Mission vs. Ambition

This year there have been several incidents around me that has helped me understand the distinction between Mission and Ambition. During the US elections, there was rhetoric of the presidency being a career for Obama and a mission for John Mccain. In the indian election Modi has been saying that he has a mission to transform Gujarat and India but does not have the ambition to become the CM or a PM. I was also reading an article in rediff where this man was complaining how he wasted his whole career by not building skill but going after titles and positions. I am just now starting to read principle centered leadership from Stephen Covey and he is also stating that people often miss the opportunity to build core skills in their race to climb up the corporate ladder and when they fall it becomes very difficult to get back up.

When I reflect on my life I realize that whenever I have been driven by ambition and opportunism, I have landed up with dissatisfaction and limited skill accumulation or learning. In the occasions when I have been driven by a mission I have had tremendous satisfaction and have built valuable skills. In the Bible there has been lots of stories where people who are driven by ambition often fail in the God's eye and end up doing stupid things to protect their positions.

I am using the word ambition to mean growing up in the corporate/institutional ladder.