To truly understand how ambition changes people, it’s crucial to comprehend what happens when someone has nothing but ambition. When someone relies on that one aspect of their lives to guide their entire state of being. So without further ado, let me tell you the story of a foot soldier from Peru.

After the Spanish colonial wars in the 1560s, Lope de Aguirre was a shell of a man; a horse trainer/mercenary who barely got by with odd jobs around the city of Basque, scraping horse crap off of stables, or protecting some low ranking official here and there. Besides the measly amount of money and resources he had, Lope only really had two major possessions to his name. There were the mental and physical scars from the decades of constant servitude to the colonial powers; fighting their meaningless wars for nothing but utter humiliation by the Spanish justice system (Simón, 1861). In addition, there was something else he had. This wasn’t a physical object, but rather a drive derived from the first possession. A murderous, rebellious, and insurmountable drive, or ambition that felt like a hunger. This hunger targeted hate at everyone who had wronged him, and also made him feel like everything he had done had warranted a hell of a lot more than the scars on his chest, and the dirt under his boots.

So, in 1560, when there was another suicidal expedition into the Amazon in search for the fantasty fairy-land of El Dorado, Aguirre decided to take matters into his own hands. He joined the expedition and stayed in the back, not wanting to attract attention. Then, in the dead of night, when everybody was fast asleep and gut wrenchingly tired, he struck. He murdered those same officers who barked orders at him constantly. He murdered their replacements, and kept killing until there was no one in his way. He slowly started gaining followers out of a blend of respect and fear.

The dirt under his boots turned to solid gold, and he titled himself the Prince of Peru.

But the Prince wasn’t happy with what he had. He felt this power wasn’t real, that any one of his “loyal subordinates” could turn on him at any moment. So, when one of his followers took too long to say “yes sir!” or made a suspicious mistake, he started a series of despicable executions in a frantic attempt to cling onto his power amidst his growing paranoia. However, all it did was turn everybody against him. He started losing this power he gave everything for. And once again, he was left with just two possessions. His 14 year old daughter, Elvira, and that same hunger which was roaring just as loudly as before. In his very last moments, he decided to protect his family's honour by grabbing a kitchen knife, then killing both him and his daughter in one final leap for control.

They beheaded him the very next day (Simón, 1861).

There are a number of reasons why he decided to go down this tragic path, but in this article I’m going to explain how a relatively unknown neural process led this man to flip his life upside down.

What made Aguirre do the things he did is due to a process within the brain called incentive sensitization. This process starts when the repeated pursuit of a goal triggers dopamine release in the system in your brain that directs your “wants”. Over time the brain becomes hypersensitive to any cue connected to that overarching goal, in his case; power, status, revenge. The cues themselves start firing off stronger and stronger bursts of motivation, even if the actual payoff never feels as good as it seemed like it was going to. The desire grows on its own, separate from any real pleasure or satisfaction (Berridge & Robinson, 2016). That is why ambition can take over a person’s entire life. It turns every single small step forward into this fuel that makes the next step feel even more urgent. This fuel burns brighter and brighter, until the drive for success blinds you from why you were chasing that success in the first place.

Psychologists see the same pattern in studies of high achievers, and people who burnt out trying to achieve success. The sensitised wanting system creates a constant sense of relative deprivation. This is when the person keeps measuring their life against an ever-rising picture of what they “should” have, so ordinary progress never feels like enough, and setbacks feel like personal attacks. This positive feedback loop constantly eats at them, until it burns them out (Resta et al., 2023).

To protect yourself from this parasitic breed of ambition, you need to interrupt that hyper sensitization before it takes over. Keep a group of people who remind you why you're here, what made you chase this success in the first place. These people will make sure that you keep a balance of your mental health and true contentness, as well as the temporary dopamine hit from small wins. Track your progress quantitatively so you can see when your wants and desires are realistic and achievable. Make sure to include rest, and factor your mental health into your daily schedule. Don’t let the grind take over your life. Most importantly, enjoy doing. Stop focusing on where you're going. Instead, focus on the places you go in the process and what you do in pursuit of that destination. That mindset will keep you grounded.

This is how you can use ambition conservatively to use it as a positive driving force in your life. Next time you have some big project or lifestyle shift you want to work towards, remember Aguirre’s story, and don’t let ambition take over.

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