I have often wondered about desire, ambition and greed. How does one separate desire & ambition? Which one is good to have and which one aspect should be relentlessly pursued.

In my own experience, I think its pretty much a mix of various attributes of these two concepts that get you your goals. Be it the very desire to possess, or the ambition to create, or the doggedness, as Steve Jobs famously said, “stay hungry stay foolish… don`t lose faith” to continue in the face of severe odds stacked against you

In business if desire is ambition’s, naïve younger brother, then greed undoubtedly would be its elder brother gone berserk, where the sense of business ethics and intent in transacting business is slanted just one way – the obtuse way. For greed the only objective is to make money at any cost, completely overriding friends and family.

Steve Jobs towards the end of his life said, he focused too much on making money, which ultimately ruined his life. That said Steve Jobs did create Apple, the biggest Company on the Planet. He could not have done so without intently concentrating on making money. That I guess was his mantra at the time, and it certainly worked for him.

Someone who is in an abject state of penury will undoubtedly only think about money. At that point lecturing such a person on the higher principles and ethics of making money, telling them that money is the root of all evil will most certainly fall on deaf ears.

There are no guidelines on how to make money. What principles should one follow ? What comes first, desire or ambition or pure overriding greed ? It`s for everyone to find their own way, and that`s what makes this journey so interesting.

It is my belief that serious money cannot be made quickly, without gravely compromising one`s ethics and stamping on peoples toes. On a lighter note, the one serious down side of being ultra rich, billionaire style, is that there is always some sucker richer than you! Is it a horse race then ?

Andrea Bocelli the famous cross over Tenor, said, “success is the sum of a series of variables and inscrutable balances. Fame is itself not a value”

I buy that..

Sanjiv T Lall