Society suffers from the misallocation of ambition, due to externalizing our meaning of ambition to outside influences. Here, ambition is misconstrued to mean the pursuit of a career in a handful of specific “high ambition” fields (e.g. finance, consulting, tech and law) instead of the general pursuit of excellence in one’s chosen path, even if it lies outside of these fields.
Instead of seeking paths aligned with our natural gifts, we chase career paths which are socially glorified, prestigious and validating to our ego. Introverts pursue extroverted careers, disowning and rejecting the unique advantages that come with their introspective nature. Extroverts chase down introverted roles in the name of a higher salary and respect, resulting in a soulless life lacking in meaning and joy.
This leads to irrational talent-to-career distributions where certain paths like finance and consulting are stacked full of competition, as every graduate piles in for the hopes of fast riches and prestige. On the flip side, most blue-collar jobs being considered “low value” have a distinct shortage of talent to fill those roles, leading to a lack of real productivity in the economy.
True civilisational progress requires a return to divinely aligned vocation, stewardship of one’s gifts and first seeking what is aligned with their nature, not what gives them prestige in the eyes of their peers. People must stop acting from scarcity, status-chasing and money-chasing, and instead start by asking themselves who they are, what they were created to do, and pursue a life aligned with that rather than seeking what looks good in the eyes of others.
Once this alignment is restored, civilisation gains a robust structure where each person fulfills their role with excellence. The result is a world where the individual serves the whole and the whole serves the individual. Society stops overweighting certain fields or personality traits and instead becomes balanced, coherent and healthy as a whole. This is how real long-term progress is achieved.
How ambition has been corrupted
Nowadays, “ambition” has been corrupted to mean something along the axis of pursuing an entrepreneurial venture, climbing the corporate ladder or a career in a “high-value” field like finance, consulting, tech or law.
Anything less than a six-figure salary and sitting in a cushy Grade-A office building in New York, London or San Francisco is considered a signal to others that you “lack ambition.”
In the Bible, however, ambition was never contained to mean “you’re only ambitious if you pick a career from this handful of highly prestigious career paths.” Instead, ambition was accessible to all people and all roles. This was true regardless of whether you were a king, farmer, merchant or servant. Ambition simply meant to faithfully multiply your God-given talents to express divine truth through that path. Let’s call this divinely rooted ambition.
In the modern world, this would look like:
- If you’re a stay-at-home mum, then faithfully using your divine gifts of nurturing, patience and motherly love to raise kids as best as you can, in alignment with divine truth.
- If you have a natural talent for aesthetics, drawing and design, then using those talents to express divine truth through the channel of art and design.
- If you have a brain that is whacked out on contrarian and independent thinking, then expressing truth in the world through those talents, perhaps in the role of a philosopher.
The problem today, though, is that society has bastardised the meaning of ambition and judges some paths as more “moral” or “valuable” than others. If you work in finance, tech or consulting, then you are revered as ambitious, intelligent and hardworking. If you merely work as a taxi driver or toilet cleaner, then you’re considered unambitious, unintelligent and likely lazy or entitled.
“Ambition has been misconstrued to mean pursuing a career in a handful of ‘high ambition’ fields instead of the pursuit of excellence in one’s chosen path.”
The result is a mass hypnosis among young people who believe that if they pursue anything less than a career at Goldman Sachs, Google or McKinsey, they are somehow less worthy. It also creates a disillusioning divide, where many vital and vocational roles — such as tradespeople, carers and factory workers — are unfairly disrespected or looked down upon.
When there is bifurcation in society where the top half of jobs are considered worthy of praise and prestige, and the bottom half are scoffed at as “low value”, it causes those who normally would be highly competent and find joy in those jobs to reject them in favour of some divinely misaligned “prestigious” path instead.
As a result, we have a job market where everyone is scrambling to get into MBB, FAANG or investment banking, regardless of true personality fit for the role in question.
Divine calling and vocation
This mindless pursuit of status stems from our denial of the divine gifts within us. We inadvertently tell ourselves and our creator: “No, what you’ve given me isn’t good enough. I’m going to go this other route instead.”
This is why many introverts falsely believe their introversion to be a disadvantage, abandoning it altogether and trying to fit into the corporate-sanctioned template of the “extroverted, talkative team player”, instead of applying their introversion in a field which directly rewards it.
The word vocation comes from the Latin vocāre, meaning “to call.” Your vocation, then, is not just a job or career — it is the divine calling you’ve been entrusted to steward in this life. A true vocation isn’t chosen through the logical deduction of what is “efficient” or “high paying”; rather, it is received only when we block out the noise of the external world and listen intently to what is inside.
When we do listen and heed the call, we align ourselves with divine will. Our life becomes effortless; we find bliss in the work that we do. Our job no longer feels like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. We feel that we were somehow meant to do this job — not only are we excellent at it, but it feels right on a soul level. Most importantly, our soul tells us that we’d rather continue to do this job even if it pays less, even if it’s less prestigious and even if it’s less socially validating than some finance or consulting job.
The “introversion is bad” myth and over-weighting of extroverted traits
Introversion is not bad. Indeed, we live in a society and culture that promotes extroversion, loudness and confidence as the ideal, but that’s because you likely live in a country that overemphasises verbal swagger and brashness over real value and substance. Not all countries are the same.
Just because confidence and charisma are highly revered in the Anglo-American world and modern corporate culture doesn’t mean that they are the absolute ideal in all situations. In roles which demand constant human engagement such as sales, customer support and management, they are necessary and advantageous. However, in roles which require deep introspective thought, they are actually a liability.
The West fetishises extroversion and “soft” skills like teamwork and communication. But in Chinese culture, real results beat extroversion because results matter more than talk. This is why Chinese employers don’t care if you have fifteen different extracurriculars on your CV and if you were the president of the debate society; they care if you can actually get things done.
The critical mistake that the West made was to misattribute the ability to speak confidently about something with actual ability. Hence the prevalence of highly paid corporate leaders and managers who are verbally dominant and confident but grossly incapable. It’s salesmanship over real substance.
“Talk doesn't cook rice.” — Chinese Proverb
Ultimately, the problem is we live in a Western world that deems certain traits as “superior” to others. This usually means traits like introversion, introspection and independent thinking are thrown by the wayside. Introspective and quirky personalities are taught to disown themselves in the name of conformity to the Western corporate machine. We’ve forgotten a fundamental truth: every strength comes with a corresponding weakness.
Highly extroverted types may be confident and brash, but are usually bad at deep thinking and logical analysis.
Highly introverted types are often excellent at deep thinking and logical analysis but poor in communication and leadership.
This isn’t a deficiency, but the natural distribution of talent and divine gifts within society. The key is to recognise the diversity of gifts among people, and allow everyone to take a place in a role that is naturally aligned with their gifts — with dignity — instead of shaming some traits as lesser.
When the world overweights the extroverted class and underweights the introverts, what results is a dysfunctional society that is all talk but no substance. Think the United States. This is a country which spends billions every year marketing how amazing it is, yet is crumbling from the inside out.
On the other hand, countries like China which respect the talent of introverts build mind-boggling infrastructure, lead the world’s green revolution, invent radically innovative new technology and look like they’re living in 2050 already.
Why this misallocation occurs
Over the past couple of decades, the world has become more globalised and connected. With the advent of social media, even more so. Most people think that unfettered globalisation and connectedness is a good thing. However, there is a clear problem which occurs — people are overexposed to external stimulus.
When our eyes and our minds are glued to our phone and we’re being indoctrinated by social media influencers telling us that “this career is desirable because it’s high paying and prestigious”, we’re subtly being conditioned to conform to their expectations and beliefs. The problem isn't just the content — it’s the act of outsourcing our decisions to the outside world entirely.
As a result, our intuition becomes suppressed and we fail to hear God speaking and guiding us. We end up pursuing paths which are misaligned with our true nature. After years or decades, eventually we wake up and realise that we were on the wrong path all along. We might have been “successful” in the eyes of our friends and family, but deep down, our soul craved something more, yet we already invested years into that false path and now it’s too late.
You see, when our focus is on the external world — what others are doing, how much success they’re having, how revered they are by others — it’s simultaneously not focused on God and his guidance for us.
When we see someone talking about how they make $200k a year as a software engineer at Google and our ego thirsts for the same money, status and prestige, it fogs up our field of view and we cannot see that God may be calling us to a different path entirely.
This lust for wealth, status and prestige is largely attributed to the false notion that things outside of ourselves can truly fulfil us. When we pursue something just because of money or status, we’re indicating to the divine that we are not already whole, complete and unconditionally loved.
If God made us to be perfect and designed us to spec, then who are we to deny the weird quirks that he gave us, even if society dismisses or rejects us for it?
Growing up with a highly introspective and skeptical mind, I was very shy and had no desire for high school popularity contests and status-chasing.
Was I rejected and made fun of for it? Yes.
Did it hurt me deeply into the depths of my soul? Again, yes.
Did I therefore reject my gift of introversion, deep-thinking nature and skepticism to fit in with the world? Yes — and that was my big mistake.
“It is not humility to insist on being someone that you are not. It is as much as saying that you know better than God who you are and who you ought to be. How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man’s city? How do you expect to reach your own perfection by leading somebody else’s life? His sanctity will never be yours; you must have the humility to work out your own salvation in a darkness where you are absolutely alone.” — Thomas Merton
Self-improvement should be about refinement, not transformation
The world of self-improvement, like the corporate world, will love to make you believe that who you are isn’t good enough. That you’re dysfunctional and need to change who you are. This is a huge mistake.
Self-improvement should never be about changing someone’s fundamental nature but refining that person’s nature to be the best version of who they are.
Think about it like refining metals. Just as iron ore when smelted becomes refined iron, and silver ore once refined becomes silver bullion, our goal should be to refine who we are, not change who we are.
The periodic table is a great mental model for life. It lists 118 of the key elements on earth. Each one has a valid and specific purpose. Iron is used for construction and manufacturing, gold is useful as a store of monetary value, lithium for batteries and oxygen for life support in hospitals.
What if, instead of accepting their own individual nature, each element wanted to become gold because of the prestige and glamour that surrounds it? Then we’d have a dysfunctional world that no longer works.
In hermetic philosophy, they talk a lot about the process of spiritual alchemy. This is where one becomes purified and refined under the flame of life, to become a purer, more refined version of who they are.
There are four stages to alchemy: Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas and Rubedo. Each one takes us through the process of dissolving impurities, not our core essence. At the end, we become a shining, refined version of our true selves, not someone else entirely. This is also corroborated by the idea of true will in Thelema, which is the divine unique purpose each individual has been gifted in their lives.
In my own life, when I felt rejected as a teenager for being who I authentically was, I accepted their rejection to mean I must reject my innate traits of introspection, deep thinking and refusal to bow to mainstream norms.
- I began chasing the wrong friends.
- I began pursuing women who weren’t a good fit.
- I began acting like a conceited, arrogant, money-hungry douchebag.
I lost myself because I accepted and believed what other people said about me. Of course, at the time I didn’t see it in that way. I saw it as “self-improvement”.
After all, what’s wrong with becoming more confident, learning to make friends and making money? Nothing. However, the problem arose when:
- Instead of seeking aligned friendships, I chased “cool” people who never truly respected or cared for me.
- Instead of seeking women who were compatible with me, I pursued “hot” women who were brain-dead and soulless.
- Instead of earning money in a way that felt right to me, I chased quicker paths that clashed with my true nature.
So whilst self-improvement can be a good thing, please don’t buy into the belief that there is something fundamentally corrupted or defective about you.
If you’re an introvert, the goal isn’t to become an extrovert.
If you’re compassionate, the goal isn’t to become a brash, arrogant douchebag.
If you’re someone who enjoys craft and design, the goal isn’t to become a manager because people tell you it “pays more”.
The goal is simply to refine who you are:
- To no longer allow introversion to hold you back from meeting the right friends.
- To no longer allow your compassion to hinder you from asserting strong boundaries.
- To no longer allow your love of creation to impede you from being financially rewarded for your work.
Who you are isn’t flawed; it just needs a little cleaning up.
Forcing vs allowing life
When we blindly subscribe to societal timelines and expectations, we end up trying to force outcomes instead of allowing things to organically come to fruition in time.
Instead of following what feels right to us, having faith, and allowing time to do its thing, we get antsy because our desired outcome hasn’t been achieved yet. This is like baking a cake and opening the oven door every 2 minutes because you refuse to trust the process.
On the surface, chasing outcomes seems logical. After all, what harm is there in getting what we want, quicker and more efficiently? Nothing. However, the question we must first ask ourselves is whether we’re trying to seek the right things in the first place.
Is our decision to pursue a particular path guided by ego, or by divine guidance?
Are we trying to align with divine will, or trying to enforce our own will?
If your decisions are driven by what others think of you, and how much friction you can minimise with your peers, then it’s clear your decisions are ego-based — and this stems from a fundamental belief that you are not already whole, complete and unconditionally loved by your creator.
External circumstances don’t dictate how we feel. Billionaires never have to work another day in their lives but are often stressed beyond belief, due to an incessant belief that their material possessions are the determinant of their worth. On the other hand, someone could be working a low-paying, “dirty” job but is perfectly happy, content and doesn’t suffer from the same levels of stress and anxiety.
Anxiety doesn’t come from a lack of resources; it comes from a lack of trust and faith that we’ll manage to find the resources in time. It comes from a lack of contentment in what you have already.
Ironically, anxiety and striving for outcomes actually push away the provisions which God sends your way. Anxiety clouds your judgement and thus you fail to see the lifeline which was offered to you. Instead, you keep running in circles chasing some illusory goal that you delude yourself into believing — that once achieved — will finally grant you the peace you desire.
The uncomfortable truth is that there is no peace found in material things. Like water that makes us thirsty, the attainment of material things only leads to hunger for more.
There is only peace when we fully surrender to God and allow his will to take over our lives.
There is only peace when we refuse to buy into the illusion that contentment is found in “more” things.
There is only peace when we stop chasing what’s not ours, and accept the path God has asked us to embark on.
True satisfaction comes when you no longer need anything. And ironically, that is when you get everything that you truly desire.
Anxiety doesn’t come from a lack of resources; it comes from a lack of trust and faith that we’ll manage to find the resources in time.
The incompleteness of logic
Most of us believe that logic is the ultimate virtue. We make decisions which are “logical” and “efficient” and often this gets us what we need. Certainly, logic makes sense in many aspects of life — I’m not denying that. As an INTP, logic is my best friend.
However, it's undeniable that logic also has its limits. Making decisions purely from logic is a fast-track to struggle and misery. I know this because that’s how I used to live my life.
During the time when I was struggling and trying to figure out how to make money online, I told myself that learning to code was “illogical” and a “waste of time” because it would “take too long” and there was a “significant opportunity cost” associated with it. So I put off learning to code in favour of doing “high-value” activities like sales and marketing — both of which I found painfully boring and uninteresting.
Coding, on the other hand, felt blissful. It felt like painting, but with a code editor instead of a paintbrush. If I was really into a project, I could code for 14 hours straight, because my brain was so engaged and in flow that it felt like heaven to me — not effort.
But here’s the problem: I kept overriding that joy. Because in my mind, logic meant chasing “leverage.” It meant doing what was externally seen as “high ROI.” So instead of following the joy of coding, I forced myself to do sales, because sales is what “makes money”. I tried cold emailing, building funnels, hiring VAs, running high-ticket offers — not because I liked any of those things, but because I thought it was the “smart” thing to do.
It was logical on paper. The gurus said it would work. And sometimes, it did bring in money — but it felt like I was pulling teeth every day, and my energy drained faster than the bank balance grew. I was constantly building systems I didn’t want to operate, selling services I didn’t care about, and solving problems I didn’t find interesting. The result? Burnout. Inconsistency. Inauthenticity disguised as “discipline.” And eventually, quitting.
Meanwhile, the few times I let myself drift into “illogical” things — like building internal tools for myself, designing UIs from scratch, or automating things for fun — I felt alive. I wasn’t trying to monetise those things. I was doing them because I wanted to. Ironically, it was by refuting logic and following the feeling in my heart that ultimately led me to a path of greater financial stability and finally feeling like I “found my purpose”.
In hindsight, it’s obvious what the problem was: I kept making “rational” business decisions that failed because they were misaligned with who I am. And I kept avoiding “irrational” choices — like spending months learning to code or tinkering with backend infra — which ultimately turned out to be my unfair advantage.
The logical mind optimises for speed. The aligned mind optimises for sustainability. And at the end of the day, it’s the second one that wins. Of course, logic has its place — but it comes after feeling, not before it.
Start With Feeling, Refine With Logic
One of the most important principles I’ve learned is this: always start with feeling, not thinking. Logic is important; it sharpens the edge, refines the vision, and helps avoid stupid mistakes. But it should never be the starting point.
When you lead with logic and then try to force feeling on top of it, you end up living a life that makes sense on paper but feels dead in your soul.
I used to do this constantly. I would tell myself:
“This business model makes sense. The margins are great. There’s demand. You can automate the funnel. People are happy to buy high-ticket.”
At first, I’d try. I’d implement the funnel, start running ads and try to do high-ticket sales calls and as I mentioned before, it might bring in a bit of revenue, but ultimately I could not stick to it. I noticed a repeating pattern in my life:
- I’d listen to some guru talk about how XYZ was the “best” way to make money.
- I’d follow their blueprint and begin taking action.
- 2–3 weeks later, I felt existentially exhausted, bored and miserable.
I wondered to myself whether it was because I simply lacked discipline or whether the path itself was wrong for me. Initially I blamed myself, so I kept trying and trying. But then eventually, with enough iterations, I realised that if I truly lacked discipline then…
- I wouldn’t be someone who kept going to the gym 4–5 days a week for 10+ years straight
- I wouldn’t be someone who continued to read and learn new things ever since I was a kid
- I wouldn’t be someone who studied hard in school, attaining top grades in the process
So clearly, it wasn’t that I lacked discipline; it was that I was trying to force myself into a path that was fundamentally incompatible with my nature. There was no joy in me trying to follow the “logical” path the gurus laid out for me. It felt like an arranged marriage to a woman I didn’t love.
And just like in relationships, you can’t think your way into love. You can’t reverse-engineer desire. You can’t list pros and cons and talk yourself into chemistry. If she ticks all the boxes but you feel nothing — it’s not the right girl.
Same with work. Same with calling. Same with life.
You can choose something that makes perfect logical sense — great market, high leverage, social validation — but if your nervous system rejects it, if your soul quietly shrinks every time you sit down to work on it, then it’s a bad fit.
No amount of “discipline” will fix misalignment.
No amount of external reward can fill the void of internal deadness.
The path that is right for you will often feel good before it makes sense. It will pull you before it pays you. That’s not a flaw — that’s the signal. Once you’ve found that signal, then yes — bring in the logic. Use it to sculpt, focus, optimise. Logic helps you stay consistent. It helps you turn flow into systems and intuition into form. But it should never be used to manufacture desire where none exists. That’s how people end up trapped in careers, relationships or lifestyles that they secretly despise.
So now, my method is simple:
Feel first. Logic second. Start with what feels true — even if it’s slow, irrational, or “low ROI” in the short term. Then let logic help you build scaffolding around it. Because if the foundation isn’t love, you’ll burn out before you break through.
Righteous vs Status hierarchy
In the secular West, most believe that hierarchy is inherently bad. This explains the tendency toward flatter, more egalitarian structures whether in business or family dynamics.
Whilst it is true that everyone is equal in the eyes of God, it doesn’t mean that we should necessarily do away with hierarchy altogether.
You see, originally, hierarchy — especially as presented in Confucian thought — was meant as a sacred, righteous structure to organise society. Those at the top earned their place there only through righteousness and wisdom, and they would be responsible for teaching and guiding those lower down with the intent to eventually climb higher in the hierarchy of wisdom and righteousness themselves.
This can be seen in the master-disciple relationship in Chinese tradition. Sifus (masters) earned their place through virtuous behaviour, wisdom and mastery, whilst disciples learned from and developed their character with the guidance of their sifus.
This dynamic — along with values like filial piety — has clearly been hijacked to justify blind submission to authority, removing any expectation of virtue from those in power. Let me make it clear that that is NOT the intention for hierarchy that Confucius meant for society.
Instead, he fundamentally believed that authority should only be granted to those who earned it through virtue and moral behaviour. If a king was immoral, he believed the king should step down, or otherwise those lower down had every right to remove him from power.
“When a ruler fails in virtue, the people have the right to reject him.” — Mencius 5A:9
Thus, the whole idea behind hierarchy in Confucian thought rests on the idea that those higher up are wiser, more righteous and thus closer to divine truth, and they are expected to steward that and pass it down the hierarchy to those lower down.
This is similar to what is taught in traditional Christian families where dad is expected to connect with God so that he takes divine guidance and transmits it to his kids. This virtuous cycle is an example of hierarchy done right.
“Peace is the tranquillity of order. Order is the arrangement of things equal and unequal, each in its own place, as it ought to be. And this order is nothing other than love arranging all things in their proper place.” – St. Augustine, City of God, Book XIX
NOTE: When Augustine speaks of “equal and unequal,” he is not referring to differences in dignity or worth. In Christian thought, all humans are equal in the eyes of God. The “unequal” he refers to is the natural difference in gifts, temperaments, roles and capacities. In other words, inequality of function, not inequality of value. A righteous hierarchy preserves equality of dignity while recognising the diversity of abilities that make ordered life possible.
Of course, corrupted humans love to use hierarchy as a way to exploit, bifurcate and gatekeep, often giving birth to structures like the British class system where aristocrats were considered somehow more moral and dignified and the working class as dirty third-class citizens.
Of course, the problem with such corrupted forms of hierarchy is the implicit moral judgement it imposes on certain roles in society. This ties back to the irrational talent-to-career distribution we see in today’s world.
God does not discriminate between rich and poor, strong and weak, beautiful and ugly. We live in a world where all are equal in the eyes of God.
Sure, some earn more than others. Some are more physically attractive than others. Some are better at specific things than others. But weakness in one area usually means clear strength in another area.
Instead of seeing the world through the shallow lens of “the more you earn, the more valuable you are”, we need to begin to see value in other forms, not just the monetary.
A loving, caring, patient stay-at-home mother is just as valuable as a tech entrepreneur.
A diligent, humble train driver is just as valuable as a world-famous pop star.
A genuine, dedicated teacher holds just as much value as the world’s top athlete.
“If you cannot do great things, do small things with great love.” — Mother Teresa
If every role and person is valuable in the eyes of God, it means that every role in society has dignity. It doesn’t matter if you’re a toilet cleaner or a tech mogul; you both have dignity.
Once we accept that every role has dignity, we no longer need to shame certain roles, which leads to a more rational talent-to-career distribution. Instead of everyone trying to get a job at McKinsey or Meta, we have people who humbly accept a job as a teacher, caretaker or driver.
It also means that each person does their job with contentment and joy, rather than envy of others and quiet resignation. This leads to a virtuous cycle — a functioning and orderly society in the eyes of God — where hierarchy isn’t abused for power or to segregate, but to organize life in such a way where each person’s divine gifts are given a place to shine.
Conclusion: Stop rejecting and start accepting your divine gifts
In a world that worships money, status and prestige, we’ve lost touch with something ancient, personal and divine: the truth that each of us was designed for something specific.
Not everyone is meant to be a tech entrepreneur. Not everyone is meant to be a public speaker. Not everyone is meant to start a business. But everyone is meant for something. And it is only in walking that specific path that you will find peace, joy and spiritual integrity.
You don’t need to outperform others. You don’t need to impress anyone. You don’t need to become something you are not.
You just need to listen — listen to what God has already placed inside of you, follow that path, and refine yourself along the way. This is the only life worth living: a life aligned, refined and offered back to the world in service of truth.
We need to do away with the modern world’s corrupted idea of “ambition” and return to divine vocation — to find our true calling — amidst the noise of the world. As Thomas Merton said, “It is not humility to insist on being someone you are not.”
So many of us chase external signals of success, whether it’s a brand-name employer or labels like “millionaire” or “billionaire”, and we try to mould ourselves into stained, corrupted, unrecognizable versions of ourselves.
The subtle tell is the quiet discontent within, the gentle voice of our soul which we reject for decades until we can’t anymore. For most, the result is their entire life falling apart — a mid-life crisis — where everything they were running from finally catches up.
Do you want to run from your truth, only to confront it in your forties or fifties — after decades lost in a fog of inauthenticity and submission to societal expectations? Or will you choose to live in alignment today?
It’s up to you really, but I know which one I choose.