The American writer and humorist Leo Calvin Rosten said: "I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be 'happy.' I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honourable, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have it make some difference that you lived at all."

The book Moral Ambition by Dutch historian Rutger Bregman is an inspirational work. It has multiple stories of people with courage and conviction who made a difference to the world. It is the will to devote life to the great challenges of our time, a longing to make a difference, and to build a legacy that truly matters. The narrative in this article is based on his highly motivating book.

Morally ambitious individuals don't move with the herd but believe in a deeper form of freedom - the freedom to push aside conventional standards of success. There are talented, ambitious people, but not idealistic, who go into fields with no clear added value to society. According to the Financial Times, many young consultants feel they add little value to the world and lack a sense of personal growth and purpose. We hear similar frustrations even among doctors and professionals.

And numerous attorneys, consultants, marketers, programmers, managers, accountants, and bankers are stuck in well-paid but relatively useless or even harmful jobs. If you want to lead a morally ambitious life, there is no time like the present. Moral ambition isn't a trait; it's a mindset. Most humans are herd animals. We do what we're taught to do, we accept what we're handed, and we believe what we're told is true. Though we may feel free, we're sticking to the script that goes with our kind of life.

The fear of being different runs deep in human nature. The longing to belong is like a magnet, interfering with our inner compass. Focusing only on our own lives conflates freedom with being free to do as we please. But doing what you feel like often means little more than going with the flow. Most people stand on the sidelines. The majority leave behind but a fleeting footprint and are soon forgotten because they made little difference. Only a small minority of dedicated people choose a more difficult life, and that makes a difference. They set the bar high and forge their own path. Along the way, they change the world. The world is shaped by stubborn, obstinate, headstrong, hell-bent, wilful, and relentless advocates.

Well-off people in well-off lands buy heaps of clothing, food, toys, furnishings, jewellery, cosmetics, and electronic goods that bring little joy and mostly end up on the rubbish heap. If you live in a wealthy country and look in the mirror, you will likely concede that your own life is also a series of things wasted. Most wealthy individuals don't consider themselves rich when half the world's people live on less than 7 dollars a day, and more than 600 million live on little more than 2 dollars a day. According to the WHO, nearly 50 million children suffer from acute malnutrition.

In the early 18th century, slavery was completely commonplace. Most people thought it made sense that some people bought and sold others, like you'd breed and trade chickens or pigs. In fact, before 1800, some three-quarters of the world's people were serfs or enslaved. And forced labour and slavery were common practices in Africa, India, China, and the Arab world. It was widespread among the peoples of North America and was the norm in czarist Russia. The ancient Greeks and Romans considered it perfectly acceptable to hold slaves. Aristotle wrote that some people were slaves by nature. St. Augustine contended that slavery was tragic but unavoidable. George Washington had nine rotten teeth replaced with nine teeth pulled from the mouths of slaves. And Thomas Jefferson, who asserted that 'all men are created equal,' owned 600 slaves, four of them his own children. The British political philosopher John Locke invested a fortune in the Royal African Company's slave trade. In 1789, the French Revolution broke out under the motto 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,' but the French merchants promptly renamed their slave ships Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité. 

In an interview, published in Sunday Times of India, April 27, 2025, with an eye-catching title The world doesn't need more boring billionaires, it needs Robin Hoods, Rutger Bregman said: "Moral Ambition (his book) is a kind of cold shower–hopefully a refreshing one – that motivates people to get up and actually make the world a wildly better place. A recent study by two Dutch economists found that around 25% of people in developed economies believe their own job is socially meaningless. These are often people with great resumes, impressive LinkedIn profiles and high salaries working as marketers, HR managers, bankers, corporate lawyers…because their work – PowerPoint decks no one reads, reports no one uses– feel pointless… that waste of talent is one of the biggest tragedies of our time. These people could be leading the fight against poverty, inequality or democratic decline. But too often, they're stuck in bullshit jobs.

Incidentally, anthropologist David Graeber wrote the book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory in 2018 that postulates the existence of meaningless jobs and analyses their societal harm. He argues that over half of societal work is pointless and becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth.

Everyone can be morally ambitious. Look at Nelson Mandela, he worked as a security guard in a mine before becoming one of the greatest moral leaders in history … if you're more privileged, you have a greater responsibility to make a difference … the British abolitionists' movement was the most successful anti-slavery movement in history, and it was founded by 12 people, 10 of whom were entrepreneurs. They had already achieved financial success … Let's be honest. Most wealthy people won't be remembered. They behave predictably, like herd animals. But a rare few use their privilege to tackle the biggest challenges of their time …everyone can be morally ambitious, but those with more power and privilege have a greater obligation.

Everywhere - from the US to the Netherlands to India - we see a clear pattern: billionaires pay lower effective tax rates than the middle class. It's unjustifiable and something we can change... I've met many rich people, and to be honest, most of them are boring and childish. Another boat, another house, another car… Even in India, where there is a growing billionaire class, we need both more taxation and more effective philanthropy.

We are living in a much-troubled world. The world needs realistic idealism to be morally ambitious. May 7 is the birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Since this write-up concerns moral ambition, it is very relevant to recall his idealistic view of the world. The article Celebrating the Universality of Tagore in Parochial Times by Sumit Paul, an advanced research scholar of semitic languages, cultures, religions and civilisations, in The Free Press Journal, May 6, 2025, brings the quintessence of Tagore's universalism. The Nobel laureate was remarkably universal in his vision and was untrammelled by the narrowness of caste, class, country and creed. Following the Amritsar infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919, he had returned the knighthood, conferred on him by the British, stating that a regime that doesn't have empathy for innocent protesters is presumed to have no empathy for the decency and niceties of human existence; it is an oppressive and inhuman government.

Tagore's spirituality is the reflection of his audacious faith in mankind. His universalism, a cornerstone of his philosophy, emphasises the interconnectedness of humanity and the importance of transcending narrow national or cultural boundaries. He believed in a shared human heritage, promoting tolerance, spiritual values, and a global culture rooted in mutual respect and understanding. He believed that universal love with empathy could remove all ills from the earth. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. followed this sublime idea of love and succeeded. And "in a world ravaged by negativity, the Tagorean idea of universal love, rooted in the Upanishads' Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, could prove to be a whiff of zephyr for the beleaguered mankind."

It is our obligation to make the world a better place. What is the relevance of working on fat salaries for the multinational companies and big corporate houses to the untold miseries and sufferings of fellow human beings across the planet? The world's wealthiest 10% of individuals are responsible for two-thirds of global warming - the most affluent 10% in China and the US together account for half of global carbon pollution. The richest one per cent contributed 26 times more to once-a-century heat waves, and 17 times more to droughts in the Amazon, according to the findings, published in Nature Climate Change.