Does Buddhism Mean Giving Up on Success?

What does Buddhism say about ambition and striving? This is an important question for those of us who have to make our way in the modern world, with its expectations and responsibilities, and want to apply Buddhist principles without running off to become a monk.  Many of us find value in setting goals, working hard, and achieving things in the world. Can this ambition coexist with Buddhist teachings that emphasize letting go of craving and attachment? 

As we’ve discussed, Buddhism tells us that our suffering (“dukkha,” also translated as stress, unsatisfactoriness, or dis-ease) is the result of craving, and so by ending craving, we end suffering. But that sounds like giving up all desire—and isn’t ambition just ambition for something and striving just striving for something? Aren’t they forms of desire?

Put another way, if we take Buddhism seriously, does it demand that we give up our ambitions and striving, and instead turn on, tune in, and drop out?

The short answer is no. Buddhism does not tell us to give up striving or ambition. Two of the factors of the Eightfold Path are Right Intention and Right Effort. We cultivate the intent to accomplish something, and we put in the effort to achieve it. Even within the narrow goal of Buddhism—bringing an end to dukkha and achieving lasting happiness—we have to have ambition to achieve that end, and strive to make it happen.

Nor does Buddhism claim that the only desire we should have is for ending dukkha, and so the only thing we should strive for is that. To become a Buddhist monk is to dedicate your life to that task, but even in the Buddha’s time his teachings weren’t limited to monks, nor did he ask the non-monks he taught to become mendicants. Many of his teachings are directed at lay practitioners and “householders,” people who had responsibilities beyond Buddhist practice, and interests other than Buddhism. Right Livelihood is the fifth element of the Eightfold Path, after all, The Buddha recognized that all of us who aren’t monks need to earn a living.

Further, the early texts contain conversations between the Buddha and wealthy people of his time, including merchants. In those cases, he doesn’t tell them to give up their wealth, but rather to acquire and use it ethically. As a practicing Buddhist, you can have a successful career, but you shouldn’t earn your living by harming others. And you can have wealth, and enjoy it, but you should use a portion of it to improve the lives of others, and you shouldn’t approach it in a clinging and greedy way. Don’t get attached to it.

Thus, Buddhism doesn’t advocate for complete non-striving, nor does it glorify self-denial.  Instead, it focuses on the quality of our striving. The core distinction is between striving motivated by attachment, craving, and clinging, versus striving motivated by Right Intention and Right Effort. The former refers to cultivating wholesome mind states—ones that promote kindness, compassion, and wisdom. These wholesome intentions guide our actions and decisions towards a more fulfilling and ethical life.  The latter emphasizes putting in the work to abandon unwholesome mental states, like anger or jealousy, while cultivating wholesome ones. It’s about putting in the effort to develop a more mindful and compassionate way of being, not simply achieving an external goal.

Recall that Buddhism is ultimately about shifting our perspective on ourselves and the world. Striving and ambition are not necessarily bad, but the way many of us approach them—what we strive and have ambition for—is unskilful, unhealthy, and unlikely to bring us lasting happiness. Rather than viewing Buddhism as a call to give up our ambitions, we should see it instead as a call that we evaluate those ambitions mindfully, and that we gain clarity into why we are striving for what we’ve been striving for. Careful examination coupled with an understanding of happiness and suffering might indicate that we’ve chosen our ambitions well. But it might instead lead us to see that maybe other things matter more, or that the way we’re going about achieving what we’ve set ourselves to is more harmful than we imagined. That understanding, far from negating ambition, enriches it.