Ambition for success.

As pharmacy educators, we teach many components of what is needed to become a pharmacist, including knowledge of drugs and diseases, the skills necessary to be a pharmacist as well as the attitudes and behaviors that encompass “professionalism.” We ultimately hope for assurance that graduates will be successful as pharmacists, realizing that “success” can mean many different things. There should be little argument that a primary definition of “success” in pharmacy includes providing an acceptable quality of health care to people. But success can and should encompass many other dimensions, particularly those that exemplify advancement of the role of the pharmacist, discovery or invention of new modalities that improve health care, and attainment of leadership positions in the practice, education, or corporate arena. Thus, a continuing challenge for educators is assuring that students will translate performance during a professional degree program into success after graduation. 
 
Achievement of top grades in pharmacy school does not assure success. Excellence in a degree program may be followed by modest accomplishment after graduation. All of us have taught students who excelled in the classroom or achieved the coveted “4.0” but were never heard from again after graduation. We have also taught “C” students who went on to make notable accomplishments after graduation. So what makes the difference between graduates who do and do not excel after graduation? One character aspect that seems to make a difference between a student achieving competence versus excellence after graduation is ambition. We have all recognized ambition in our graduates who have become, for example, successful independent community pharmacists, directors of hospital pharmacy departments, successful researchers, or corporate leaders. These individuals typically have substantially impacted the direction of the pharmacy profession and have been responsible for some of the big advances in pharmacy. Their ambition provided a bridge from accomplishment in pharmacy school to success in their profession. 
 
Ambition has many different technical definitions with connotations that range from positive to negative. Ambition has been described as having a “fire in the belly.” An ambitious person can be thought of as being goal driven, having goals and the energy to accomplish them. Ambition can be a discontentment with one's current state or condition that motivates the person to accomplish something greater. I think of its opposite as complacency. Ambition can have its negative side, particularly when it emphasizes aggressiveness and acquisitiveness for self-aggrandizement. Ambition may be observed as the drive to get ahead of others, or to acquire power or money. While ambition can emphasize individual advancement at the cost of others, it does not have to be that way. Ambition can be a positive force for society as well as the individual when personal goals are aligned with what is best for society and when actions to achieve goals are collaborative for a general good rather than competitive for individual gain. 
 
Given the important role for ambition in determining success, we do not devote sufficient attention to this important characteristic. How do we recognize ambition? Can we measure it? Can it be taught or learned or developed during adulthood? We see examples of ambition in our students when their “light” turns on and their motivation and drive change for the better. Sometimes this is precipitated by an experience that prompts this difference in perspective. So how can we create opportunities in our degree programs that facilitate development of ambition in our students or prompt them to discover ambition that may lay dormant? Enthusiastic, highly motivated professionals with clear goals and a passion for excellence serve as role models and can prompt desired behavior in a receptive student. The development of ambition in our students should be a topic of study and efforts to enhance this characteristic. The endpoint of “healthy” ambition is success in the profession which in turn benefits the individual as well as society.

Field of study: Education, Medicine