Influence – How to Exert it. By Rational Ambition.
“Ambition is only accessible to the brave; they alone can discover the treasure hidden within it”. These words of Yoritomo should be known for all those who set out on the conquest of life.
Here the shogun will compare ambition and courage to modesty and humility.
“Ambition should, equally with goodness or any other virtue, form the object of rational teaching. But for that, it would be necessary to disengage ourselves from prejudices which brand it as a fault which we ought to disassemble.”
Some people think that being ambitious will make them look bad, because ambition is not a good quality. Perhaps some think that to achieve and get ahead of others in any way is to step on others or take advantage of them. Yoritomo goes on –
“In order to form a genuine and productive man, it is necessary to possess a great number of qualities which people who pride themselves on their modesty will always ignore. What is understood by modesty? Is it not too often a sham virtue which, under the borrowed linements of humility, hides the terrible defeat of weakness?”
“Would if not rather be the tinsel in which idleness likes to dress itself up in order to abandon itself with ease to its favorite vice?”
Woah. He calls it like he sees it. He is saying that many people use modesty and humility as an excuse or justification, even if only to themselves, for their weakness. They may see ambition as a vice and, therefore, do not have to summon the courage necessary to follow it.
“Modesty is the enemy of courageous undertakings, acts that require a display of energy that ambition or boldness alone can decide on. It is nearly always the sign of a want of confidence in oneself. It is the safeguard of the self-respect of the incapable.”
“Many weak mortals, irresolute, ideal or incompetent, instead of seeking to acquire the qualities which they lack, prefer to declare loudly ‘Oh as for me, I shall never succeed in attaining this end, for the good reason that I shall not undertake it. I am a modest person. I have a hatred of fame and renown surrounding my name, and I pity keenly all those who are tormented by the desire to shine!”
He goes on about this –
“If he is really convinced of his unimportance, we should pity him, for he will suffer in feeling himself insignificant, and this feeling will lead him little by little to hypochondria unless it inclines on the side of jealousy. Such is almost without exception the punishment of the weak: they have not themselves the courage to undertake great things and they do not forgive those who achieve them.”
He has a couple paragraphs talking about academics who study and read, but do nothing useful themselves.
“This kind of modest man who ignores thus his duty toward others is less useful to humanity than an ambitious man…”
“It is by developing ambition in their breasts that the leaders of the multitude have succeeded first in gaining a hearing and then in carrying conviction. What generous impulse can we expect from a man who has only one desire: to shut himself up in the selfish quiet of life, the works of which he jealously keeps to himself?”
We must study and learn, yes. But we must act on our ambitions, first fueled with courage and gradually replaced by confidence.
“Experience is knowledge derived from experiment.” Ellen G White