumulation.

I suppose only their end result can be judged on an individual basis.

I disagree with that also, John. Rather than separate, being greedy may be a subset of being ambitious. Ambition and greed are both desires. Ambition is a desire for success, or wealth, power, possession etc.. Greed is a selfish desire for any or all of those things, not for accumulation itself. Ambition is often thought of as a positive trait, but it's really morally and ethically neutral. One may be selfishly ambitious, which would mean they are greedy.

A danger in all this is pronouncing someone else as greedy. That's a judgment. A person may have great drive to succeed and have great success, but unbeknownst to those who call him or her "greedy," may be doing so purely to help others anonymously. The old joke is, "I am ambitious, you are greedy." Judging people is not to be done lightly, except on Facebook.

Here's one dictionary meaning...

Greed:
Excessively desirous of acquiring or possessing, especially wishing to possess more than what one needs or deserves.


Ambition:
Strong desire for success, achievement, or distinction

Seems greed leans more towards material things, where ambition leans towards achievement and distinction. I think I'm ambitious but definitely not greedy.

I think ambition is a noble characteristic of man.

John

To me the two are linked but are two different degrees.

Ambition=somebody studying hard to become a doctor
Greed=reccomending plastic surgery to every patient who walks in your office.

Ambition is willingness to put in work or study or anything above the norm to get what you want.

Greed is already having what you want, and making other people work for you to make more!

I think greed is linked to money no matter how you slice it

Ambition is linked to character

i don't know but here at the supper table i'm feeling a lot of ambition for greed!

Interesting.Ambition to get ahead and make something of ones self is a good thing,but when someone tramples others to do so,then it becomes a bad thing.Honest competition is a good thing but when they use influence and power to get rid of competition,it becomes a bad thing.We see it every day in business and politics.Greed is not only for money or land but for power and control.Ambition is good to a point but greed is bad from the start.The trick is to know where one leaves off and the other one starts.

Greed is a deadly sin – ambition isn’t

Greed is taking more than you need
Ambition is striving for what you want

They are different things.
An ambitious person may or may not be greedy.
A greedy person may or may not be ambitious.

I guess that only the person himself can assess whether he is greedy. I don't think it's possible for another person to know.

If someone is successful and has accumulated wealth, but he has no great desire for the wealth and the wealth was simply the consequence of the success, then I guess he couldn't be called greedy. Even though another person looking on might think he's greedy.

Spot on Nigel !

cheers, niteshift

One man's greed is another man's ambition. In a social system based on cutthroat capitalism, not ethics or morals, competition is seen as a good unto itself and those who rise to the top are esteemed and rewarded with power and wealth. Those at the bottom, well they're generally condemned as lazy, lacking ambition or some other trait possessed by the successful. It is easy, then, to take pride in our ambition - after all, isn't that how one gets ahead? - while denouncing the lack of moral character of those with less. Let's not forget it was ambition that led Lucifer to plot against the Throne. Or as Bob Dylan noted: "Well, God is in His heaven/ And we all want what's His/ But power and greed and corruptible seed/Seem to be all that there is."

Ambition can be no less dangerous than greed.

Well,
A neighbor of mine from several years ago had a Mineature Snauzuer male dog, named Fritz. My neighbor had food down for his dogs. One day while I was visiting Fritz had his usual dish of food in front of him. Now Fritz was as fat as he could be and couldn't hold another oz of food if his life depended on it. But Fritz sat there guarding his food as if I was going to steal it from him! Not sure if that is greed or ambition but Fritz wasn't giving anyone his food!

Only Fritz knows if there's greed in his heart.

There is no accounting for perspective.....

For instance the Facebook mafia hates corporate executives who earn a high salary for running a company 24/7 that provides useful products and employs thousands of people. But nobody complains about a drummer in a rock band or a movie star who is worth $100 million.

"Some say greed is a good thing because it keeps the economy going. The millionaire wanting to become a billionaire." Greed may benefit the economy in the short term with a burst of income into the economy but in the long term if the wealthy are "greedy" they may not reinvest in people so the wealth does not cycle through the economy.

Is ambition a virtue and greed the virtue gone bad? Ambition can be as simple as the depressed person determining to get out of bed or as complex as wanting to invent the next major medical breakthrough. Greed can be as simple as taking two cookies when you were only supposed to have one or as big as keeping two million and only reinvesting one. HOWEVER, I agree with Lisa, we can rarely make that judgment from the outside. What if the person who takes two cookies didn't have breakfast and needs two cookies? What if the millionaire is giving away one million or needs the funds for an expensive medical procedure?

Interesting discussion.

It's very much is a judgement call, i've always said that people who save lives should be paid the most.

Policemen and firemen who put their lives on the line every day they go to work should be paid more than a rock star who lives on dope and women.

Brain Surgeon should make more than Taylor Swift.

People can complain all they like, if anybody has enough people to give them money for a service or a product, that's just the luck of the draw.

Basicly I think greed comes into play when you hurt other people in the process of getting what you want. Stepping on people, trying to crush anybody who gets in your way.

kind of like me when I play a gig. LOLLLLLL

Ambition and greed are the same thing, only the first one is good and the second one is bad.

Just kidding...sort of. They are both value judgments of behavior. I'm not convinced only individuals can assess whether or not their vaulting ambition is actually greed. Sometimes the person practicing it is the last to know. We humans tend to think of ourselves as protagonists, the heroes of our own stories. It's usually OTHER people who are the greedy ones...

It seems like every music person in Nashville is out for himself or herself.

The worst of all is greedbition.

Food for thought... though I'm always a bit cautious when mentioning the wisdom of AR.

"When one speaks of man’s right to exist for his own sake, for his own rational self-interest, most people assume automatically that this means his right to sacrifice others. Such an assumption is a confession of their own belief that to injure, enslave, rob or murder others is in man’s self-interest—which he must selflessly renounce. The idea that man’s self-interest can be served only by a non-sacrificial relationship with others has never occurred to those humanitarian apostles of unselfishness, who proclaim their desire to achieve the brotherhood of men. And it will not occur to them, or to anyone, so long as the concept “rational” is omitted from the context of “values,” “desires,” “self-interest” and ethics." - Ayn Rand

Some good points being made here.

Hi Everett:

I started to respond to this thread much earlier but decided I should avoid it, conservative that I am. Finally, my inner-self put things on auto-pilot while I provide my simplistic comparison:

Greed = U.S. Government

Ambition = Songwriter


Is this an oversimplification? Certainly... but maybe not!

All my best to all of you,

Dave