In my experience its not that ambition is bad, its just that much more difficult to act upon successfully these days than previous.
I was speaking to friends of mine a few years back, and they mentioned that they successfully created a facilities management and cleaning business for a few years just to have the experience. Made a lot of money and moved on. My parents did something similar, bought a sub 5000 dollar print cartridge restoration franchise, turned it into 50k in 18 months and dumped it.
You try either of those today and the margins are too thin to even contemplate. You can work 18 hour days for a few years and end up with very little. Not to mention the generally poor returns on wage labor compared to cost of living. My parents combined income 20 years ago is less than I earn solo now. They had 2 cars and a house on that money. I rent at more than 5 times their mortgage cost.
I actually tend to blame hobbies, for having such a good happiness return per dollar, for soaking up discretionary spending. Society is fucked to the point where some people toil hopelessly without recreation, and others are devoted almost entirely to recreation. Like the division of labor coming in to play to ensure the people best suited to leisure are completing that task.
I was speaking to friends of mine a few years back, and they mentioned that they successfully created a facilities management and cleaning business for a few years just to have the experience. Made a lot of money and moved on. My parents did something similar, bought a sub 5000 dollar print cartridge restoration franchise, turned it into 50k in 18 months and dumped it.
You try either of those today and the margins are too thin to even contemplate. You can work 18 hour days for a few years and end up with very little. Not to mention the generally poor returns on wage labor compared to cost of living. My parents combined income 20 years ago is less than I earn solo now. They had 2 cars and a house on that money. I rent at more than 5 times their mortgage cost.
I actually tend to blame hobbies, for having such a good happiness return per dollar, for soaking up discretionary spending. Society is fucked to the point where some people toil hopelessly without recreation, and others are devoted almost entirely to recreation. Like the division of labor coming in to play to ensure the people best suited to leisure are completing that task.