Issue 27 - The Nature of Ambition

Hello and welcome to my weekly email newsletter, Deep Life Reflections: Friday Five, where I share five things I’m enjoying, thinking about, and find interesting. I hope you enjoy issue 27.

Here’s my Friday Five this week.

1. What I’m Reading

The Perfect Mile. By Neal Bascomb.

In 1952, three world-class runners set out on a quest believed to be beyond human limits: running a mile in under four minutes. Neal Bascomb takes us back to a golden age of sport when the world was healing from the ravages of war and celebrating the sporting amateur in his book, The Perfect Mile.

Roger Bannister of England, John Landy from Australia, and the American Wes Santee, emerged as the three leading competitors, captivating a global audience as each vied for this athletic holy grail across three continents. Bannister ultimately made history, clocking 3:59.4 at Oxford's Iffley Road Track on May 6, 1954. What made his feat even more impressive was his limited training time—just 45 minutes a day—because of his responsibilities as a medical student. Yet, at just 25 and only months after his historic run, Bannister retired from competitive running. He channeled his dedication into neurology, where he excelled for many decades.

Landy, relentless in his pursuit, came agonisingly close to the milestone before Bannister. However, he later eclipsed Bannister's time by completing the mile in 3:57.9 in Turku, Finland, just 46 days after Bannister’s historic run. Santee, meanwhile, was a prodigious talent from Kansas with a flair for showmanship. He was vocal about his intentions to shatter the four-minute barrier. Yet, he never managed it, and disputes with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) overshadowed his career.

Today, over 1,750 athletes have achieved this elusive milestone, with Hicham El Guerrouj holding the record at 3:43.13. As the old saying goes, records are made to be broken. But it’s also testimony to our continued pursuit of excellence, to be better than yesterday, to reach for the moon.

Back in the 1950s, three runners started reaching.

[Watch ‘The Miracle Mile’ - the iconic duel between Roger Bannister and John Landy at the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver. By this time, both had conquered the sub-four-minute mile. The showdown was set.]

2. What I’m Watching

Whiplash. Directed by Damien Chazelle.

Shot in only 19 days, Whiplash is a low-budget, high-tempo film driven by two virtuoso performances—Miles Teller as student and J. K. Simmons as teacher. It’s a familiar movie set-up but with a new dynamic, thanks to the craft and nuance of the director, Damien Chazelle.

Teller plays Andrew Neyman, an ambitious but naive jazz drummer enrolled at an exclusive music school (most likely based on New York’s Julliard). There he’s recruited to an even more exclusive jazz band ensemble overseen by the Machiavellian teacher/composer/sadist Terence Fletcher (a role that won Simmons 47 awards, including an Oscar). From here, we watch Neyman and Fletcher’s combustible relationship ignite, a slow-burn which builds into a seismic climatic explosion.

Whiplash is a story about obsession and the double-edged sword of ambition. It reveals both the dangers and the rewards of artistic ambition; showing what it takes to be great and what happens when you don’t have it. The term ‘whiplash’—typically associated with sudden, jarring injuries, like those from car crashes—becomes symbolic of the film’s trajectory: jolting, brutal, but compelling (to watch as the onlooker).

We feel uncomfortable. We don’t know where the film is going. The complexity of the film lies in the depth of its characters. Neyman is both a martyr and a masochist in his quest for perfection. Fletcher, meanwhile, is clearly a master manipulator, with motivations as impenetrable as his tactics, defined by the mantra of “the end justifies the means.” However, Chazelle gives us enough glimpses of the inner Fletcher to leave it up to us to decode Fletcher’s motivations. Is his ferociousness a projection of his personal failures, or a calculated strategy to unearth a generational talent? And is Neyman as much an accomplice as a victim in his own thirst for greatness?

You’ll either see the ending as triumphant or tragic—or perhaps both. This duality is the brilliance of Whiplash and its commentary on the complexities of human ambition.

3. What I’m Contemplating

When Joseph Heller, author of the seminal war satire Catch-22, was once told by an interviewer that he had written nothing since to rival it, he famously responded, “Who has?”

People often search for the negative. We live in a world that encourages us to always look for the next big thing, never pausing to truly appreciate and take pride in what we have achieved. I saw this pattern a lot in my 25 years in the corporate world: accomplishments taking a back seat to perpetual ambition. But as Heller's reply suggests, there's value in recognising and celebrating our successes, however big or small they might be. Heller will always have Catch-22. No-one can take it away from him.

Evolutionarily speaking, our wiring for “more” and “growth” is understandable. It ensured our survival. Yet, the same wiring, in the face of modern challenges, can lead us to a never-ending cycle of dissatisfaction. Ambition has driven human beings to achieve incredible feats. Its taken us to the moon, helped us unlock the secrets of our DNA, and seen the four-minute-mile ceiling shattered. But, as The Perfect Mile and Whiplash highlight, there's a fine line between healthy ambition and self-destruction.

We can be ambitious but also take stock and cherish our Catch-22 moments. After all, ambition without appreciation can lead to an unfulfilled life.

4. A Quote to note

“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.”

- Salvador Dali

5. A Question for you

Have you ever sacrificed too much in the pursuit of ambition or excellence, and if given the chance, would you make the same decision again?

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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

James