Ambition Now Rests in Contentment

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Sitting in my garage bike shop, I find myself remembering the best and worst parts of owning a company. Riding 20k to work at 6:30 AM was the best part of most days: the physical challenge, mental discipline and simple freedom of riding.

The rest of the day often felt like the pressure of performance targets, client complaints. Once in a while there was the thrill of being named in 30 Under 30 or winning Bike of the Year. I measured success by achievements, not by people’s smiles.

The pressure of long work weeks was my food to stay alive. My thinking went like this, “I can build this brand. I love the rewards of success; which proves my worth.”

But that drive often left me with little margin for relationships or personal reflection. I felt used in relationships. And if I’m honest, I used others too.

When the rug was pulled out from under my leadership of bikes.com and raceface.com, I scrambled in the dark for another win. But achievement shaped by business had become an ego trap. More ambition, more followers, more success.

Unbuilding my life was a slow excavation of the authentic Grayson. A relearning how to breathe. I came to see that I am no more the source of my success than the source of the air that sustains me.

Ambition contributes to success; but so does grace, timing, and luck. Ambition doesn’t build success any more than I manufacture the air I take in. I’ve been given abundance, just as I’ve been given breath.

Over the years I’ve unearthed the wonder of achieving simple contentment. Contentment isn’t complacency, it’s becoming a foundation that allows true ambition to emerge naturally, not from desperation but from peace. Ambition, I’m discovering, rests in contentment.

Here’s the challenge I give myself one, two or many times each day in my ambition to produce: “What in this ambition today, will draw me to healthy success?"

I have at least three observations:

• I no longer seek the short-term, ego-boosting accolades. My true ego allows for my ambition, without sacrificing others. And the happiest moments are often small, simple, heartfelt times with friends.
• When losses mount and insecurity or loneliness surface, I try not to bury them in more work. Instead, I accept my restlessness as part of me. These times teach me how to discover a more grounded, simple life.
• During this excavation of my soul over the years, I still find lots of fun innovating. My ambition to succeed is contained in a growing contentment.

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I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn or Facebook​

See you next week,

Grayson

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