What is Moral Ambition?

The Basics

Is the moral high ground the new career goal?

5 minute read

3rd Jun 2025

It often starts with a feeling rather than a dramatic turning point. You’re doing well on paper, your job is prestigious, your work respected but something in you begins to stir. Meetings feel heavier, motivation wanes, you look around the room and feel a disconnect.

Jo Alexender knows that shift well.

“I could see my future mapped out, and I was just… bored by it,” she recalls. Trained as a geologist, Jo began her career in oil exploration. But the more she thought about the impact her career was having on the climate, the more her disconnect grew. “I found myself asking, ‘Why aren’t we talking about this?’” she says. The answer she got back was always the same: If you can’t do anything about it, why bother?

Never Miss A Story

What is moral ambition?

Moral ambition is the drive to lead a life that’s successful and significant. It’s about striving for goodness over greatness through asking “What can I achieve?” while also asking “Who do I want to be?”.

The morally ambitious are less concerned with income and more interested in impact. They’re asking:

What should I use my talents for?
Who benefits from the work I do?
Who might it be harming?
What kind of person am I becoming?

“I found myself asking, ‘Why aren’t we talking about this?’”
Jo Alexander

The idea gained mainstream attention in 2025 through historian Rutger Bregman’s book Moral Ambition, where he writes: “Success is no longer measured by how far up you climb, but by how far out you leap.” His message is clear: if you have skills and privilege, use them where they matter most, here is how he defines the call for moral ambition:

Where did the term come from?

To understand what makes moral ambition distinct, it helps to see how ambition has traditionally been framed. In the early 20th century, German sociologist Max Weber offered a now-classic account of how work became tied to moral worth. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, he argued that certain Protestant beliefs, especially Calvinism, encouraged people to treat their jobs as spiritual callings. Ambition had moral weight with qualities like diligence, discipline, and success identified as signs of inner virtue and possibly divine favour.

By the mid-century, that framing gave way to something more corporate. Management thinker Peter Drucker introduced the “knowledge worker,” and ambition became about productivity, performance, and eventually, self-branding.

Moral ambition isn’t new and it never really left as it’s long been a countercurrent in how we think about work and purpose. David Brooks contrasts “résumé virtues” (skills and achievements) with “eulogy virtues” (character and impact). The School of Life teaches how to live and work ethically outside of efficiency.

In practice, it shows up more commonly in social entrepreneurship. Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, calls these ‘changemakers’ those who see a problem and won’t rest until it’s solved.

What does moral ambition look like in real life?

There are many examples of brilliant people using their talents not to enrich themselves but to make the world a better place, here are a few of them:

Bryan Stevenson is a gifted lawyer who chose justice over corporate law, Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), which defends the wrongly convicted and challenging systemic racism in the US. The EJI has overturned 135 death row convictions.

“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”

Temple Grandin is a scientist and animal behaviour expert with autism who revolutionised humane livestock handling. She’s also changed public perceptions of neurodiversity through her advocacy and writing.

“The world needs all kinds of minds.”

Paul Farmer was a Harvard-trained doctor who co-founded Partners In Health. Farmer dedicated his life to bringing world-class healthcare to the poorest communities — from Haiti to Rwanda.

“If access to health care is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have that right?”

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”
James Clear

What are the criticisms of moral ambition?

Moral ambition sounds noble — and it can be. It can be a force for good within yourself and the world around you, but it’s not without its contradictions:

It’s a bit of a luxury. Leaping into the unknown often requires money, education or connections — things not everyone has. Not quitting isn’t always a lack of values; sometimes it’s just a lack of options.
It can turn into a performance. Looking principled is easier than doing the hard graft of long-term change. Sometimes it’s more about image than impact.
Quitting doesn’t fix the system. Walking away can take smart, values-driven people out of vital systems: A reader of The New York Times replied to an interview with Bregman, describing his job in risk management at a major bank: “I’m sure Bregman would call this job vacuous. But it matters.”
It can turn work into a moral tightrope. Not every job has to save the world. Asking the right questions, supporting a team, or effective intrapreneurship? That counts too.

The wave of moral ambition might see significant movements for top-tier talent, for Jo, that meant making a decisive shift. Much like the fellows of Bregman’s School for Moral Ambition, Jo looked to the On Purpose’s Associate Programme to turn that internal unrest into action.

Further from career changes, this moment sharpens the lens through which we ask better questions about our work and the world it serves.