For over one and a half years did I now live in a very sunny but very unambitious place. Over the past six to nine months, I complained a lot about the latter. When I did, many people claimed a correlation to the weather:
Ambitious regions are not sunny – and sunny places are not ambitious.
At first, I was convinced. Spain, Italy, and Greece are all countries not blessed with ambition.
But I quickly realized that this is a flaw.
Firstly, some of today’s most ambitious regions are located in fairly sunny places: Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, Miami, Austin, Amaravati, and many more are upcoming.
Secondly, historically we saw the most advanced societies and many inventions coming out of very sunny regions:
- The Mesopotamian Empire, located in the sunny region of the Middle East, is often credited as the cradle of civilization. It was here that many fundamental elements of modern society, such as written language and agriculture, were first developed.
- The Egyptian Empire, situated in the sunny and arid region of North Africa, was a hub of innovation and wealth. It was known for its advancements in architecture, mathematics, and medicine.
- The Persian Empire, another sunny region in the Middle East, was known for its wealth and cultural advancements. It was a center for the arts, technology, and science.
- The Roman Empire, which spanned across sunny regions in Europe and the Mediterranean, was known for its engineering marvels, legal system, and advancements in arts and literature.
- The Byzantine Empire, headquartered in modern-day Turkey, a region with a sunny climate, was known for its wealth derived from its strategic location controlling trade routes between Europe and Asia. It was also a center for arts, technology, and science.
Long story short, there is no correlation between ambition and weather. Rather, I assume it is a phenomenon of the rise and fall of nations. Today’s unambitious regions have all once been powerful empires. At their height, the mentality of the people changed from ambitious to comfortable. And with comfort came the decline. This comfort ingrained itself heavily into their culture, which now obstructs these regions to rise into ambitious and prospering regions. It seems hard to switch from comfort to ambition – yet with enough hardship and the right leadership it seems possible.
In a globalized world, we can luckily choose where we want to be. We can decide to move to more ambitious regions. By doing so, the ambitious atmosphere in these regions will infect us as individuals and allow us to become the best version of ourselves.
