This Book Transformed My View of Ambition—And Helped Me Find Meaning Beyond My Career

Like many women, I’ve always had a complex relationship with ambition. As a younger millennial, I was taught that getting good grades would get me into a good college and get me a good job. Of course, once those milestones were reached, the push to remain “good” kept me on the hamster wheel of relentless ambition. And sure, that came with accolades and external validation (though never enough to satisfy a perfectionist whose recovery journey has ebbed and flowed), I found I could never take a moment to sit, pause, and breathe. That’s why, when I picked up Ambition Monster by Jennifer Romolini, I was ready to feel seen. But I wasn’t prepared for the book to transform my life as it did.

Featured image from our interview with Iskra Lawrence by Michelle Nash.

An Interview With Jennifer Romolini, Author of Ambition Monster

In a world that often equates ambition with relentless drive, the conversation surrounding what it means for women has never been more crucial. As we’re renegotiating what success looks like in our careers—and life—many of us want to carve out paths that align with our true hopes. In Ambition Monster, Romolini bravely unpacks the complexities of ambition—how it fuels our professional aspirations but can also leave us grappling with self-doubt.

It’s not only her insights but Romolini’s fearless, personal reflection on her professional ambition that led to eye-opening epiphanies. Her sharp humor, paired with honest, often brutal truths about putting your ambition before everything else, inspired my own flashes of realization. In a post-girlboss era where hustle is no longer coated in Millennial pink, the book served as a roadmap for leading a meaningful life beyond the pursuit of success.

Ahead, Romolini shares the revelations that inspired this gripping, thought-provoking book. She encourages a shift in perspective, urging us to redefine what ambition looks like in our lives, free from the confines of external pressures. Dive into the conversation below.

In Ambition Monster, you explore the darker side of ambition—particularly for women. What inspired you to tackle this topic so candidly?

I’d been going so fast and so hard in my career for more than a decade, but after a health crisis forced me to slow down, I started to realize how trash my life actually was. How little time I spent with family or friends, how lonely and sad and disconnected I felt even though to the outside world, I looked like I had everything.

Successful people rarely talk about this. We tend to conflate professional success with happiness in this country. I wanted to pull the curtain back on that a bit because I thought it might help other women who found themselves similarly staring into the abyss of their careers and thinking, “Wait, is that all there is?”

Workaholism is often romanticized, especially for women trying to “have it all.” How do you think this affects women’s mental health and their relationships, both personally and professionally?

What often happens is we get so caught in this one-size-fits-all fantasy of success. We imagine that a life that looks good to the outside world and doing what we think we “should” is what will bring us satisfaction when really, what makes us happiest, or at least most content, is understanding who we are and what we want. And with that information, charting our own unique course. In the race for achievement, we can abandon our most authentic needs and desires which leads to disconnection from self and others, burnout and a numb kind of soul rot. 

There’s a cultural narrative that ties a woman’s worth to her achievements. How do you think that narrative fuels addictive ambition, and how can women start to disentangle themselves from it?

One way to avoid blind overwork is by becoming extremely present and  intentional about the kind of life you actually want to live and learning how to protect that life and peace at any cost possible.

I love working but I’ve also had some extremely poisonous “dream” jobs that I should’ve left years earlier than I did. Sometimes we’re so afraid that if we get off the ride they won’t let us back on. We fail to examine if we want to be on said ride in the first place.

In a world where success is often equated with burnout, do you believe women can find a healthy balance between ambition and well-being? How do you define that balance?

The questions I just laid out can help get us closer to balance. Also never saying “yes” to something when you really mean “no.” I’m stereotyping a bit here but, from what I’ve experienced, women—much more so than men—tend to want to please. We’re fixers, we crave the positive reinforcement that comes from meeting unrealistic goals, from going above and beyond and doing a better than necessary job. Part of this is systemic—in a patriarchal society, we have to prove ourselves more than men do—but I’ve found a lot of relief in breaking this “good girl at work” cycle, in bringing more of my B game to work tasks that don’t matter and giving less of a fuck overall. 

What do you hope readers take away from Ambition Monster about the emotional costs of relentless ambition and the possibility of redefining success on one’s own terms?

I hope workaholic readers walk away with an urge to blow it all up, to rechart the course of their lives and—whenever possible—put themselves, along with curiosity/joy/pleasure, before a job. I’ve heard from several readers that they’ve brought my book into therapy. I can’t think of a higher compliment.