While hustling to make a living in Brooklyn, she was handed a business card by the owner of Coach during the brand’s early days. That moment of ambition—and a little luck—led to a dream opportunity: designing a dozen bags that became part of Coach’s legacy.

When his dad claimed he had no ambition, Bradford insisted his goals—like taking a girl to a dance or scoring Jethro Tull tickets—were simply achievable. But when he surprised everyone by landing a scholarship and telling the paper, “I can parlay this into a degree,” even his friends admitted—“parlay sounds ambitious.”

Though she never considered herself ambitious, her competitive streak showed in the summers she spent winning golf tournaments. Looking back, she’s grateful there wasn’t a women’s golf team at her university—because if ambition had taken the lead, she might have missed the joy of a pressure-free college life.

When she became August Wilson’s assistant and joined him at the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Festival, others questioned her pedigree. But Wilson, recognizing her quiet ambition, simply said, “Your feet know where they are going.”

His childhood ambition to become a baseball player or astronaut never materialized, but playing in San Francisco’s Rainbow League let him live out a version of that dream. As a writer and player, he chased the perfect quote—only to find it in a moment of humor during a tense meeting about straight players in the league: “I can find out for everyone.”

His childhood ambition to become a baseball player or astronaut never materialized, but playing in San Francisco’s Rainbow League let him live out a version of that dream. As a writer and player, he chased the perfect quote—only to find it in a moment of humor during a tense meeting about straight players in the league: “I can find out for everyone.”

When Ken swapped his fifth spot for the first at the 2024 GrandSlam, he discovered the unexpected peace of telling his story early. Free from the pressure of comparison, he realized how ambition had clouded his joy—and now he knows to go first whenever he can.

Told in high school that he had a high IQ but a low GPA, he pursued civil engineering as a practical path forward. Though he once flirted with the idea of becoming a cop—going so far as to try breaking up a drug deal—his ambition ultimately found its place in building structures, not chasing criminals.

With the ambition to create lasting memories across generations, she brought her granddaughter and mother to Detroit. A wrong turn led them, by chance, to her grandparents’ graves—uniting four generations in an unexpected moment of connection that felt guided by something beyond.

She taught English at a Soviet university with no electricity, in a culture where ambition was seen as a moral failing rather than a virtue. When she got engaged to a man devoted to resisting capitalism, she ultimately chose not to bring him to the U.S., knowing his disdain for ambition would clash with the life she was building.