The Ambition Company

Principal

Founder

Kotter

Affiliate

President

Affiliate Partner

President : Kotter International - Consulting and Advisory

President - Kotter Consulting

Kotter International - Consulting and Advisory

Executive Vice President - Consulting

MAKE A DIFFERENCE LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION

Leadership Partner

Bank of America - Global Wealth & Investment Management

Senior Vice President

Deloitte Consulting

Senior Manager - Banking and Finance

Standard Bank Group

Head: Retail Fulfillment Centers

QI International

Account Director

Senior Consultant

Alexander Proudfoot

Sharing insights and all I've learned from advising leaders and teams, investing in founders and teams, hiring leaders and building teams, and being a leader.

Now:
✪ I'm a Speaker, an Investor and a Creator
✪ Founder of The Ambition Company / The Ambition Playbook™

Formerly: 
✩ Management Consultant
✩ Consulting Firm Co-owner/President
✩ Major Global Bank SVP

A bit about me:
- Born in Africa, worked on six continents, proud global citizen.  
- Swam from Robben Island to Cape Town in nothing but a speedo (ask me and I'll tell you the whole story).

If we aren't already connected, why not?

➡ russell@russellraath.com

I was working with a team recently
The top leadership group of a multi-billion dollar organization. 

They all felt “something more” was possible
⚡️They weren’t having the kind of conversations they thought they should be having
⚡️They were polite and “nice” but progress was slow and subtle “below the waterline” disagreements were impacting their progress. 

I realized two things - and this is what I prioritized when we spent a few days together:

1. You have to get the team dynamic right.
It needs to be tighter. 
⚡️People need to be able to say what they think. 
And they need time to think. 
They don’t need more decks and content > that’s not what the most senior leaders need. 
What leaders need is space and time to engage in the most important conversations about what they’re going to do (and not do) and to discuss how work gets done. 

So reframe what a great conversation should feel like (hint: it’s not everyone agreeing, and not loads of pre-reads.)

2. You have to all agree - and a deep conceptual level - on what success looks like. 
⚡️What is the ambition?
What’s that driving outcome that is bigger than any single person, that - when achieved - will have elevated the organization?
Does achieving it make you feel proud?
Does it make you think twice about how you work - because how you work today won’t get you there?
Does it have the potential to excite the employees who shows up every day to put in the hard work?
🚀Because if it doesn’t, why would anyone want to show up for you?

I don’t care about strategy at this point. 
Strategy follows Ambition. 
And a shared ambition only comes from a team that is working really well together. 

Focus on these two things to significantly level up how your team works. 

~~~

I wrote The Ambition Playbook™ to help teams achieve great outcomes. 

➡️So, if you lead a team and expect the very best for and from your team, let’s talk. 

➡️And if you’re a consultant or business advisor and want to learn more about how you can leverage this for your clients, DM me and I’ll send you the details. 

The Ambition Company 
#Ambition

Russell Raath

⚡️⚡️We need more Ambition.

We need less strategy
and more 🅰MBITION.

We need fewer plans
and more 🅰MBITION.

We need fewer meetings
and more 🅰MBITION.

We need fewer Gantt charts
and more 🅰MBITION.

We need less "vision" and "mission"
and more raw 🅰MBITION.

We need fewer "check-in" and "catch-up" and "recurring status" meetings
and more 🅰MBITION.
that drives "I'm on it!" or "I've done it!" energy.

🚀Here's a little thought experiment:

** Do you think Sam Walton (Walmart) or Elon Musk (Tesla/SpaceX/X) or John Collison(Stripe) or Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) or Walt Disney (The Walt Disney Company) or Dietrich Mateschitz (Red Bull) sat around in feckless meetings and "team sessions" for hours deliberating multiple plans and strategies talking about anything that wasn't going to move them forward ... fast?

No they didn't.
They just did it.
They stopped doing the nonsense no-value or low-value work.
And they ran towards that ambition.

We need more imagination.
We need to captivate our minds and energize our pursuits
With dreams of what might be possible.

I will always choose the most ambitious challenge,
The most ambitious company, and
The most ambitious people.

Because that is where you find 
Energy and Drive and Determination.
Like Sam and Elon and John ... and Warren and Walt and Dietrich.

That's the energy I want to be around.

We need more 🅰MBITION.

What are you surrounded by?

~~~

I wrote The Ambition Playbook™ to guide teams to dream bigger and have a greater impact. 

➡️ So, if you lead a team and expect the very best for and from your team, let’s talk. 

➡️ And if you’re a consultant or business advisor and want to learn more about how you can leverage this for your clients, DM me and I’ll send you the details. 

The Ambition Company 
#Ambition

No, you're not "procrastinating"
Your lack of action is actually a bad habit.

Well, that's according to JD Rockefeller.

"People who lack action have a bad habit; they like to maintain the status quo and refuse to change."

And he was right in diagnosing why we don't like to change the status quo.
Mostly, it is because of fear.

We might not say "we are scared",
But change threatens what we know.

I used to lack action.
I would think and pontificate and ponder ... and just not take action.
I found studies that justified how procrastinating made us better:
👉🏻Harvard has a paper on "The Perks of Procrastination."
👉🏻Forbes has an opinion piece on "The Procrastination Boost: Doing Less To Get More Done"

I convinced myself I had a hidden genius.
I was - proudly - a procrastinator.

But then I realized what it was costing me.

Because momentum - just getting started and doing something - is the biggest competitive differentiator you can have.
Not procrastinating.

👉🏻JD Rockefeller knew this.

Don't be proud of your procrastination.
Be proud of taking action instead.

{from the book "The 38 Letters from JD Rockefeller to his Son"}

~~~

✪  I built a framework to help teams achieve massive ambitions.
    And now I'm sharing it with consultants.

👉🏻 If you're a consultant and want to help your clients achieve greatness, message me for details on the plan to make it happen.

This week is on fire!!!!
I'm starting something new this week!

I'm all in with Chris Donnelly and the Creator Accelerator.

We're more than a handful of really creative and interesting people
Going on a journey together.
Building, creating, accelerating ...

What could be better than this?!

🚀🚀🚀 GO GO GO

The more I look at high-performing individuals and teams, the clearer the pattern becomes...

⚡️An ambition that is bigger than what they have done before, and what they "realistically think" they can do
⚡️An energy and a determination that is focused and driven
⚡️An aversion to distractions and a willingness to stop doing some things
⚡️Embracing that progress > planning and ambition > strategy.

✪ Dial up your ambition.
✪ Does it excite you?  Does it excite your team?
✪ Can you see activities that are not adding value, and do you want to kill them off - now?
✪ Are you making progress vs making plans?

~~~

I want teams to achieve the massive impact they deserve.
So I wrote The Ambition Playbook™ to help leaders and teams accelerate their impact.
I'm also making it available now for consultants who want to leverage The Ambition Model with their clients. 

💬 If we aren't connected, please reach out and let's start a conversation.

What are you waiting for?
You have a talent.  
Use it.  Now.  It is irresponsible not to.

If you want a true story of exceptionalism and astonishing talent
That is cruelly ripped away 
You have to watch the 𝑰 𝑨𝒎: 𝑪𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑫𝒊𝒐𝒏 documentary on Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios

It is outstanding.
It is heart-breaking.
And yes, I cried.

It is a deeply personal story - a tragedy rather - of someone who has lost their talent.
Her ability to sing has been taken away from her by a neurological disorder that is incredibly rare.

🎶 In February 2000 we saw the incomparable Celine Dion perform at Barclays Center in Brooklyn in what was to be one of her last concerts.

It was right at the onset of the pandemic (we hadn't even started wearing masks).
Her disease was already impacting her.
But we would never have known.

Afterwards, we saw her leave the arena, 
Standing up and waving to us all through the sunroof of her SUV,
An adoring crowd, chanting her name and cheering her on with adulation and praise.

A few days later she would cancel the remainder of her shows and she has not performed on a stage since.

The movie ends with an emotional calling for us all to be who we are meant to be.
Ms Dion channels Wyn Starks' song Who I Am
And the words are chilling...

"Pardon my imposition
But this is my conviction
Ain't nothing left to hold me down, no

I gotta be me, gotta be I
Gotta be who I know I am inside
Can finally breathe, taking it in
Look at me flying!

It's always been there, it just took me a minute to find it
If I were to be anybody else, I'd just be hiding
Who I am
Who I am

It's always been there, it just took me a minute to find it
Who I am

Gotta be me, gotta be I
Gotta be who I know I am inside
Can finally breathe, taking it in
Look at me flying!"

⚡️Look, I'm as guilty as the next person,
I have ideas and I take too long to execute...
I think more than I need to about something...
And I know what I should do, but I don't always do it.
But I'm doing that a lot less now than I ever have.

We each have a talent.
And with that talent comes a responsibility to use it.

Don't regret that you could have, or should have.
The world does not reward intention.
The world rewards action.

(This video is from that concert February 29th, 2000.  Epic) 

~~~

I wrote 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤™ to help business advisors and teams achieve great outcomes. 

➡️So, if you lead a team and expect the very best for and from your team, let’s talk. 

➡️And if you’re a consultant or business advisor and want to learn more about how you can leverage this for your clients, DM me and I’ll send you the details. 

The Ambition Company 
#Ambition

Good morning from the OBX
Smashing sunrise > the start to another great week. 

This weekend we worked on the next phase of The Ambition Company and making The Ambition Playbook™ accessible to more consultants to supercharge the results for their clients, and their own businesses. 

⚡️We have a well-developed model that we’re now pairing with some smart tech - to make it even richer. 

It’s all coming soon. 

🚀 More good ambition for more deserving teams = a better place to be. 

And we need better. 
And happier. 
And more enriching and rewarding and fun. 

~~~

✪  I built a framework to help teams achieve massive ambitions.
It was a massive accelerator for my business. 
Now I'm sharing it with consultants and coaches to help you accelerate your business.

👉🏻 If you're a consultant and want to help your clients achieve greatness, message me for details on the plan to make it happen.

Chanel and Walmart and high stakes sports...
What a weekend!!

Despite the summer rains here in the Outer Banks, it's time for:

🎾 Wimbledon Finals
🏉 South Africa + Ireland rugby
⚽️ Euro 2024 England v Spain Final
 📖 And I'm learning tons from the biographies I'm reading on Coco Chanel (CHANEL) and Sam Walton (Walmart.) 

You wouldn't think there is much in common between the founders of Chanel and Walmart, but when you get into and look for the patterns they are there.
>> More to come on that in a few weeks. 

🚲 In the meantime, take a minute and channel a summer beach ride.

~~~

⚡️⚡️ Follow me if you want to be the first to get my insights on Ambition from Coco Chanel and Sam Walton.

★ And if we aren't connected, please reach out and let's start a conversation.

David Ogilvy knew a thing or two about running a business that would go on to change the world of business.

Here are just two gems in his book 𝗢𝗴𝗶𝗹𝘃𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴.

⚡️ #1
It's all about Ambition.
Ambitious people set the agenda and the pace.
They get things done.

Frankly I'd rather be around ambitious people who push me and challenge me and look for why something can happen, instead of why it can't.
And ambitious people tend to attract similar people - people who aren't scared by big and bold ideas.
That's my tribe.

⚡️ #2
It's about who you work with.
When you hire people who are better than you, you build a formidable team.
A team that goes after that ambition with energy and passion and a determination.
Where "not making it" isn't an option.

Interestingly, a lot of middle managers in companies are intimidated by people who are better than they are.
And so they don't hire them, instead hiring perfectly adequate talent instead.
Nothing wrong with adequate. 
But I don't want adequate.

A players hire A players
B players hire C players.

Ambition + Talent = A formidable combination!

~~~

It's all about Ambition; I want teams to achieve the massive impact they deserve.
So I wrote The Ambition Playbook™ to help leaders and teams accelerate their impact.
✪And now I'm also making it available now for consultants who want to leverage The Ambition Model with their clients. 

💬 If we aren't connected, please reach out and let's start a conversation.

Like milk with a sell-by date, leaders have the same thing …
Yep, times up, bud. 

Leaders: You’ve got to know when you’ve reach peak value 
When you’re just not adding as much as you used to 
And you actually start doing more harm than good. 
It’s about self-awareness and hubris and encouraging and environment where people tell you the truth. 

💣See, corrosive leadership is insidious …
Leaders think they’re doing a good job and having a positive impact. 
And a fair number of people around them - acolytes - tend to reinforce this perception. 
It’s a misperception, but when people have skin in the game - when their roles depend on the leader having her/his role - they’re unlikely to disrupt the status quo. 
So their perception - their reality - is all they care to know. 

Why?
Because it’s working for them. 

⚡️But there’s this feeling … a kind of knowing … that suggests something could be different. 
Better maybe. 
However the impact to the individuals are potentially significant. 
At best they’re uncertain (and we hate uncertainty.)
At worst they’re transformatively disruptive. 

The leader, having become accustomed to hearing what she/he wants to hear doesn’t get the truth. 
Doesn’t hear about when they aren’t having the impact they should have. 
And they think they’re doing a swell job. 

Howard Schultz tried leaving Starbucks twice > only to find himself being pulled back when the board realized there was a role for him to keep on playing. 

Bob Iger left The Walt Disney Company only to be pulled back once the board realized his successor wasn’t quite the think that Disney dreams were made of. 

But there are countless CEOs and leaders who remain in their roles long past their sell-by date. 

We saw this on Thursday night during the US presidential debate. 
By any reasonable standard, no company would present to their investors the sort of candidate CEOs who we saw on stage on Thursday. 

What we witnessed were leaders who had overstayed their impact. 
Passed their sell-by date. 
But clearly they hadn’t read the label. 
And no one around them had let them know the perils - to themselves and to the country - of them staying in their roles. 

Jamie Dimon gets to remain atop JPMorganChase because he is good. 
His investors are happy and he is adroitly able to deliver results. 
And he has signalled he is aware that there is a sell-by date that is approaching (self-awareness.)

Thursday night’s candidates not so much. 
And a fair number of leaders out there who are hanging on long after their window of impact has closed. 

👊Create the conditions where your closest team (and others too) can tell you the truth > without fear of recrimination. 
👊Assess your own energy - if you can’t make it to a dinner after a day of work, it’s time, sunshine. 
👊Reflect on the sort of conversations that you’re a part of … are they positive, energizing, exciting or do you find they’re a dull drag on you and others?

It may be time to move on.

🚀 "The shaper of genius"
 
We can learn a lot from successful people who have come before us.

JD Rockefeller wrote this in one of the many letters he wrote to his son.
That work is a privilege, the source of prosperity, the shaper of genius.

But here's the deal:
For us to get from work all that we can, we have to love it.

In a world where so many people are bored and frustrated with their work, where they find their jobs are not fulfilling, and they have no real sense of attachment to their vocation or to the company where they work, I find this very sad.

Because I fully subscribe to Rockefeller's perspective.

When we think of work as something that is owed to us - that we are entitled to - we stop putting in the effort.
We don't show up with energy and passion.
We don't show up wanting to make a difference.

Work is what enriches us - whatever that might be.
For some people, the excitement from trading fuels their passion and energy.
For others it is exploring a coral reef as part of a research project.
And for others it is building a new app or some tech that will reduce user friction or support growth.

Whenever I have been the least interested and excited is when I have been the least creative.
It is definitely when I added the least value. 
And when that happened (as it has a few times in my career) I deplored it.
I deplored how it made me feel.
I was ashamed of my attitude.

Once I realized this, I did whatever I could to change that (and not wait for someone else to change it.)
* I found new roles.
* I left teams/companies.
* I started new projects.

⚡️Work is incredible.
⚡️It is exciting.
⚡️It is all about bringing the value you create into the world.

Why would anyone want to retire from something that is so marvelous?

[From the book "The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his Son"]

~~~

I want teams to achieve the massive impact they deserve.
✪ So I wrote 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠™ to help leaders and teams accelerate their impact.
✪ I'm also making it available now for consultants who want to leverage 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠™ with their clients. 

💬 If we aren't connected, please reach out and let's start a conversation.

The Ambition Company

Every single entrepreneur who went on to become something bigger has this ONE attribute:

⚡️They believed in their idea (and in their ability to execute it) when others wouldn't.

But read carefully ...  it isn't just belief in the idea ... it is belief in themselves too.

They believed in both.

One is powerful.

Both are absolutely formidable.

~~~

I want teams to achieve the massive impact they deserve.

✪ So I wrote 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠™ to help leaders and teams accelerate their impact.

✪ I'm also making it available now for consultants who want to leverage 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠™ with their clients. 

💬 If we aren't connected, please reach out and let's start a conversation.

The Ambition Company

★ Success breeds hubris.
★ Complexity demands efficiency

Two terrific insights from Howard Schultz on the Starbucks journey.
And whether you banking or insurance or manufacturing or mining, we can learn from this wisdom:

𝟏. 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬... 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐡𝐮𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐬.

It is harder (but all the more important) to look for and to call out mistakes when you're experiencing success.
On the one hand, it's exciting to experience growth, and it seems logical "not to break something that isn't broken."

But the greats are ALWAYS looking for ways to improve.
It's what Sam Walton did in the early days at Walmart
Success breeds hubris.
And what follows hubris?
Usually a sharp shock, or ultimate demise.

𝟐. 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲.

I've seen far too many complex flow charts of product development of customer-service issue escalation.
I've witnessed far too many managers who are unable to easily explain their process, or their business.

Ironically, smart people love to complicate things.
I think this partly the result of business schools and an education system that values complexity over simplicity.
But I also think it is because people want to show up as the smartest person in the room, and they *think* that they need to embody complexity to achieve this.

So we get LONG Powerpoint decks.
We get convoluted explanations of plans or ideas.
We struggle to see the forest for the trees.

==> 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮...

New plans, strategies and transformations are complex.

But do you see the conundrum here ?
We tend to want to complicate things
When they don't need to be.

If you want your transformation to accelerate and perform, 
you need efficiency.
And to achieve efficiency, you need to simplify.

Make what you're doing (or what you want to do) EASY for people to understand.

I've been working in large-scale transformation for decades.
I've seen a lot that were done well. 
And I've seen a lot that were horrible.
 
The best way I know to accelerate your transformation is NOT to talk about the transformation.
It's NOT to talk about the strategy.
It's not to talk about the planning and investment.

⚡️Talk about what's going to be different in the future.
⚡️How you will serve customers (differently.)
⚡️How you will make money.
⚡️How you will beat competitors in a future environment.
Keep it simple.

And who doesn't love the Acquired podcast?

~~~

I spent my career working in major transformations - I want teams to achieve the massive impact they deserve.

✪ So I wrote 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠™ to help leaders and teams accelerate their impact.

✪ I'm also making it available now for consultants who want to leverage 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠™ with their clients. 

💬 If we aren't connected, follow me to get my latest posts, or please reach out and let's start a conversation.

The Ambition Company

Every election year is important.
And 2024 is going to be an year of critical significance at the polls.

What's rather astonishing is that the 2000 election had a turnout of almost 66% of the voting-eligible population.

That means that fully one third of the population either:
⚡️didn't think their vote mattered
⚡️didn't care to vote
⚡️couldn't vote.

And voting is a huge privilege we get for living in a democracy!

There's an opportunity for us to help younger citizens (who can't yet vote) to appreciate their responsibility to vote.
And to get them to want to vote.

Check this out from Ella Raath + Penguin Random House on how we might start to build a society of responsible voters.

Left, right, conservative, independent, libertarian, democrat ... however you identify ...
Every. Vote. Matters.

https://lnkd.in/ey_QCbUm

(I might be a little biased, and proud, of this article... 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻)

penguinrandomhouseretail.com

Read, Think, and Vote! - Penguin Random House Retail

When going after your ambition, there are only three things that matter:

⚡️ Can people trust you?
⚡️ Can people believe you?
⚡️ Can people rely on you?

When you get this right, your results are simply astonishing!

This is what Chipotle Mexican Grill has done.
They set a massive ambition and went after it with focus and determination and energy.

Let's break it down:

1.  Number one.  𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝘆𝗼𝘂?
Trust is about character.  It is about integrity.  It is about doing what you say you're going to do.  It is anchored in values and virtues and respect.
At an aggregate level, we call this CULTURE.
Workforce culture.  Employee culture.  
No surprisingly, Brian Niccol (Chipotle's CEO) has unequivocally stated that his team's focus on Culture is a number one contributor to their success.
✪They built the culture - underscored by values and virtues - so that we would trust them.

Remember, you get the culture you deserve.
And you deserve what you get based on how intentional you are and how much you work at it.

2.  Number two:  𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘 𝘆𝗼𝘂?
Think about this:  What's the biggest reason why someone might NOT believe you?
Because you don't follow-through.
Or you make promises you can't keep.
In this case, Chipotle made promises.
And then they followed through on those promises and delivered.
By making investments in the right places to build the CAPABILITY to deliver. 
✪They built the capability to deliver so that we have to believe in them.

3. And Number three: 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗬 𝗢𝗡 𝘆𝗼𝘂?
This is about dependability.
How you get things done.  Your systems.  Your structure.
Does it build the ability for you to deliver - CONSISTENTLY.
✪For Chipotle, they left nothing to chance.  They invested in systems and processes and structure because they know we need to rely on them to deliver consistently - whether we're in Calgary or Canary Wharf or Kansas City. 

It's not surprising to understand how Chipotle Mexican Grill have delivered.

⚡️ Their culture - how they do what they do, how they treat one another and how they treat customers >> means we can TRUST them.
⚡️ The choices and the investments they make - what they do and what they don't do (i.e. their 'strategy') >> means we can believe that they will follow-through.  New innovative products or new enhancements to their services.
⚡️ Their systems, the training, the rigorous investment in processes >> this all leads to us knowing that we DEPEND on them to deliver CONSISTENTLY.

Thanks Barron's for the insights.
~~~

I want teams to achieve the massive impact they deserve.
So I wrote The Ambition Playbook™ to help leaders and teams accelerate their impact.
I'm also making it available now for consultants who want to leverage The Ambition Model with their clients.  
💬 If we aren't connected, please reach out and let's start a conversation.

The power of a compelling aspirational ambition is incredible. 

It is ambition - and not strategy - that drives us to achieve the previously unattainable and to set our sights of something bigger and better. 

Yet so many teams obsess with strategy. 
About having the right framework and strategic pillars. 

I call this the fallacy of strategy … 
The mistaken belief that if we have a strategy we will “get there.”

💻Jeff Bezos did not have the Amazon  strategy formed when he set his sights on being the worlds biggest e-commerce store. 
But he did have ambition. 

🦸‍♀️Sara Blakely (personally my favorite superhero) didn’t have the strategy built for Spanx when she set out to influence the impenetrable Nieman Marcus buyer team. 
But she did have ambition. 

🚀JFK didn’t know precisely how to get a spacecraft to the moon - and back - when he gave his infamous rousing speech at Rice University. 
But he did have ambition. 
And he made it an aspiration that we all wanted to be a part of. 

So the lesson is this:
You’re squandering your energy and severely limiting your potential by focusing first on strategy. 

None of these incredible accomplishments that we live alongside today started with a strategy. 

Start with ambition. 
The fallacy of strategy is going to kneecap you if you don’t. 

~~~

I’m Russell. 
I wrote The Ambition Playbook™ - by leveraging insights from incredible accomplishments in our lifetime (and history) and experience in working with some of the world’s best companies. 
#Ambition is what I help teams to lead with. 

The Ambition Company

Taplio

Russell Raath's Linkedin Analytics

Russell Raath

What is Russell talking about?

Russell Raath's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Russell Raath's Linkedin Analytics

Russell Raath

What is Russell talking about?

Russell Raath's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Russell Raath's Linkedin Analytics

Russell Raath's Best Posts (last 30 days)