In the name of 'ambition'

Ambition — creating an empire.
But empires weren’t built on ambition.
They were built on deconstruction,
on deconstruing,
and on destruction.

They rose from the ashes of what they tore down,
rewriting stories,
reshaping truths,
erasing lives —
all in the name of “greatness.”

So I ask again —
what is ambition?

Is ambition pursuing a career
that aligns with your strengths, your ability, your lifestyle?
Or is it bending yourself to fit
what others say success should look like?

Is ambition building something you believe in,
or is it knocking down what someone else believes?

It’s easy to celebrate ambition —
but what kind of ambition are we talking about?

Ambition that seeks the self
at the cost of harming others?
Ambition in the pursuit of knowledge
that elevates humanity?
Or ambition in the pursuit of power
that destroys it?

I think of the celebrities we idolise —
those whose names are stitched into culture —
until one day,
we learn the truth.

The scandals.
The silence.
The harm hidden beneath their success.

And I wonder,
is this what ambition is?
A climb so ruthless that humanity becomes collateral?
A hunger so deep that integrity is an afterthought?

To me, ambition is none of that.

Ambition is not conquest.
It is not destruction dressed as legacy.
It is not rewriting truth to feed a fragile ego.

Ambition — to me — is doing what you believe in.
It is deconstructing narratives, not people.
It is chasing dreams without crushing anyone else’s.
It is building without burning.
Becoming without belittling.

Ambition is the courage to walk your own path
with intention,
with integrity,
and with enough awareness to know
that your rise means nothing
if it requires someone else’s fall.

Always,

Zahra

✨ When silence speaks louder than words…
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