Most ambitious people I know are paralyzed by the same fear: that they will fail to achieve their potential. To not use their abilities to get what they value feels fundamentally bad.
It’s somewhat ironic given that nobody achieves their potential. It’s an aspirational goal. But whether or not it is the correct thing to aspire to is a persistent question, or doubt, that I’ve reflected on more recently.
Do I strive for my potential, or not? It feels like an ultimatum, although it surely isn’t. And if I commit to striving, what place does that leave for other values?
When I was younger, I always used to wonder what would happen if someone truly reached their potential. If they completed every possible task, no matter how annoying. Worked even when they were tired. Took advantage of every opportunity. What would happen? How successful would they become? Would they change the world?
Recently, I’ve rediscovered these ideas, with SF twists: Become a live player. “If you do everything, you’ll win.” You can just do things. What could you accomplish, if you were 10x more agentic?
For many of us, the stakes are no longer abstract. Rapid AI progress is a forcing function for these life decisions. If you take the state of the world seriously, the cost of inaction is higher than the cost of trying and failing. The problems are real, the window for action is shrinking, and most people who could help — many of my friends — are still sitting on the sidelines, waiting for permission or certainty.
This is motivating, but also paralyzing. I know that the weight of the gap between who you are and who you want to become can be crushing. None of your ideas are good enough. You’re not agentic enough. You’re not charismatic enough. Fear of failure drives stagnation and apathy.
I also find that many high-performing, ambitious people find themselves plagued by a weird combination: an almost delusional overconfidence in their abilities, yet an underlying feeling of shame, doubt that they’ll be good enough.
The lurking temptation that one with these feelings might have is to give up, to retreat. Go back to the default path. It is easy to find some philosophy to justify inaction. That something isn’t your comparative advantage. That you have more to learn.
When the difference between impact and non-impact sits on a knife’s edge, and it is easier than ever to deceive yourself, we must be vigilant about these temptations.
I believe these temptations suggest a false choice. In fact, effort exists on a spectrum. On one side is courage. To do what you fear, to sail into the unknown. On the other is cowardice.
As Jung writes, the neurosis that develops when you do not follow through on the questions life sets before you is the greatest curse. It is worse to take the easy way out, to run and hide, to avoid striving. The life one has to live is not as bad as a neurosis.
To not strive for your potential is cowardice. To not do what is right, by your own lights, because you were too scared to truly try and win, is to be, for lack of a better word, a scrub. There will always be an excuse. You will never fully reach your potential. There will always be a philosophy, or a rationale, to justify a lack of courage. But paralysis and cowardice? Or being content with a self-awareness of your flaws? This is to be avoided at all costs.
Agency is within your control, and can compensate for any perceived deficiency, believe me. Imposter syndrome is real. The market is not efficient. Nobody else is on the ball.
And importantly, courage itself is a lever you can control. The more belief you have, the better you will perform. Being calibrated about your ability is useful for forecasting. It is not useful for acting in the world. Epistemic uncertainty about your own limits is a path toward paralysis and cowardice.
Ambition and agency are learnable skills. How much you learn them is up to you. Raise your aspirations!
So, do the hard thing. Push against the current. Remove the option of failure. Stare into every abyss. Join the small group of people trying their damndest to steer the world for the better. Or to make the most of your life, whatever that means for you.
Choose courage. Choose to believe that if you do everything, you will win. Not because it is true, but because if you do not believe it, you will not win.