We’re not big fans of what I consider “vertical” ambition—that is, the usual career-path trajectory, in which a newbie moves up the ladder from associate to manager to vice president over a number of years of service. On the other hand, we revere “horizontal” ambition—in which employees who love what they do are encouraged to dig deeper, expand their knowledge, and become better at it. We always try to hire people who yearn to be master craftspeople, that is, designers who want to be great designers, not managers of designers; developers who want to master the art of programming, not management.
The above article has made me think about ‘Ambition’ and being ‘Ambitious’. There is a need to recognize the fact about having two types of ambitious people, vertical and horizontal. Secondly people on both sides of horizon need to respect each other. In this world we need people of both the types.
In various aspects of our life, we can be vertically ambitious in certain aspects and horizontally ambitious in others.
I am vertically ambitious when it comes to my career but horizontal ambitious when it comes to other aspects of my life.
What about you?
