NONE OF US IS BORN WITH A PRE-ORDAINED DESTINY TO BE PRESIDENT
Let’s be humble. Let’s be realistic. Let’s humble ourselves and recognise and accept the reality that no one, none of us, is born with a pre-ordained destiny to be president.
It is a position earned through meeting legal qualifications, such as age, citizenship, and residency, and so on and so forth, rather than inherited or pre-ordained status. While leadership qualities can be nurtured, occupying the office of the president is determined by many factors.
It’s therefore necessary to keep our ambitions in check. Unbridled ambition to become president is very dangerous, and it actually kills.
Russian philosopher Leo Tolstoy aptly put it: “Ambition does not go well with kindness, but rather with pride, cunning, and cruelty.”
It is said that we should never allow unbridled ambition to take over our morals and lead us to places where we don’t want to be.
It’s true that ambition is a driving force in many people’s behaviour, pushing them to strive for something significant, often tied to power, wealth, fame, or personal growth. While ambition can involve positive qualities such as passion, hard work, and the pursuit of lofty goals, when taken to an extreme, it can have the opposite effect. Instead of serving as healthy motivation for growth, it can turn into greed and vanity.
That is why it is important to stay grounded, remain aware of our circumstances and starting point, and set realistic goals, above all goals that are truly attainable. When the objective, or the “mountain to climb,” is too high or too steep, what begins as an epic struggle against oneself can ultimately become a clear act of self-sabotage.
“Ambition does not go well with kindness.
In order to get power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness but with qualities that are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning and cruelty.” These are the words of Tolstoy on the subject.
The Russian writer and philosopher, widely regarded as one of the most important literary figures and thinkers in history, explored many dimensions of human life in his work, and ambition was one of them.
In this sense, Tolstoy presents ambition as a trait that does not naturally belong to a person whose defining quality is goodness. In fact, he suggests the opposite. For the Russian thinker, unchecked ambition can carry us into places where we do not truly want to be, places shaped more by pride, manipulation, and cruelty than by integrity or compassion.
Excessive ambition can corrupt the moral compass of those who allow themselves to be consumed by it. To avoid falling into that trap, the healthiest approach when setting future goals is to engage in honest self-reflection.
Doing so helps us distinguish between aspirations that are realistic and meaningful and those that lie beyond our control or reach.
Fred M’membe
People’s Pact 2026 Presidential Candidate and President of the Socialist Party
You can be a wrong turn Membe.Not you, please. God should not bless us with someone like you. I would prefer to have Ignorant Kambwili, who will depend on those around him.However, that will never occur, Fred; it is merely a figment of your imagination. The Zambian people are aware of your identity as a tax evader. You were unable to successfully run your own businesses, and you declared yourself bankrupt to evade the repayment of the loans you contracted.
Fred, the moral part of the quote you cited, you should’ve read it many times
Always insightful, Dr Fred Mmembe.
Very knowledgeable, intelligent and well read. I appreciate your quotes from the Famous Russian Writer Leo Tolstoy..the Vicious Cycle of Greed extracted from ” How much Land does one Need”
Indeed, no one is Pre – Ordained to be President. Just crooks with unhinged Ambition, abusing everything and everyone – not even God is spared.