Interesting conversation on the Ben and Marc show on the difference between personal ambition and company ambition. You always want your team to have the company's ambition in mind and for them to get to a place where that's their top priority. Of course, very few people can completely prioritize the company's ambitions over their personal ambitions, so to some degree, this is always a bit of a tradeoff.

When someone asks me the best way to be successful inside of a company, I always point to the notion of putting the company’s ambitions ahead of your own. The irony in this is that this actually propels you forward personally more than the alternative. This is true for a few reasons:

1/ It increases the chance that your company will be successful and you'll wear that brand and benefit from it for the rest of your career.

2/ People will view you as a great leader who puts the company's needs first. You'll be admired and respected and people will want you in the room. These people get promoted.

3/ It makes you a better operator in that you're getting better training by learning how to successfully operate a company more quickly than people that are busy playing politics.

Prioritizing your company’s ambitions over your own always seems to have the ironic outcome of a faster path to achieving your own.