The Ambition Defect 08/29/2008. I once worked with a guy who referred to his older brother as the "white sheep of the family.
" The older brother was a CEO of a Fortune 500 company while his siblings had no ambitions that extended beyond lunch. That sort of thing makes me wonder about the whole nature versus nurture question. I assume all the kids in this fellow's family had a similar upbringing, but only one had ambition. When I was a kid, adults often told me I would be rich and famous some day. Apparently I was giving off some sort of ambition vibe early on. The Psyche Behind Ambition: Driven or a Little Crazy? If it's got Oprah's name on it, it's got to be good.
At least that's the consensus of most Americans, who tune into her hit talk show, snatch up her magazine and click more than 68 million page views a month on her Web site. And she's charitable too: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa opened its doors in December. It seems like everything Winfrey touches turns to gold. And it looks like she's about to rack up quite a few more doubloons. The Science of Ambition: How Genes, Family Affect Success. You don't get as successful as Gregg and Drew Shipp by accident.
Shake hands with the 36-year-old fraternal twins who co-own the sprawling Hi Fi Personal Fitness club in Chicago, and it's clear you're in the presence of people who thrive on their drive. But that wasn't always the case. The twins' father founded the Jovan perfume company, a glamorous business that spun off the kinds of glamorous profits that made it possible for the Shipps to amble through high school, coast into college and never much worry about getting the rent paid or keeping the fridge filled.