Ambitious

“people who succeed tend to find one goal in the distant future and then chase it through thick and thin. People who flit from one interest to another are much, much less likely to excel at any of them. School asks students to be good at a range of subjects, but life asks people to find one passion that they will follow forever.”

― David Brooks, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources Of Love, Character, And Achievement

“What separates ambition that elevates from ambition that corrupts, and how do you know which one is driving you? In the second installment of Yale Conversations, Presidential Senior Fellow David Brooks delivered a wide-ranging talk at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs on the nature of ambition, desire, and what he calls “the gleam”: the fervent, luminous drive he has observed in everyone from Boys and Girls Club finalists to Tina Turner to Paul Cézanne. Drawing on philosophy, memoir, and decades of observation, Brooks traced the forces that crush passion — overintellectualization, the spirit of calculation, technological sloth, and loss of faith — and laid out the internal wrestling matches that determine whether ambition lifts us toward our better selves or pulls us toward resentment, ego, and hollow striving. A Q&A with students and faculty followed. Yale Conversations is a public forum presented by Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs in collaboration with the Office of the President.” Recorded March 31, 2026.