Mathematical model decodes how ambitious you should be. It's not what conventional wisdom says

A mathematical model has now cracked the exact degree to which one should be ambitious and unlike conventional wisdom, it says 'don't shoot for the stars'. Researchers at the University of Wyoming, Stanford University and the University of Colorado-Boulder came up with the mathematical model to show that ambition lies in the middle — above average but finite.

“Conventional wisdom tells people not to settle, but also not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” says lead author Kath Landgren, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability. “We wanted to see whether the math actually supports that intuition. It does, with some interesting twists.”

What is the ambition model or model ambition?

The researchers studied a model of searching for the best available strategy — where a strategy could represent anything from a job to a business idea, to a romantic partner, to a public policy or political campaign.

In their study 'Optimal ambition in business, politics and life', the researchers proved that people get the best results when they use a satisfaction threshold which is above average but not the moon. The threshold should be neither too high nor too low. But if it's too high, it is worse.

Matt Burgess, an economist at the University of Wyoming, said, “We hear this conflicting advice where on the one hand, we don’t want to settle for what we have, but on the other, we don’t want to chase the unachievable and be disappointed."

“The core insight from our work is that you’re going to be best off, typically, if you try to do better than average, but not infinitely well.”

Major takeaways of the ambition study

• Led by Dr Kath Landgren of Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability, the study reveals that being a perfectionist is damaging to your success.
• Tech entrepreneurs should be less ambitious relative to their market's average. A few companies and billionaires pull the mathematical average sky-high, far past what is typical or realistic. If you set that inflated average as your ambition, you set yourself up for immediate discouragement.
• Looking at highly successful people on social media changes the decision-making efficiency. The model shows that when you see successful people and compare yourself with them, then your ability to make smart decisions drops.